Precariat and alienation: toward the question of political subjectivity

The author provides a socio-philosophical understanding of the precariat phenomenon (as a new social layer of modern society) and its political subjectivity through the concept of alienation. In particular, the main characteristics of the precariat as a social group on the basis of domestic and foreign studies are noticed. The alienated nature of the realization in the precaria of the basic essential properties of a human: labor, communication and consciousness are analyzed. On the basis of this analysis, the question of the peculiarities of the political participation of this layer and its orientation towards progress or regression in the historical process is considered. It is noted that instability, variability, the growing complexity of the internal structure and existence of the precariat (as well as the rapid increase in the number of precarious workers, leading to the formation of a “precarious society”) will communicate the same characteristics, both to its political activity and to the studies that describe it.