Superexploitation: precarity and the proletarian condition through the perspective of the Marxist theory of dependency

Abstract

Abstract In this article, we analyze the issue of increasing precarity in the world of work in light of the Brazilian scholar Ruy Mauro Marini’s theses and the concept of superexploitation. Forged in the domain of a Marxist theory of dependency, the concept was originally formulated to designate specific regimes within Latin American social formations. First, we review certain global trends in the world of work and transformation processes in regimes of superexploitation in dependent countries. Next, we examine the contemporary emergence of increasing precarity as a phenomenon in central capitalist countries. Finally, we discuss the category’s validity and implications for understanding new morphologies of the working class both in Latin America and around the world.