abstract: 'This article examines the self-employed population as a precarious and

  insecure social class in Korea since the economic crisis in the late

  1990s. Most self-employed workers experience economic hardship

  characterized by low incomes and high turnover rates despite long work

  hours and family help. These precarious conditions are often explained

  as the result of neoliberal economic restructuring that laid off

  salaried employees on a massive scale, pushed displaced workers into

  self-employment, and heightened intense competition among the

  self-employed. While this economic perspective explains intense

  competition and low incomes of the self-employed, I argue that

  particular state policies also accelerated the ``unmaking{''''} of the

  self-employed by not providing any effective protection. By looking at

  the experiences of understudied self-employed workers in Korea, this

  article engages in a critical understanding of globalization, labor, and

  social inequality.'
affiliation: 'Yang, M (Corresponding Author), Univ Hawaii Manoa, Polit Sci, Honolulu,
  HI 96822 USA.

  Yang, Myungji, Univ Hawaii Manoa, Polit Sci, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA.'
author: Yang, Myungji
author-email: Myang4@hawaii.edu
author_list:
- family: Yang
  given: Myungji
da: '2023-09-28'
files: []
issn: 0023-3919
journal: KOREA OBSERVER
keywords: self-employment; globalization; the state; precarity
keywords-plus: LABOR; ENTREPRENEURSHIP; BOURGEOISIE; PATTERNS; RISE
language: English
month: SUM
number: '2'
number-of-cited-references: '50'
pages: 217-247
papis_id: d06588727486374d5541e7b5d279b9dd
ref: Yang2017livingmargin
times-cited: '0'
title: 'Living on the Margin: Downward Mobility and the Plight of the Self-Employed
  in Neoliberal South Korea'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000404420800002
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '7'
volume: '48'
web-of-science-categories: Area Studies; International Relations
year: '2017'