— Overview
Major economies, after the 1950s and 1960s, saw the share of workers in secondary industry fall while service employment rose. An EU-KLEMS comparison for 1977–2007 is used in the material to show that Korea’s service share was still lower than in other advanced economies, though the gap was narrowing. In 2011, according to Statistics Korea’s Economically Active Population Yearbook as cited there, secondary-industry employment had fallen below 20 percent and service employment had risen above 70 percent, which is why the writers call Korea a “service society.” Those shares are the 2011 figures, not a later official tally.
In that setting the labor process is no longer only a two-way relation between capital and labor. The customer who receives the service joins it, and control often runs in real time through smartphones, CCTV, mystery shoppers, and customer ratings. The theoretical frame is Edwards on changing control under monopoly capitalism, and Friedman on “responsible autonomy,” split into direct control and autonomous control. Korean cases in the material are dated: Hansol Education’s 2017 MOT service-standard year, Lotteria’s 20-minute delivery rule from March 2015 and a rider’s death reported in June 2016, ice-cream-shop CCTV, Kakao Taxi dispatch by rating in 2017, and punitive courier penalties the same year.
The point is that the “customer” in this triad is also ourselves.
— Contents and key concepts
A triad, not a pair
Major economies, after the 1950s and 1960s, saw the share of workers in secondary industry fall while service employment rose. An EU-KLEMS comparison for 1977–2007 is used in the material to show that Korea’s service share was still lower than in other advanced economies, though the gap was narrowing. In 2011, according to Statistics Korea’s Economically Active Population Yearbook as cited there, secondary-industry employment had fallen below 20 percent and service employment had risen above 70 percent. Those shares are the 2011 figures, not a later official tally.
In a service society the labor process is no longer only a two-way relation between capital and labor. The customer who receives the service joins it, and control often runs in real time through smartphones, CCTV, mystery shoppers, and customer ratings. The theoretical frame is Edwards on changing control under monopoly capitalism, and Friedman on “responsible autonomy,” split into direct control and autonomous control.
Manuals, timers, and the gaze of the customer
The Korean cases in the material are dated. In 2017 Hansol Education named the year as one for settling MOT service standards, with manuals, monthly training, and customer scoring, after a consumer-centered management certification in 2013. Lotteria’s internal rule from March 2015 set a 20-minute delivery window; after a rider’s death reported in June 2016, orders over one kilometer were lengthened to 30 minutes.
Electronic monitoring — CCTV, GPS, biometric clocks — and mystery shoppers tighten the same manual. A 2017 report on Kakao Taxi dispatch by rating, and another the same year on punitive courier penalties, belong to that moment. The writers end by noting that the “customer” in this triad is also ourselves. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.
Sources
- EU-KLEMS service-employment comparison, 1977–2007. Statistics Korea, Economically Active Population Yearbook, 2011 figures (secondary industry <20%; services >70%) as cited in the material — not a later official tally. Edwards; Friedman on responsible autonomy, direct and autonomous control. Hansol Education MOT, 2017 (CCM certification 2013). Lotteria 20-minute delivery from March 2015; JTBC, 28 June 2016, on a rider’s death and the later 30-minute rule for orders over 1 km. 2017 reports on Kakao Taxi ratings and courier penalties.
Last updated: 14 November 2026
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