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During the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea, the plight of delivery workers suddenly became a locus of public debate. On the surface, this seems puzzling. Although the severely exploitative working conditions of delivery workers have been endemic for decades, these conditions had never before caused a society-wide controversy. Drawing insights from Jeffrey Alexander's theory of societalisation, this article examines how the global health crisis not only worsened working conditions but also provided opportunities for workers and labour unions to problematise previously neglected aspects of labour exploitation. The analysis identifies three different states of the issue: (i) the disregard for ill-treatment of delivery workers, (ii) the emergence of shocking narratives, and (iii) attempts to regulate the practices of contract-based labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Similar levels of inequality may be coded as acceptable or unacceptable in different places. To account for misrecognition of inequality, the existing studies highlight the roles of ideological legitimation and situated comparison through which individuals read inequality around them, but these accounts can be further elaborated upon. This article argues that it is neither the belief in ideology nor social comparison alone but rather the relationship between the two which shapes particular ways in which inequality is experienced. The dominant collective narratives rooted in macro-level contexts and individuals' situated comparisons shape perceptions of the contradiction (or lack thereof) between how people think things should be and how things are in three specific ways. The proposed framework is put to use with interviews with 98 millennials in Japan and South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]