Praeclariat: Theorising Precarious Labour Geographies of Solar Energy

Rapid development of solar energy is reconfiguring global labour geographies. Beneath the formal economy of solar exists a hidden infra-economy of informal and marginalised labourers that toil in valuable yet precarious nodes of solar development (i.e. mining, generation, disposal). These labourers comprise a lumpenproletariat class (or solar lumenproletariats) that is defined by its informality, flexibility, precarity and disposability. Through political struggles and reflexivity, the lumenproletariats develop class consciousness. Although still precariously positioned in solar’s infra-economy, they develop a praeclarus (Latin: “bright”) understanding of their shared class interests and become praeclariats resisting the reproduction of solar capital. Solar praeclariats unified in class struggle can alter the exploitative relations of production and usher in a truly “just” low-carbon energy transition.