La précarité au Québec : un concept parmi d’autres pour parler des jeunes

• Main Author: Madeleine Gauthier
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Association Internationale des Sociologues de Langue Française 2011-04-01
• Series: Sociologies
• Subjects: social change; employment; youth; job insecurity
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/sociologies/3443

This paper examines the concept of "precariousness" in a Québec context. This concept was one of several used to describe the situation of young people during the employment crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. It was applied to young people as a whole and thus sometimes favoured a tendency to gloss over the highly vulnerable situations and to amplify the effect of non-standard employment on the future of an entire generation. More moderate use of the concept gradually prevailed with more accurate data. It was a persuasive concept that did bring about individual and collective strategies to help young people. This look backward in time shows that young people are sensitive to the economy and its performance. They are nonetheless not permanently victims of economic downturn. Is the type of welfare state (Esping-Anderson as argued by Vultur) the reason why the concept has had only relative importance in Québec? Should the question be raised as part of a pragmatic approach to change?