Civic Activism in South Korea: the Intertwining of Democracy and Neoliberalism

During this talk, Professor Moon will discuss her new book that illuminates complex ways in which neoliberalism simultaneously undermines and enables democracy in South Korea. The book demonstrates these contradictory interactions by focusing on three different types of “citizens’ organizations”: a large national advocacy organization run by professional staff activists, two medium-size local branches of a national feminist organization run by mostly volunteer women activists, and a small local organization run by volunteer activists with a focus on foreign migrants. Democracy and neoliberalism are major keywords that convey aspirations, challenges, and problems of our era, as well as globally practiced modes of ruling. As many societies in the world have undergone neoliberal transformation not only in the economy, but also in culture and politics, this case study has global implications for how to assess our daily lives and how to envision a better world.

Speaker's Biography

Seungsook Moon is Professor of Sociology at Vassar College where she served as Resident Director of London Program in Media and Culture, Chair of Sociology Department, and the Director of Asian Studies Program. She is the author of Civic Activism in South Korea: the Intertwining of Democracy and Neoliberalism (Columbia University Press, 2024), Militarized Modernity and Gendered Citizenship in South Korea (Duke University Press, 2005), and a co-editor and contributor of Over There: Living with the U.S. Military Empire from World War II to the Present (Duke University Press, 2010). As a political and cultural sociologist, scholar of gender studies, and East Asianist specializing in South Korea, she has published numerous articles in major scholarly journals and consulted globally by the mass media.