| NSF Org: |
SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | April 20, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | April 20, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1702915 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Joseph Whitmeyer
jwhitmey@nsf.gov (703)292-7808 SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | June 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | May 31, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $11,998.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $11,998.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
3400 N CHARLES ST BALTIMORE MD US 21218-2608 (443)997-1898 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
KS |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Sociology |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
This project will examine the processes leading to the worldwide emergence and persistence of labor market dualism. The growth of labor market dualism has become the subject of widespread debate in the scholarly and policy literature, with the existing literature focusing either on formal workers or informal/precarious workers. This project, in contrast, focuses on the interaction between these two groups of workers, providing fresh insights into the institutionalization and limits of polarized employment systems. By conducting a comparative analysis of four industries in post-1987 South Korea with divergent outcomes, this project will help identify the specific conditions facilitating (or impeding) dualism, and assist policymakers in finding solutions to the problems of precarious work and workplace inequality.
This project addresses unanswered questions in the academic debate between the proponents of the "revitalization" thesis and the "dualization" thesis about the origins and limits of precarious work. The proponents of the revitalization thesis have argued that precarious workers are being empowered by ongoing economic transformations, creating the preconditions for them to organize and make demands for better wages and job security on their own behalf. By contrast, the proponents of the dualization thesis have suggested that micro-corporatist compromises between formal workers and employers have created insurmountable obstacles for the effective self-organization of precarious workers, thereby facilitating the long-term entrenchment of labor dualism. Through a comparison of four industries--textiles, electronics, automobile and shipbuilding-this project will assess the validity of these two hypotheses. The research conducted for this project will include (1) identifying the divergent patterns of labor dualism in the four industries since 1987; (2) creating and analyzing a new database of protests by formal and precarious workers in these four industries since 1987; and (3) conducting a narrative analysis in order to illuminate the causal mechanisms linking industrial structure, labor dualism, and the agency of both precarious and formal workers.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This project examines the emergence and persistence of labor market dualism. With the worldwide expansion of labor market dualism, and the attendant growth in wage inequality and employment precarity, the dynamics of dualism have become the subject of widespread debate in the social scientific and policy literature. This project contributes to this debate by exploring the complexities of labor market dualism at the firm-level via a comparative analysis of four industries--textiles, electronics, automobile and shipbuilding--in post-1987 South Korea.
With the support of the NSF grant, extensive archival research and fieldwork was conducted at major firms in each industry, allowing us to identify and map divergent paths in the evolution of dualism and precarity within and between industries. In order to explain these divergent trajectories, we analyzed the role played by the relationship between large parent corporations and subcontracting firms in creating (and/or limiting) labor dualism. Different managerial strategies vis-à-vis the organization of production and employment were found to characterize low value-added firms (textiles, electronics) and high value-added firms (automobiles, shipbuilding).
However, in order to fully explain the divergent trajectories, we also found it necessary to examine the role played by the interactions between regular/formal workers and non-regular/precarious workers—and their unions. Dualism became entrenched in situations where regular workers’ unions pursued a cross-class alliance with their employers (electronics and shipbuilding), as non-regular/precarious workers came to be seen as a crucial buffer protecting the job security of regular workers. In contrast, a strategy of class-based solidarity by the leadership of regular workers’ unions, combined with mobilization by non-regular workers, pushed employers to increase wages and improve working conditions, thus limiting both the expansion of precarious work and the growth of wage inequality, in some automobile industry firms. In sum, dualism and inequality in the workplace become entrenched in situations characterized by micro-corporatist compromise at the firm level, whereas when the micro-corporatist compromise faltered, within-firm dualism and wage inequality declined.
By illuminating the mechanisms linking industrial structure, managerial strategies, and workers’ agency to the emergence and persistence of labor dualism and wage inequality, this project provides employers, unions, and policymakers with the tools to better understand the specific conditions facilitating (or impeding) dualism, and the conditions under which they might successfully influence the trajectory of labor casualization, workplace dualism, and wage inequality.
Last Modified: 01/02/2019
Modified by: Beverly J Silver
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