Introduction
Abstract
The introduction sets out how to investigate precarity, defined as uncertainty emerging from structural inequalities. A qualitative approach is needed to capture not just inequality’s depth but people’s lived experiences. The introduction positions the book in relation to current macroeconomic approaches to the Roman world, and to prior attempts at writing bottom-up history. It shows the need to humanize and historicize inequality, addressing its human-scale impacts specifically in the Roman world, and it defines a conceptual toolbox derived from feminist studies, development economics, and the material turn.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Classical Antiquity Studies
Historical and Literary Studies
Historical and Religious Studies of Rome
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Cambridge University Press eBooks
- Pages
- 1–25
- Publication date
- 6 March 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Book chapter