Expanding the youth discourse: everyday precarity through a young South Korean woman’s autoethnography

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study expands the youth discourse in South Korea through an autoethnographic account. The concept of precarity is explored through multifaceted attributes such as subjective feelings, subjectification, and daily practices. Through an examination of feminist critiques, which argue that gender is another primary aspect of precarity, this study reflects upon gender blindness in existing research and explains the youth’s anxiety based on modern gender relations. It employs the author’s first-person account to describe and analyse the mechanisms of everyday precarity in the labour context and coping strategies as a young woman. The analysis revealed that everyday precarity operates across generations and genders, beyond class struggles, manifesting in individualized coping strategies. This result asserts how female youth, thus far marginalized subjects, offer a new horizon in youth research.

Keywords

• Class-centrism
• youth research
• autoethnography
• everyday precarity
• South Korea