Paper short abstract:

Financing important life phases like university, marriage, housing and child rearing became challenging for young Korean people. What actions do they take to live a valuable life? In this paper, I want to explore how a post-fordist working environment influence Seoulite youth life.

Paper long abstract:

Employment possibilities for Koreans in their 20ies and 30ies have dramatically changed over the last 20 years. Whereas firm biographical stages such as graduation from a (top-tier) university and lifelong employment in a conglomerate like Samsung or LG were guaranteed before the Asian Crisis 1997/98, this is not the case after the economic downturn and implementation of IMF-conditions. Government-led restructuring of the labour market and an economic environment based on finance capital push young people in highly competitive and precarious conditions. Living up to social and economic requirements becomes more and more challenging. These complex circumstances have a large impact on the identification of young Korean people. In this paper, I want to explore the re-fashioning of the self in collectivist frameworks. What are the practices of Korean youth to cope with a difficult labour market situation, especially in Seoul? Based on my empirical research, I would like to present discourses of identification around two poles: ‘Spec-making’, where high financial investments are made to collect diverse achievements for social and economic recognition. In contrast, ‘N-Po’ refers to give up almost every valuable thing hence it is like giving up life itself. These terms are used to describe young people as either ‘Spec-Generation’ or ‘N-Po Generation’, which illustrate the complex effects of a post-fordist labour market in the creation of youth life styles.