A New Precarious Grammar? Ontological Precarity the Neoliberal Self in Post-crisis Catalonia, Spain

Sažetak

Drawing on ethnographic narratives, case studies, and large-scale survey data, this article analyses the moral, affective, and relational dimensions of precarity in post-crisis Catalonia (Spain). It argues that precarity is not merely an economic condition but also a grammar that reshapes how people work, relate to one another, and make sense of themselves. Grounded in a recent report on exclusion and poverty in Catalonia (Spain), this study examines three interrelated logics that structure contemporary forms of insecurity and precarity: the commodification of care, the erosion of relational worlds, and the moralization of failure. The commodification of care transforms empathy and care into performative labour, producing a systematic exhaustion that particularly affects women. The erosion of relational worlds reveals how economic fragility and economic transactions progressively dissolve the social fabric and the affective dimensions, giving rise to solitude as a generalized condition. Ultimately, the moralization of failure reveals how neoliberal subjects internalize structural injustice as personal responsibility, while also fostering fragile (and often commodified) forms of repair through spirituality, art, and solidarity. By integrating ethnographic insights with critical theory, the article attempts to develop an anthropology of ontological precarity that is attentive to its moral consequences, situating the Spanish experience within broader post-industrial transformations.

Ključne riječi: precarity, loneliness, ontological precarity, moral harm, neoliberalism, Spain