This article explores the extensive casualization of work and its impact on the working life of the people in South Korea after the financial crisis in 1997. A drastic increase in precarious workers was an immediate consequence of the neoliberal economic reform implemented by the new democratic government, including the enhancement of flexibility in the labor market and the restructuring of the financial market, under the guidance of the International Monetary Fund. Precarious work in South Korea has dramatically increased in the past decade, including both nonregular workers and precarious self-employment in the formal sector. Above all, proliferation of new types of nonregular employment in the 2000s has witnessed the significant transformation of the world of work in South Korea, deepening inequality and poverty. The extremely liberalized labor market tends to result in the fierce labor struggle of nonregular workers, not entitled to be members of unions, replacing the labor movement of regular workers' labor unions.

Chapter 6 discusses labor politics in Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia. The emphasis is on responses by labor, civil society, and governments to precarious work, inequality, and poverty. In Japan the political dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party and a union focus on regular workers has made it difficult for unions to press for labor laws and social protections that better support nonregular workers. Civil society activism regarding workers has been limited. Greater competition among political parties in South Korea has enabled unions and civil society organizations to ally themselves with unions and some political parties to push for labor reforms. In Indonesia organized labor, sometimes working with civil society organizations, made some important gains through democratization after 1998. Labor also pushed for the expansion of welfare but has been weakened in recent years and has become ineffectual in pressuring governments.

No abstract

No abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Sociological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Sociological Theory.