@article{ART003345844},
author={Kim Whasoon},
title={Fragmented Labor: The Struggles of Small Lives after the Disjunction between Jik (職) and Eop (業)},
journal={Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University},
issn={1598-3021},
year={2026},
volume={83},
number={2},
pages={361-414}
TY - JOUR
AU - Kim Whasoon
TI - Fragmented Labor: The Struggles of Small Lives after the Disjunction between Jik (職) and Eop (業)
JO - Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
PY - 2026
VL - 83
IS - 2
PB - Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
SP - 361
EP - 414
SN - 1598-3021
AB - This study examines how the disjunction between jik (職, state-assigned post) and eop (業, subsistence labor) became entrenched in North Korea’s labor world following the Arduous March, and analyzes the ontological transformations experienced by laboring subjects through the lens of Spinoza’s philosophy, drawing on oral life-history narratives. While existing scholarship has focused primarily on marketization and everyday changes, this study traces the survival strategies and affective reconfigurations that workers underwent amid the structural separation between institutional affiliation and actual livelihood.
As the state’s compensation system deteriorated and cadres monopolized positional rents, North Korea’s productive organizations differentiated into three subject types: post-bound workers, subsistence workers, and positional rent workers. Analysis of the life histories of three narrators ― Sincheol, Yeongsil, and Euncheol ― reveals that their conatus manifested in distinct modalities: contraction, wandering, and adaptation, respectively.
This demonstrates that the jik-eop disjunction is not merely a shift in economic survival strategies but a process entailing the differentiation of laboring subjects and the reconfiguration of affect (affectus).
Through an oral life-history approach, this study illuminates the differentiation of subjects produced by fragmented labor, the diverse modalities of conatus, and the struggles of small lives, thereby casting light on the politics against life of the North Korean state at an ontological level.
KW - Jik-eop Disjunction;Subsistence Labor;Conatus;Affectus; Positional Rents;Fragmented Labor;Oral Life History;Affectio (Affection); Spinoza;Occupation
DO -
UR -
ER -
Kim Whasoon. (2026). Fragmented Labor: The Struggles of Small Lives after the Disjunction between Jik (職) and Eop (業). Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 83(2), 361-414.
Kim Whasoon. 2026, "Fragmented Labor: The Struggles of Small Lives after the Disjunction between Jik (職) and Eop (業)", Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, vol.83, no.2 pp.361-414.
Kim Whasoon "Fragmented Labor: The Struggles of Small Lives after the Disjunction between Jik (職) and Eop (業)" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 83.2 pp.361-414 (2026) : 361.
Kim Whasoon. Fragmented Labor: The Struggles of Small Lives after the Disjunction between Jik (職) and Eop (業). 2026; 83(2), 361-414.
Kim Whasoon. "Fragmented Labor: The Struggles of Small Lives after the Disjunction between Jik (職) and Eop (業)" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 83, no.2 (2026) : 361-414.
Kim Whasoon. Fragmented Labor: The Struggles of Small Lives after the Disjunction between Jik (職) and Eop (業). Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 83(2), 361-414.
Kim Whasoon. Fragmented Labor: The Struggles of Small Lives after the Disjunction between Jik (職) and Eop (業). Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University. 2026; 83(2) 361-414.
Kim Whasoon. Fragmented Labor: The Struggles of Small Lives after the Disjunction between Jik (職) and Eop (業). 2026; 83(2), 361-414.
Kim Whasoon. "Fragmented Labor: The Struggles of Small Lives after the Disjunction between Jik (職) and Eop (業)" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 83, no.2 (2026) : 361-414.
