The Liminal Worker examines the experience of work, employment, employment insecurity and precariousness in a context of high unemployment and welfare state crisis in modern Greece. A theoretically-informed, anthropological exploration of the notion of work in contemporary western society and its relation to processes of political decision making, this book challenges the mainstream conception of work as an economic or purely productive activity, presenting a comparative analysis of work as a social phenomenon. Drawing on original empirical research, it explores the key themes of the...

In what ways do working-class middle-aged people who have learned to lead their lives through the lens of a traditional institutionalized life course deal with unexpected job loss? What are the differences between shipbuilding workers and supermarket employees regarding their working-class identities? Is there a quantitative way of tapping class stratification among second generation emigrants? How do respectable working-class people experience their transition to homelessness? Finally, in what ways do working-class adolescents deal with their transition to adulthood? These are some of the...