Past Events at the Centre for the Study of Korea
October 2021
-
Friday, October 8th Platform Capitalism and Platform Labor: Gender, Precarity, and Resistance
Date Time Location Friday, October 8, 2021 10:00AM - 12:00PM Online Event, Online Event + Register for this Event Print this Event Bookmark this Event
Description
SPEAKER 1
Julie Chen, “Wrestling with the platforms in China: precarious participation and glimmer of alternative self-organizing”Abstract:
The number of platform-based workers in China is estimated to exceed 84 million in 2020—that is, about 10% of the national work force. The magnitude of the transformation of work due to platform power is crucial to understand the contemporary labor politics. In this talk, I will first show how China’s existing informal labor force and the capitalistic logic in the platform economy that prioritizes market dominance have shaped the platform-based workforce in its heterogeneity and scale and led to a rising centralized and infrastructural power in the hands of platform companies to regulate the fragmentated just-in-time work force. I will further discuss the contradictions between the monopolistic capital and China’s infrastructural state and the implications for the continued (old) and new labor struggles. To conclude, I will reflect on the possibility, promise, and limitations of worker’s alternative organizing by exploring a national network of self-organized drivers prior to, during, and after the dominance of the ride-hailing platforms from 2011 to 2019.Bio:
Julie Yujie Chen is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology at the University of Toronto (Mississauga) and holds a graduate appointment at the Faculty of Information (St. George). Chen studies the transformation of labor and workers in relation to the digital technologies, capitalism, and globalization. She is the co-author of Media and Management (University of Minnesota Press, 2021) and the lead author of Super-sticky WeChat and Chinese Society (Emerald, 2018) which is the first book-length research on the largest social media in China—namely, WeChat. She publishes widely on issues related to workers on the digital platforms in China in journals including New Media & Society, Socio-Economic Review, Javnost – The Public, Work, Employment and Society, Chinese Journal of Communication, China Perspectives, and Triple C. She has been the principal investigator leading research projects which have received funds or awards from Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Connaught New Researcher Award (Canada), and International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada).SPEAKER 2
Seung-yoon Lee, “Platform capitalism and the melting labor: South Korean Platform Labor work and its Mismatch with Welfare Institutions”Abstract:
Discussions on labor rights and social rights of these platform work developed rapidly and the main topic of discussion was focused on the emergence of this new type of work called platform work. In this study, I conceptualize ‘dismantling of various boundaries surrounding the traditional forms of work and workplace, such as standard employment before the fissured workplace and pure self-employment’, as melting labor. The concept of melting labor includes the increase of new forms of work that deviates from the standard employment before the fissured workplace such as non-regular and atypical work, subcontracted and outsourced work, and also changes in the pure self-employment such as dependent/disguised self-employed as well as freelancers and platform work. Korea’s platform labor market expanded considerably in the short run and there was a diversity of platform labor. First, the labor process has been changed by using the platform in common, however, the workers’ dependence and labor control aspects are different from platform waged workers, disguised self-employed workers to gig workers. However, the differences according to the type of platform labor are as follows. First, the delivery platform was mainly mediated by four-way relations, and the domestic services and freelance platforms by three-way relationships. Second, the intensity of control and involvement of platform labor of platform companies was strong in the order of delivery platform, house service platform and freelance platform. Third, the differences in social security experiences and desires were mainly found in industrial accident insurance. Differences between platform work types also need to be considered in discussing alternatives to solve the gap in practice and institutions.Bio:
Dr. Sophia Seung-yoon Lee obtained her Ph.D. in Social Policy from Oxford University in the UK with her thesis on a comparative study between East Asian welfare states and non-regular workers. She is an associate professor of social policy at Chung-Ang university, Seoul, South Korea. Her major research fields are East Asian welfare states and labor markets, unstable labor, institutionalism and comparative research methodology. She published peer-reviewed articles and books (co-authored) including “Female outsiders in South Korea’s dual labor market: Challenges of equal pay for work of equal value” (2020), “Korea’s Unstable Youth Labor Market and Youth Basic Income Policy Proposal” (2016), and “Institutional Legacy of State Corporatism in De-industrial Labor Markets” (2016), and Korean Precarious Workers (Co-authored Book, 2017). Currently, she is the Vice Chairperson of the Youth Policy Coordination Committee in the Prime Minister Office.This virtual event is presented by the Korean Office for Research and Education (KORE) which is funded by the Academy of Korean Studies. This event is co-organized by the Centre for the Study of Korea (CSK) at University of Toronto.
