While looking for my copy of Richard Barbrook’s ‘The Class of the New’ today, I remembered that the publishers ‘OpenMute’, made it available for free to download as a .pdf, so I had a look to see if it’s still available and found that it is (here).

‘In this short book, Richard Barbrook presents a collection of quotations from authors who in different ways attempt to identify an innovative element within society: ‘the class of the new’. Announcing a new economic and social paradigm, this class constitutes a ‘social prophecy’ of the shape of work to come. From Adam Smith’s ‘Philosophers’ of the late 18th century, down to the ‘Creative Class’ celebrated by sociologist Richard Florida today, the class of the new represents the future of production within and beyond capitalism.’

It’s a good read and could be useful as a potted history of the evolution of the now ubiquitous labour market precarity.