Yoonkyung Lee
Biographic Data
| ID | 3773102 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Yoonkyung Lee |
| GIVEN NAMES | Yoonkyung |
| FAMILY NAME | Lee |
| SIGNATURE | LEE Y |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5756-6588 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 61 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
South Korea’s Martial Law Crisis
When President Yoon Suk-yeol announced that he was imposing martial law in December 2024, thousands of South Koreans took to the streets to defend democracy—but the country remains deeply riven by political polarization after his impeachment
Extreme Protests
This study focuses on the question of changing protest repertoires and asks what explains the emergence of extreme repertoires (a protest form that is lone in nature, accompanied by a high level of self-imposed danger and pain, and staged for a collective cause) in labor movements in times of institutionalized democracy and capitalist affluence in South Korea. Social movement scholarship has emphasized that massive structural transformations, suc…
We are Each Other’s Democracy
Memory Construction and the Politics of Time in Neoliberal South Korea
The rise of the Far Right and the decline of democratic institutions and norms have been a global phenomenon in the last few decades, and scholarly investigations on this topic have grown in volume and intellectual depth. South Korea, once known for its spectacular achievements both in capitalist development and transition from autocratic rule to vibrant democracy, has not been an exception in the global trend of authoritarian backlash and extrem…
Seoul as a Site of Labor Resistance
Under rising insecurity and precarity in the neoliberal labor market, Korean workers have protested mass job cuts and deteriorating working conditions. Although their grievances originate from the regions and workplaces where they are employed or laid off, the protest sites often move to major political landmarks in Seoul, the nation’s capital, with demands for political redress. These labor protests in the capital demonstrate two distinctive fea…
Is Class Voting Emergent in Korea? – Addendum
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Cold War Undercurrents
This study examines the mobilization of the Far Right in Korea and Japan in the 2000s and probes how and why the actors and political claims of East Asian extremists differ from their counterparts in Europe and North America. The Far Right forces in Korea and Japan are politically regressive in glorifying the authoritarian or colonial past and cling to unchanging ideological claims from the postwar decades in their current targeting of old-time, …
Neo-Liberal Methods of Labour Repression
This article begins by asking what lies behind the rise of extreme methods of labour repression in Korea in the 2000s. The answer goes beyond the common neo-liberal conditions of intensified competition, insecurity and precariousness in the labour market. This study focuses on how market logic, emboldened by neo-liberal restructuring, guides the state and corporations to reconfigure methods of disempowering organised labour. The examination of Ko…
Introduction to 'Right-Wing Activism in Asia
This essay introduces four articles that form a special issue of Politics & Society titled 'Right-Wing Activism in Asia: Cold War Legacies, Geopolitics, and Democratic Erosion.' The articles focus on Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. These three Asian countries present important cases to generate critical comparative insights about the patterns of Far Right mobilization, for their geopolitical histories provide common ground while institutional v…
Is Class Voting Emergent in Korea
The absence of class voting or the existence of “reverse” class voting under rising inequality remains a puzzling question in South Korea. While poor voters seem to support conservative candidates more than the rich do, this is due to a confounding effect of age, because poverty is concentrated among the elderly in Korea. Using the Korean General Social Survey data (KGSS 2004–2014) covering two presidential elections, two general legislative elec…
Articulating Inequality in the Candlelight Protests of 2016–2017
Working class formation in Taiwan
A systematic analysis of Taiwan's labor movements is rare in the fields of comparative politics, political sociology, labor studies, and social movements. Working Class Formation in Taiwan fills th
Sky Protest
This article examines the rise of “sky protest,” a new form of labour resistance in Korea, by focusing on three major labour struggles at Hanjin Heavy Industry, Ssangyong Motors, and Hyundai Motors. Through a close examination of these instances of labour contention, this study argues that the rise to this new form of labour unrest is associated with deepening chasms in neo-liberalised Korean society, such as the division between globalising capi…
Labor after Neoliberalism
This article examines the rise and fall of organized labor in post-democratization, neoliberal Korea and traces the process through which a new labor underclass has been created since the late 1990s. Under the sweeping implementation of neoliberal policies, Korean labor has become increasingly fragmented, stratified, and marginalized both in the market and political arena. In this polarizing process, an 'insecure class' was born, consisting of ir…
Diverging Patterns of Democratic Representation in Korea and Taiwan
