Late Industrialization, Tradition, and Social Change in South Korea
하용출지음|University of Washington Press펴냄|2024년 02월발행
ISBN978-02-957-5227-3
This book starts with a paradox in Korea’s economic development: an ultra-modern industrial economy has been achieved, yet traditional networks of obligation and solidarity, such as blood, school, and regional ties have persisted, and even become more deeply reinforced, profoundly affecting the fundamental aspects of Korean politics and socio-economic relations. This book contends that this paradox is not accidental, and that the course of Korea’s late economic development shaped and entrenched these “primordial” ties into Korea’s politics, society, and economy. Thus, the persistence and predominance of these ties, what I call “neofamilism,” requires an explanation as to when, why, and how it arose. The analysis of the paradox reveals distinct social phenomenon which arose through interactions between the developmental state, traditional institutions, and economic tasks.
DESCRIPTION
South Korea's rapid industrialization occurred with the rise of powerful chaebǒl (family-owned business conglomerates) that controlled vast swaths of the nation's economy. Leader Park Chung Hee's sense of backwardness and urgency led him to rely on familial, school, and regional ties to expedite the economic transformation. Late Industrialization, Tradition, and Social Change in South Korea elucidates how a country can progress economically while relying on traditional social structures that usually fragment political and economic vitality. The book proposes a new framework for macro social change under late industrialization by analyzing the specific process of interactions between economic tasks and tradition through the state's mediation.
Drawing on interviews with bureaucrats in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry as well as workers and others, Yong-Chool Ha demonstrates how the state propelled industrialization by using kinship networks to channel investments and capital into chaebǒl corporations. What Ha calls 'neofamilism' was the central force behind South Korea's economic transformation as the state used preindustrial social patterns to facilitate industrialization. Ha's account of bureaucracy, democratization, and the middle class challenges assumptions about the universal outcomes of industrialization.
AUTHORS & CONTRIBUTORS
Yong-Chool Ha is Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Social Science at the University of Washington. He is editor of International Impact of Colonial Rule in Korea, 1910–1945.
