Globalized urban precarity in Berlin and Abidjan : young men and the digital economy / Hannah Schilling.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schilling, Hannah, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Precarious employment--Germany--Berlin.

Precarious employment.

Precarious employment--Côte d'Ivoire--Abidjan.

Young men--Germany--Berlin.

Young men.

Young men--Côte d'Ivoire--Abidjan.

Information technology--Economic aspects.

Information technology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 221 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2023.

Summary:

Globalized urban precarity in Berlin and Abidjan examines urban youth's practices of making do in digital economies, to understand how precarious working conditions reverberate in the coming of age in contemporary cities. Through a comparative analysis of the perspectives of young men working as airtime sellers in Abidjan and food delivery riders in Berlin, the book provides innovative analytical lenses to understand urban inequalities against the backdrop of current digital urban developments. Essentially, this ethnography challenges the easy conflation of instability with insecurity, and overcomes the centrality of wage labour in research on urban livelihood, by looking at a broader set of economic practices and relational mechanisms. The analysis shows how accruing symbolic capital, a feel for the game in contexts of ambiguity, and access to care are fundamental for explaining the unequal distribution of risks for socio-material insecurities in unstable work settings.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface and acknowledgements

In transition: the making of urban livelihood

Crossing views: airtime selling in Abidjan and food delivery in Berlin

Conceptual devices: inequality at work in comparative perspective

Hustling: the symbolic value of in-between work

Trust and rule: tying workers to work

Organizing care: distributive labour across private and public realms

Not just of symbolic value: work to make oneself living

References

Index

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 29 May 2026).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Schilling, Hannah Globalized Urban Precarity in Berlin and Abidjan

ISBN:

9781526162106

OCLC:

1372395610