Legal Liminality: the gender and labour politics of organising South Korea's irregular workforce

Jennifer Jihye Chun

Third World Quarterly, 2009, vol. 30, issue 3, 535-550

Abstract: Irregular employment (bij[ocheck]nggyujik) has become the dominant form of employment in South Korea, with upwards of 70% of women employed in this sector. This transformation has not only affected the demographics of the labour market, but it has also fundamentally reshaped how unions can organise workers and build collective power. In particular, irregular workers are faced with a state of legal liminality in which workers are neither fully protected by nor fully denied the rights of formal employment, resulting in classification struggles over the terms and conditions of irregular employment. Drawing from recent cases, this paper discusses the limits of masculinised forms of labour militancy and the prospects for developing more inclusive forms of unionism across gender and employment status. Interrogating how workers and their collective organisations are challenging the ‘legal liminality’ associated with downgraded forms of irregular employment is crucial for understanding the new dynamics of economic marginality and social exclusion in Korea as well as in the broader global economy.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1080/01436590902742313

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