The proposal presented in this thematic dossier had its origin in a cooperative network of researchers working in France and Brazil. The theoretical and methodological interest of the authors is to outline the emergence of different forms of work and employment, along with their web of social relations, within a comparative and multidisciplinary approach. This dossier deals with the social instability: it intends to report and reflect on the employment relations of today in different countries, considering a North-South comparison. The proposal here is to use the concept of social instability taking into account the analysis of the work, the employment relations and their institutionalities. Social instability is here interpreted as a broader condition of instability and insecurity at work. Even though the notion of precarious work commonly refers to the insecure and unskilled work, the notion of precarization adopted here is related to a social process of institutionalization of the instability. The concept puts into perspective a dual process: one of economic instability, resulting from wage flexibility and the restructuring of production; and another of institutionalization of the instability, resulting from legislative changes related to labor and social protection. Our argument is that the concept of social instability makes it possible to define the institutionalization of the instability, and to configure its justification as if it was an acceptable moral value, good enough to be addressed individually by each agent in the self-management of their careers and their social integration. The process of social instability raises the work to a dimension of moral value, which allows us to include the issues related to work within a social theory of greater scope. The Critical Theory of Axel Honneth makes a notable contribution to the process of understanding the paradox between a normative conception of emancipation and the potential for destruction of those elements of emancipation. Our intention is to discuss the different labor and employment relations, to bring new ways of thinking about the social significance of the transience of social ties at work in the current phase of capitalism.
Labor and employment; Social precarization; Institutionalization of the instability; Moral value of work