From a multidimensional and dynamic approach, this article focuses
on the linkages between labour, unemployment, poverty and inequality,
examining the forms which social precarity has adopted in Mexico and
Argentina in the new economic environment. It contends that the
weakening of employment-based integration mechanisms, marked
inequalities in access to opportunities and increasingly rigid social
structures are evidence of strong exclusionary trends, which exhibit
specific characteristics in each country. After analysing national
trajectories and the levels of integration achieved under the importsubstitution
industrialization model, the article examines the deterioration
of working and living conditions witnessed over the last few decades. It
concludes with a discussion of some of the dilemmas and challenges
which the transition towards more equitable, socially supportive and
inclusive societies poses in terms of research and public policy