Changes in the South Korean academic labor market and labor struggle

ABSTRACT

This study examines the characteristics of and changes in the Korean academic labor market and labor struggle. The strategies of three agents (government, capital, and universities) and the resulting response of labor drive the evolution of the academic labor market, which can be analyzed based on market stratification, employment status (tenured vs non-tenured and full-time vs part-time), wage level, and availability of performance-based systems. The growth of Korean universities starting in the late 1970s, forcing universities to recruit larger numbers of low wage part-time lecturers and resulting in the segmentation of the academic labor market. Following the 1987 democratization movement, part-time lecturers established organizations that called for improvements in labor conditions, but few things changed. After the 1997 financial crisis, capital and the government implemented a neoliberal agenda and the government and universities made wages flexible, and the new category of non-tenured full-time faculty started to replace tenured full-time faculty, creating a three-tiered labor market. This aggravated the hardship that part-time lecturers had faced and drove them to engage in the labor struggle. The Korean example shows that the academic labor market emerges, evolves, and changes through strategic interaction and strife among the parties involved, and reminds us of the importance of workers’ organizational capabilities and counterstrategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic labor market
• part-time lecturers
• labor struggle
• neoliberalism
• South Korea

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Autobiographical sketch

Kyung-Pil, Kim (Ph.D. Sociology) is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Korea University. His research foci include neoliberalization, platform economy and civil-military relations. He has published his research in some journals among which are Monthly Review, International Journal of Asian Studies, and Japanese Journal of Political Science.

Notes

1. Unless otherwise indicated, references to Korea in this article refer to the Republic of Korea/South Korea.

2. In an 22 April 2011 interview with this writer, the couple explained the universities’ various control strategies and confessed how hard it is to resist, adding that living in a tent is nothing compared to the suffering of part-time lecturers who risk their lives in the struggle (The Korea University Graduate News, 2011.05). The couple said that they feel heartbroken for those part-time lecturers and at the same time are very angry at the current situation. The couple finished the interview with the following statement: ‘it is difficult for young lecturers, but they should join other lecturers to solve the problem. We must fight when we can.’

3. The story about the Graduate Students Union and officials at the Ministry of Education is based on an 11 August 2020 interview with Kang, one of the leaders of the Graduate Students Union.

4. Kim, who led the National University Lecturers Union while living in a tent for 12 years, had a short conversation with this writer on 16 March 2019. He said that the law amendment is an important achievement and will serve as a foundation for future efforts to improve the working conditions of part-time lecturers. Meanwhile, Kang, one of the Graduate Students Union leaders mentioned in the preceding note, commented that this is a starting point, and they will achieve significant progress in future negotiations. They both said that the lack of nationwide coordination became a stumbling block for their struggle.