A New Style of Labor Movement Among Korean Youth

South Korea has shown high levels of collective interest in various forms of social movements in the modern history.  So far, Korean scholars adopted social movement theories emphasizing the roles of resource mobilization, rational choices, political opportunity structures, or social networks; however, they could rarely include the role of emotions in social movements.

This study focuses on emotional factors influencing the mobilization of social movements: Although the youth generation feels anger and dissatisfaction with the perceived social injustice under the economic crisis, why do they fail to take collective actions? With the ever increasing economic polarization in the present neo-liberal regime, the relationship between emotion and social activities among young people in Korean society has been drawing scholarly attentions. As high rates of unemployment and unstable employment conditions (non-salaried and part-time work) become normalized in the society, youth anxiety and depression are emerging as societal problems. The emotions of the young generation (particularly anxiety and depression) were not approved as cultural nomos in traditional Confucianism and modernism.  However, not in the line of Gustav Le Bon, the authentic expression of collective anger (resentment) can incite proactive behavior in a late-modern or post-modern society.  

In this research, the subjects are youth in their 20s, mainly college students, involved in “Alba Yeon-dae” which literally means a solidarity group for part-time workers aiming to raise the minimum wage. This study employs ethnography and in-depth interviews to examine how the emotions of youth (anxiety, fear, and anger) exert a socially bonding influence that moves them to collective action. “Alba Yeondae” has emphasized the collective expressions of frustrated emotions against the unjust regime and, in particular, developed a new style of labor movement while reforming the existing structures of societal and economic exploitation.