In the Eyes of the Beholder: when Broad Vs. Local Perception of Occupational Stigma Differ

In this paper, we explore how an occupational membership may signify varying meanings across different social contexts, resulting in disparate experiences of stigmatization amongst members. Our population of interest are instructors in supplementary education in South Korea: a generally non-stigmatized line of work. Through an inductive study, we find that even when the broad, outside audience’s evaluation of the occupation is overall positive or neutral, some members experience localized stigma. Furthermore, we show how members’ own past social (educational) context – college peers they compare themselves to (i.e., their local audience) – shapes these perceptions. Some instructors indeed prioritize their local audience’s perception of their work over the dominant external one. In doing so, we contribute to the extant literature on occupational stigma by considering the interaction between occupational members and diverse subgroups of outsiders—the audiences who evaluate the meanings and social value associated with the occupational membership. Whereas the extant literature on occupational stigma treats occupational members as the stigmatized and non-members as the stigmatizers, we spotlight the need to account for local audiences, alongside broader ones, to better understand occupational stigmatization processes.