Project

The Understanding Precarity in BC (UP-BC) partnership is a research and public engagement initiative investigating precarious work and multi-dimensional precarity in British Columbia. 

UP-BC is jointly led by Kendra Strauss, Director of Simon Fraser University’s Labour Studies Program and the Morgan Centre for Labour Research, and Iglika Ivanova, Senior Economist and Public Interest Researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC Office (CCPA-BC). The project brings together four BC universities, 26 community-based organizations with deep connections to populations most impacted by precarity and more than 80 academic and community researchers and collaborators. 

The goals of UP-BC are to generate much-needed data on the extent and nature of precarious employment in our province and to study the impacts of precarity on the lives of British Columbians so we can develop effective, evidence-based solutions to tackle it. We hope to encourage policy debate and further research with the ultimate goal of reducing systemic inequalities and enhancing the economic security of British Columbians. 

The partnership is supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).