The Ambiguous Revolts
Precarity and Insurgence in the Twenty-First Century
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2230747 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R Pinheiro-Machado (0000-0002-4440-8441, University College Dublin), Ianaira Neves, Ianaira Barretto Souza Neves (0000-0003-2094-0326, University College Dublin) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 81 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 000-000 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Anthropological Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0091-7710 • E-ISSN: 2153-3806 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/736485 |
| OpenAlex | W4412400594 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 37 |
The paper investigates the revolts of the new precariat: self-employed, platformized, and non-unionized workers who tempestuously and ephemerally react against labor and life conditions. Boosted by social media virality, such populist protests lay claim to freedom and reject left- or right-wing labels, featuring characteristics of both sides. Responding to the difficulty in fitting these movements into one side of political cleavage, public and academic discourse dispute their ideological inclination and question their potentialities, hindering a nuanced understanding of their concrete political experience. Based on ethnographic research, we examine three uprisings in Brazil—the truck drivers’ strike in 2018, the breque dos apps in 2020 (food delivery app workers’ strike), and the app drivers’ strikes in 2023 and 2024—to propose the concept of ambiguous revolts, which designates the inherent radical ambiguity that has constituted current precariat insurgencies, arguing that the revolts do not swing to either pole of the ideological spectrum
Precarity · Sociology · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender Studies · History · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism
The Precariat
If…Then
The challenges of platform capitalism
Dynamics of Contention
Reflections on #Occupy Everywhere
Counterfeit Itineraries in the Global South
Insurgent Citizenship
The Rise of the Radical Right in the Global South
The Politics of the Precariat
What Happened to the “New Middle Class”? The 2016 Borp (Brazil’s Once-Rising Poor) Survey
Rebeliões metropolitanas e planejamento insurgente no século XXI
Struggles of Delivery Workers in Brazil
Social Movements in Times of Austerity
Gamification and work games
Neither Vertical nor Horizontal
Towards a political economy of platform-mediated work
Manter-se acordado
Naming Brazil's previously poor
Networks of Outrage and Hope
The mask and the flag; populism, citizenism and global protest
A Precariat Charter
Platform Workers of the World, Unite! The Emergence of the Transnational Federation of Couriers
Neoliberalism from below
A emergência e evanescência da nova classe média brasileira
Entrepreneurial Solidarities
Good Gig, Bad Gig
Uberization' as Neoliberal Governmentality
Housing Movements and the Politics of Worthiness in São Paulo
Creating Cohesion from Diversity
From hegemony to affinity
| Highly cited | No |
|---|