Organizing at the Margins: The Symbolic Politics of Labor in South Korea and the United States

by Jennifer Jihye Chun

Overview

The realities of globalization have produced a surprising reversal in the focus and strategies of labor movements around the world. After years of neglect and exclusion, labor organizers are recognizing both the needs and the importance of immigrants and women employed in the growing ranks of low-paid and insecure service jobs. In Organizing at the Margins, Jennifer Jihye Chun focuses on this shift as it takes place in two countries: South Korea and the United States. Using comparative historical inquiry and in-depth case studies, she shows how labor movements in countries with different histories and structures of economic development, class formation, and cultural politics embark on similar trajectories of change.

Chun shows that as the base of worker power shifts from those who hold high-paying, industrial jobs to the formerly "unorganizable," labor movements in both countries are employing new strategies and vocabularies to challenge the assault of neoliberal globalization on workers' rights and livelihoods. Deftly combining theory and ethnography, she argues that by cultivating alternative sources of "symbolic leverage" that root workers' demands in the collective morality of broad-based communities, as opposed to the narrow confines of workplace disputes, workers in the lowest tiers are transforming the power relations that sustain downgraded forms of work. Her case studies of janitors and personal service workers in the United States and South Korea offer a surprising comparison between converging labor movements in two very different countries as they refashion their relation to historically disadvantaged sectors of the workforce and expand the moral and material boundaries of union membership in a globalizing world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801477478
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	08/11/2011
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jennifer Jihye Chun is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia.

Table of Contents

1. The Symbolic Leverage of Labor
2. Employer and State Offensives against Unionized Workers
3. Reconstructing the Marginalized Workforce
4. Social Movement Legacies and Organizing the Marginalized
5. What Is an "Employer"? Organizing Subcontracted University Janitors
6. What Is a "Worker"? Organizing Independently Contracted Home Care Workers and Golf Caddies
7. Dilemmas of Organizing Workers at the MarginsNotes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Ching Kwan Lee

Combining original theoretical insights and rigorous comparisons, Jennifer Jihye Chun takes us to the crucible of contemporary labor movements in the United States and South Korea and showcases the unexpected political and symbolic leverages wielded by some of the most marginalized, low-paid service workers. A beacon of hope for labor movements worldwide and a remarkable scholarly achievement, this book is a must-read for sociologists, activists, and the concerned public.

Hagen Koo

In this age of neoliberal capitalism, the rise of labor activism among the most vulnerable workers in the service sector is a very interesting phenomenon. The United States and South Korea may appear to be an unlikely pair for a comparative analysis of how labor activists effect change, but Organizing at the Margins demonstrates how their respective tactics converge. In both countries, some of the weakest and most marginalized members of the labor force have been successful in organizing unions and obtaining just treatment from their employers and the state.

Editorial Reviews

This book comprises a fascinating comparison of the seemingly incomparable—namely, labor movement strategies to organize marginalized service sector workers in the United States and South Korea. Chun draws on Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of classification struggle and symbolic power to provide a substantial theoretical understanding of new forms of struggle in a way that I have not seen done elsewhere; in doing this she demonstrates the value of bringing new theoretical perspectives to bear on labor studies, a field sorely in need of this.

Global Labour Journal

Jennifer Jihye Chun's comparison of two seemingly very different labor movements—the militant Korean movement on the one hand and the bureaucratic U.S. movement on the other—reveals striking similarities in their leverage of power for the powerless. In Organizing at the Margins, Chun skillfully examines how and under what conditions marginalized workers successfully challenge their employment status.

Industrial and Labor Relations Review

Jennifer Jihye Chun's rigorous methodology incorporates a masterful blend of comparative historical and ethnographic approaches and her writing is lucid and fine-grained. This book reveals eye-opening connections and parallels between the South Korean and U.S. labor movements’ responses to the erosion of workers’ rights in the face of neoliberal globalization policies. It is a must-read for scholars of labor and labor movements, as well as an engaging text that will provoke students to think about how ideas of justice and morality are forged through protest, state policies, and public sentiments.

Contemporary Sociology

Organizing at the Margins successfully points to the importance of extralegal tactics used in campaigns seeking to redefine the working conditions of low-wage contract and subcontracted employees who lack the legal protections afforded to regularly employed workers. This well-organized book lays the theoretical and methodological groundwork for further cross-national analyses of campaigns that use symbolic leverage in support of the struggles of marginalized workers.

American Journal of Sociology

In an excellent work, Jennifer Jihye Chun compares concrete cases of labour organization by marginalized workers in these two different countries and situates them within the context of broader shifts in power between labour, capital and the state.

Pacific Affairs

Organizing at the Margins successfully points to the importance of extralegal tactics used in campaigns seeking to redefine the working conditions of low-wage contract and subcontracted employees who lack the legal protections afforded to regularly employed workers. This well-organized book lays the theoretical and methodological groundwork for further cross-national analyses of campaigns that use symbolic leverage in support of the struggles of marginalized workers.

-- "American Journal of Sociology"

In an excellent work, Jennifer Jihye Chun compares concrete cases of labour organization by marginalized workers in these two different countries and situates them within the context of broader shifts in power between labour, capital and the state.

-- "Pacific Affairs"

Jennifer Jihye Chun's comparison of two seemingly very different labor movements--the militant Korean movement on the one hand and the bureaucratic U.S. movement on the other--reveals striking similarities in their leverage of power for the powerless. In Organizing at the Margins, Chun skillfully examines how and under what conditions marginalized workers successfully challenge their employment status.

-- "Industrial and Labor Relations Review"

Jennifer Jihye Chun's rigorous methodology incorporates a masterful blend of comparative historical and ethnographic approaches and her writing is lucid and fine-grained. This book reveals eye-opening connections and parallels between the South Korean and U.S. labor movements' responses to the erosion of workers' rights in the face of neoliberal globalization policies. It is a must-read for scholars of labor and labor movements, as well as an engaging text that will provoke students to think about how ideas of justice and morality are forged through protest, state policies, and public sentiments.

-- "Contemporary Sociology"

This book comprises a fascinating comparison of the seemingly incomparable--namely, labor movement strategies to organize marginalized service sector workers in the United States and South Korea. Chun draws on Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of classification struggle and symbolic power to provide a substantial theoretical understanding of new forms of struggle in a way that I have not seen done elsewhere; in doing this she demonstrates the value of bringing new theoretical perspectives to bear on labor studies, a field sorely in need of this.

-- "Global Labour Journal"

From the Publisher