South Korea in Transition ─ Politics and Culture of Citizenship

South Korea has continued to impress the world in the way it has harnessed social modernization, economic development, political democratization and, most recently, multi-faceted globalization. Relying on both established and inventive citizenship perspectives, the authors in this volume collectively show that all these diverse societal transformations and achievements can be concretely and systematically comprehended in conjunction with citizens’ reshaping identities, rights, and duties in civil society and national polity. South Koreans’ eye-catching traits and trends of educational zeal, economic development, civil activism, nationalism, and neoliberal globalization are analyzed here as diverse yet often interconnected manifestations of citizenship politics. As shown comprehensively in this volume, the necessity of such citizenship-focused analyses is particularly evident in recent years as South Korea has been undergoing a condensed transition from class politics to citizenship politics.

This book is a highly inclusive yet incisive account of modern and late modern Korea, utilizing citizenship as a powerful theoretical and analytical tool. Such judicious theoretical and analytical use of citizenship in respect to modern Korean history and society will in turn enable a meaningful expansion of theoretical and methodological utility of citizenship in contemporary global social sciences.

This book was based on a special issue of Citizenship Studies.

Chang Kyung-Sup is a professor of sociology at Seoul National University, specialized in institutional sociology and comparative political economy. He has recently authored South Korea under Compressed Modernity (2010) and edited Contested Citizenship in East Asia (with Bryan S. Turner, 2012) and Developmental Politics in Transition (with Ben Fine and Linda Weiss, 2012).