This paper explains the difference between Korea’s vocal movements and feeble parties versus Taiwan’s stable parties and dependent movements from the political dynamics formed under the authoritarian state. Taiwan’s party-based authoritarianism provided ground for party development but not for independent social movements. Korea’s personal dictatorship was inimical to party development but engendered a contentious movement sector
Militants or Partisans
Militants or Partisans
Assembling Women
Divergent Outcomes of Labor Reform Politics in Democratized Korea and Taiwan
Varieties of Labor Politics in Northeast Asian Democracies
Against existing explanations based on economic structural and organizational differences, this paper contends that patterns of union activism in newly democratized polities are shaped by unions' interaction with political institutions and actors, particularly political parties. Unions' propensity for militant mobilization or accommodation is molded by the permissiveness of political institutions and electoral incentives for partisan alliances
Labor after Neoliberalism
This article examines the rise and fall of organized labor in post-democratization, neoliberal Korea and traces the process through which a new labor underclass has been created since the late 1990s. Under the sweeping implementation of neoliberal policies, Korean labor has become increasingly fragmented, stratified, and marginalized both in the market and political arena. In this polarizing process, an 'insecure class' was born, consisting of ir…
Sky Protest
This article examines the rise of “sky protest,” a new form of labour resistance in Korea, by focusing on three major labour struggles at Hanjin Heavy Industry, Ssangyong Motors, and Hyundai Motors. Through a close examination of these instances of labour contention, this study argues that the rise to this new form of labour unrest is associated with deepening chasms in neo-liberalised Korean society, such as the division between globalising capi…
Diverging Patterns of Democratic Representation in Korea and Taiwan
This paper explains the difference between Korea’s vocal movements and feeble parties versus Taiwan’s stable parties and dependent movements from the political dynamics formed under the authoritarian state. Taiwan’s party-based authoritarianism provided ground for party development but not for independent social movements. Korea’s personal dictatorship was inimical to party development but engendered a contentious movement sector
Neo-Liberal Methods of Labour Repression
This article begins by asking what lies behind the rise of extreme methods of labour repression in Korea in the 2000s. The answer goes beyond the common neo-liberal conditions of intensified competition, insecurity and precariousness in the labour market. This study focuses on how market logic, emboldened by neo-liberal restructuring, guides the state and corporations to reconfigure methods of disempowering organised labour. The examination of Ko…
Varieties of Labor Politics in Northeast Asian Democracies
Against existing explanations based on economic structural and organizational differences, this paper contends that patterns of union activism in newly democratized polities are shaped by unions' interaction with political institutions and actors, particularly political parties. Unions' propensity for militant mobilization or accommodation is molded by the permissiveness of political institutions and electoral incentives for partisan alliances
Is Class Voting Emergent in Korea
The absence of class voting or the existence of “reverse” class voting under rising inequality remains a puzzling question in South Korea. While poor voters seem to support conservative candidates more than the rich do, this is due to a confounding effect of age, because poverty is concentrated among the elderly in Korea. Using the Korean General Social Survey data (KGSS 2004–2014) covering two presidential elections, two general legislative elec…
Cold War Undercurrents
This study examines the mobilization of the Far Right in Korea and Japan in the 2000s and probes how and why the actors and political claims of East Asian extremists differ from their counterparts in Europe and North America. The Far Right forces in Korea and Japan are politically regressive in glorifying the authoritarian or colonial past and cling to unchanging ideological claims from the postwar decades in their current targeting of old-time, …
Articulating Inequality in the Candlelight Protests of 2016–2017
Divergent Outcomes of Labor Reform Politics in Democratized Korea and Taiwan
We are Each Other’s Democracy
Varieties of Labor Politics in Northeast Asian Democracies
Against existing explanations based on economic structural and organizational differences, this paper contends that patterns of union activism in newly democratized polities are shaped by unions' interaction with political institutions and actors, particularly political parties. Unions' propensity for militant mobilization or accommodation is molded by the permissiveness of political institutions and electoral incentives for partisan alliances
Divergent Outcomes of Labor Reform Politics in Democratized Korea and Taiwan
Assembling Women
Militants or Partisans
Militants or Partisans
Labor after Neoliberalism
This article examines the rise and fall of organized labor in post-democratization, neoliberal Korea and traces the process through which a new labor underclass has been created since the late 1990s. Under the sweeping implementation of neoliberal policies, Korean labor has become increasingly fragmented, stratified, and marginalized both in the market and political arena. In this polarizing process, an 'insecure class' was born, consisting of ir…
