1
Restructuring and Changes in Occupational Mobility in U.S.
Young-Mi Kim
2016. 12.
employment restructuring, occupational mobility, deindustrialization, boundaryless career, labor ma
This study aims to estimate the impact of US restructuring during the late 1990s and the early 2000s on workers’ career trajectories, in terms of changes in patterns of occupational mobility. In this study, I introduce various middle range theories that emphasize specific aspects of restructuring and test whether their predictions regarding the impact of restructuring on workers’ careers accurately account for observed patterns of occupational mobility. Based on estimation from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, the result shows that the career trajectory of U.S. workers has significantly changed since 1990 and, more importantly, the profiles of the changes have been remarkably different between internal mobility and external mobility. Most notably, occupational immobility has increased among workers who stayed in the same firm and decreased among workers who switched firms. To conclude, employment restructuring in the U.S. appears to have proceeded in a way that incorporates both functional flexibility and numerical flexibility, creating polarized groups of “organizational insiders” and “organizational outsiders.” As a result, workers’ career trajectories have been significantly transformed both inside and outside organizations.
2
Individual and Contextual Determinants of Ethnic Exclusionism Attitudes toward Immigrants in South Korea
Hyun Woo Kim, Aggie J. Noah
2016. 12.
attitudes toward immigrants; ethnic exclusionism; multilevel models; neighborhoods
The rapid increase of immigration in South Korea and divided public opinions towards immigration among Korean natives make it imperative to investigate the sources of natives’ ethnic exclusionism attitudes toward immigrants. Using data from the 2010 Korean General Social Survey (KGSS) and the 2010 Population and Housing Census in a multilevel modeling framework, we investigate the individual and contextual factors associated with ethnic exclusionism attitudes among Korean natives. Consistent with previous studies, we find that a number of individual factors, including education level and political ideology, are associated with ethnic exclusionism attitudes. Supporting the contact theory of racial and ethnic relations, we find that the percentage of multicultural households in respondents’ neighborhood— measured as the ward of residence—is positively associated with more favorable attitudes toward multicultural society. These findings suggest that researchers should consider both individual and contextual factors to gain a comprehensive understanding of ethnic exclusionism attitudes in Korea.
3
Links between Community Poverty and Child and Maternal Health in Peru: Which Aspects of Community Poverty Matter?
Heeju Shin
2016. 12.
child and maternal health; health care resources; multidimensionality of poverty; social exclusion
This study examined multiple aspects of community poverty to determine which are related to the health outcomes of children and their mothers in Peru. The analysis used nationally representative, cross-sectional data from the 2007–2008 Peru Continuous Demographic and Health Survey (N = 10,432 children, 8,487 mothers), combined with assessments of community poverty from additional datasets. The key findings were that 1) child health is positively associated with the local physical environment, whereas adult women’s nutritional status is not; 2) child health is positively associated with women’s literacy in the community; 3) social exclusion is negatively associated with mothers’ health, and 4) access to health care per se does not strongly influence health outcomes and does not explain regional differences. These findings suggest that, along with physical deprivation, the lack of basic human capital and social exclusion in local communities is an important correlate of health outcomes and regional health disparities.
4
Colorless Racialization: Analyzing the Discrimination of ‘Oldcomer’ Koreans in Japan and Chinese in Korea from an American Sociological Perspective
Sharon J. Yoon
2016. 12.
racial discrimination, racialization, assimilation, skin color, zainichi, hwagyo
Past sociological theories on race and ethnicity have attributed the persistence of racial discrimination to physical, and presumably immutable, features of racial identification. Thus, despite the decline of institutional forms of racism, scholars have pointed to enduring patterns of marginalization among racially distinct minorities in a variety of different measures. This paper finds that contrary to theories which purport to predict a decline in racial discrimination with the increasing physical indistinguishability of minorities, culturally assimilated Korean minorities in Japan and Chinese minorities in Korea continue to experience marginalization due to nationality laws that exclude on the basis of ancestry as opposed to place of residence or birth. The paper proposes that rather than physical markers of race, legal and societal definitions of in-group membership and nationhood play more definitive roles in perpetuating the discrimination of minorities in society.
5
Conceptualizing Ryff's Psychological Well-being Model with Confucian Perspective
Saeeun Choi, Seulki Choi
2016. 12.
Confucian perspective, eudaimonic well-being, Korean elderly, positive relations, psychological wel
The objective of this study is to explore how the contours of psychological well-being, as described by Ryff’s six-dimensional model, might differ in the Korean context. We tried to apply Ryff’s six-dimension psychological well-being model in Korean case by considering the Confucianism. To fulfill this goal, first, we briefly reviewed the theoretical background and themes of Ryff’s psychological well-being model. Second, we suggested themes of psychological well-being based on the Confucian perspective. Next, we reviewed the psychometric studies in Korea on Ryff’s psychological well-being scale and corresponding empirical studies using Ryff’s model. Last, we discussed the implication of culturally-relevant theoretical framework on psychological well-being in the later life in Korea. In conclusion, we suggest that the constructs of autonomy and environmental mastery are relevantly weak in Confucius perspective whereas the positive relations with in particular family relations are strong in understanding the psychological well-being of the elderly.
6
The (Mis)Understanding of Race and Racism in Multicultural Korea
Joowon Yuk
2016. 12.
race, racism, multiculturalism as euphemism, nation, nationalism
This paper examines the (mis)understanding of race and racism in contemporary South Korea where ‘multiculturalism’ has recently emerged as a discursive space within which migrant incorporation and racial/cultural diversity are discussed. What is interesting in the Korean application of multiculturalism is that the term ‘multicultural (/multiculture)’ is dominantly used as a qualifier for certain people. This article explains how this employment of multiculturalism works as a euphemism for race, predicated on the discomfort with race and reciprocated with the persistent silence of racism. To this end, this article draws on the analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with various opinion makers who actively respond to the multiculturalisation of Korea. The empirical evidence reveals what Mills identifies as an ‘epistemology of ignorance’ regarding race, shared by both mainstream multicultural discourses and anti-multiculturalists. This paper argues that mainstream multicultural discourses as an incarnation of good nationalism keeps racialising migrants to effectively manage their in-/exclusion.