1인 가구 청년 여성의 커뮤니티 경험에 대한 사례연구

Abstract

This study examines the meaning of community experiences of female single-person households in their twenties and thirties whose number is gradually increasing focused on experiences and perceptions on family. Case study research method was adopted and in-depth interviews were conducted with 7 single-person household young women. As results of the study, 3 categories were drawn from the discourses of the participants: experiences of single- person household, experiences of communities, and experiences of families. The participants autonomously chose the life of single-person households as a means to pursuit their academic or work careers.The participants participated in the community, self-development activities and hobbies as a way to satisfy their needs of self-actualization and build new relationships. They showed individualism that values a free individual life, but also showed an active aspect in forming or participating in groups for study or hobbies pursuing intimacy by forming social relationship. In the female community, the participants could experience a sense of solidarity with the identity of a woman that cannot be experienced in the female community, or help them to move forward and stabilize themselves in the future when they are frustrated or have struggling, help them to move forward or stabilize in the future and help them stay in the presence. In addition, community members respect each other, share their experiences, and express safely themselves as they are. The female communities can be viewed as a family in a broad sense with intimate but loose solidarity. These experiences was interpreted a process of re-establishing family concept. It was shown that the participants experienced emotional distress and conflicts with their original families, which made them direct a new relationship of family adhering to a normative and ideal concept of family. In conclusion, the female communities that young females independently chose were interpreted in the context of alternative and flexible family further suggesting the need for social, institutional, and policy changes.