Diverging Patterns of Democratic Representation in Korea and Taiwan
This paper explains the difference between Korea’s vocal movements and feeble parties versus Taiwan’s stable parties and dependent movements from the political dynamics formed under the authoritarian state. Taiwan’s party-based authoritarianism provided ground for party development but not for independent social movements. Korea’s personal dictatorship was inimical to party development but engendered a contentious movement sector
Working class formation in Taiwan
A systematic analysis of Taiwan's labor movements is rare in the fields of comparative politics, political sociology, labor studies, and social movements. Working Class Formation in Taiwan fills th
Sky Protest
This article examines the rise of “sky protest,” a new form of labour resistance in Korea, by focusing on three major labour struggles at Hanjin Heavy Industry, Ssangyong Motors, and Hyundai Motors. Through a close examination of these instances of labour contention, this study argues that the rise to this new form of labour unrest is associated with deepening chasms in neo-liberalised Korean society, such as the division between globalising capi…
Is Class Voting Emergent in Korea
The absence of class voting or the existence of “reverse” class voting under rising inequality remains a puzzling question in South Korea. While poor voters seem to support conservative candidates more than the rich do, this is due to a confounding effect of age, because poverty is concentrated among the elderly in Korea. Using the Korean General Social Survey data (KGSS 2004–2014) covering two presidential elections, two general legislative elec…
Articulating Inequality in the Candlelight Protests of 2016–2017
Seoul as a Site of Labor Resistance
Under rising insecurity and precarity in the neoliberal labor market, Korean workers have protested mass job cuts and deteriorating working conditions. Although their grievances originate from the regions and workplaces where they are employed or laid off, the protest sites often move to major political landmarks in Seoul, the nation’s capital, with demands for political redress. These labor protests in the capital demonstrate two distinctive fea…
Is Class Voting Emergent in Korea? – Addendum
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Cold War Undercurrents
This study examines the mobilization of the Far Right in Korea and Japan in the 2000s and probes how and why the actors and political claims of East Asian extremists differ from their counterparts in Europe and North America. The Far Right forces in Korea and Japan are politically regressive in glorifying the authoritarian or colonial past and cling to unchanging ideological claims from the postwar decades in their current targeting of old-time, …
Neo-Liberal Methods of Labour Repression
This article begins by asking what lies behind the rise of extreme methods of labour repression in Korea in the 2000s. The answer goes beyond the common neo-liberal conditions of intensified competition, insecurity and precariousness in the labour market. This study focuses on how market logic, emboldened by neo-liberal restructuring, guides the state and corporations to reconfigure methods of disempowering organised labour. The examination of Ko…
Introduction to 'Right-Wing Activism in Asia
This essay introduces four articles that form a special issue of Politics & Society titled 'Right-Wing Activism in Asia: Cold War Legacies, Geopolitics, and Democratic Erosion.' The articles focus on Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. These three Asian countries present important cases to generate critical comparative insights about the patterns of Far Right mobilization, for their geopolitical histories provide common ground while institutional v…
Memory Construction and the Politics of Time in Neoliberal South Korea
The rise of the Far Right and the decline of democratic institutions and norms have been a global phenomenon in the last few decades, and scholarly investigations on this topic have grown in volume and intellectual depth. South Korea, once known for its spectacular achievements both in capitalist development and transition from autocratic rule to vibrant democracy, has not been an exception in the global trend of authoritarian backlash and extrem…
South Korea’s Martial Law Crisis
When President Yoon Suk-yeol announced that he was imposing martial law in December 2024, thousands of South Koreans took to the streets to defend democracy—but the country remains deeply riven by political polarization after his impeachment
Extreme Protests
This study focuses on the question of changing protest repertoires and asks what explains the emergence of extreme repertoires (a protest form that is lone in nature, accompanied by a high level of self-imposed danger and pain, and staged for a collective cause) in labor movements in times of institutionalized democracy and capitalist affluence in South Korea. Social movement scholarship has emphasized that massive structural transformations, suc…
We are Each Other’s Democracy
Political science (19 works) · Law (15 works) · Politics (15 works) · Law (12 works) · Political economy (12 works) · Economics (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Democracy (7 works) · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies (7 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (6 works)