For more information: kore@yorku.ca | https://kore.info.yorku.ca/calendar/
If you are attending a Munk School event and require accommodation(s), please email the event contact listed above to make appropriate arrangements.
Disclaimer: Please note that events posted on this website are considered to be public events – unless otherwise stated – and you are choosing to enter a space where your image and/or voice may be captured as part of event proceedings that may be made public as part of a broadcast, webcast, or publication (online and in print). We make every effort to ensure your personal information is kept and used in compliance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). If you have any questions please get in touch with our office at munkschool@utoronto.ca or 416-946-8900.
-
Friday, October 15th The COVID-19 pandemic, Korea-Canada comparison: Government response, social welfare, labor, and gender
Date Time Location Friday, October 15, 2021 4:00PM - 6:00PM Online Event, Online Event + Register for this Event Print this Event Bookmark this Event
Description
Chair and discussant: Yoonkyung Lee (Sociology, U of T)
Speaker 1
Ito Peng, “The COVID-19 Childcare and School Closures and their Impacts on Working Parents with Small Children: Korea-Canada Comparison”
Abstract
This presentation discusses the impacts of childcare and school closures in Canada and South Korea during the COVID-19. We undertook two waves of panel surveys in South Korea – June 2020 and April 2021 – to explore how childcare and school closures have affected working parents’ work-family balance. I compare results of the Korean surveys with the Statistics Canada’s survey of parents conducted in June 2020.
Bio
Professor Ito Peng is a Canada Research Chair in Global Social Policy at the Department of Sociology, University of Toronto. She is an expert in global social policy, specializing in gender, migration and care policies. She has written extensively on social policies and political economy of care in Asia Pacific. Her teaching and research focus on comparative social policy, and gender, care and migration policies. She just completed a 7-year international partnership research project entitled Gender, Migration, and the Work of Care (http://cgsp.ca/), and is now engaged in two research projects: The Care Economy: Gender-sensitive Macroeconomic Models for Policy Analysis, and Care Economies in Context: Towards Sustainable Social and Economic Development. “Government policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and their impacts on family, women, and workers”Speaker 2
Young Jun Choi, “Social policy responses to Covid-19 in South Korea: Towards a smaller welfare state?”
Abstract
As COVID-19 continues for nearly two years, its effect extends beyond public health to have a far-reaching impact on individuals and society. In a situation where various social risks have not been resolved since the IMF economic crisis, COVID-19 is highly likely to make these social risks more ‘wicked’ and simultaneously create new risks. This study intends to discuss what social risks COVID-19 creates and how Korean welfare state has responded to them. To this end, two national surveys in 2020 and 2021 were analyzed together with focus group interviews in 2020. As a result, social risks in the era of COVID-19 comprehensively appear not only in employment and income, but also skills and knowledge, care, and social relationships. In particular, the self-employed experienced the greatest hardship as well as women and the younger generation. While the educational gap among students is widening, care burden of family members has increased. Due to strict social distancing and isolation, anxiety disorders and depression significantly increased. Against such extensive damage, existing social policies played only limited roles, and the emergency disaster relief policy had clear limits in stabilizing individual lives. Despite the comprehensive and profound social risks, if Korean welfare state sticks to the current fiscal conservatism, it is highly likely to move to a smaller welfare state.
Bio
Young Jun Choi is Professor, Department of Public Administration, and Director of the Institute for Welfare State Research, Yonsei University in South Korea. He also serves as Chair of East Asian Social Policy Research Network. His research interests include aging and public policy, social investment policy, comparative welfare state theories, and East Asian social policy. He has published many articles in international journals and his recent book includes Welfare Reform and Social Investment Policy in Europe and East Asia (Policy Press, 2021).This virtual event is organized by the Centre for the Study of Korea, University of Toronto and sponsored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Toronto.
If you are attending a Munk School event and require accommodation(s), please email the event contact listed above to make appropriate arrangements.
Disclaimer: Please note that events posted on this website are considered to be public events – unless otherwise stated – and you are choosing to enter a space where your image and/or voice may be captured as part of event proceedings that may be made public as part of a broadcast, webcast, or publication (online and in print). We make every effort to ensure your personal information is kept and used in compliance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). If you have any questions please get in touch with our office at munkschool@utoronto.ca or 416-946-8900.