The Politics of Unpaid Labor: How the Study of Unpaid Labor Can Help Address Inequality in Precarious Work

In her lecture, Valeria Pulignano introduces a theory of the politics of unpaid labor, advancing our understanding of inequality within the context of precarious work. She establishes a crucial link between unpaid labor’s political dimensions and its role in fueling emerging forms of precarious work that are characterized by persistent inequalities in a context of labor market reforms, societal shifts, and technological changes. She shows how these seemingly disparate elements intertwine, connecting the intricate dynamics of the social system's micro-level components to larger macro-level structural patterns. Advancing the current discussion on how unpaid labor contributes to inequality in precarious work, she will establish the characteristics differentiating employment from self-employment, and how these lead to a revised definition of unpaid labor. She further illustrates that unpaid labor is both shaped by class and serves to reproduce class interests, revealing ongoing changes in welfare, employment, and state institutional policies. Finally, she considers the necessity to establish conditions within the labor market that are conducive to genuinely cultivating and honoring the diversity of human capabilities and actions within labor structures and promoting their manifestation.

Suggestion for preparatory reading

Valeria Pulignano and Markieta Domecka. 2025. The Politics of Unpaid Labour: How the Study of Unpaid Labour Can Help Address Inequality in Precarious Work (open access). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Valeria Pulignano is Professor of Sociology at the Centre for Sociological Research and Francqui Research Professor of Sociology at KU Leuven. She is a co-researcher at the Inter-University Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) and a senior research fellow at Warwick University and at LISER, Luxembourg. She is the editor of Work, Employment and Society and associate editor of the Journal of Industrial Relations. Valeria Pulignano’s research lies in work, employment (industrial) relations, and labor markets, their changing nature and implications for voice at work and inequality, such as differences in wages, working conditions, job quality, precarity and wellbeing across different sectors and national settings. She holds a Jacques Leclerq Chair at KU Leuven. Among her recent books are Shifting Solidarities (with I. Van Hoyweghen and G. Meyers, Palgrave 2020) and Reconstructing Solidarity (with V. Doellgast and N. Lillie, OUP 2018).