The Making of the Urban Middle Class in South Korea (1961-1979)

Nation-Building, Discipline, and the Birth of the Ideal National Subjects

Bibliographic Data

ID2275009
AuthorsMyungji Yang (John Brown University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume82
Issue3
Pages424-445
Publication date2012-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0245 • E-ISSN: 1475-682X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1475-682x.2012.00412.x
OpenAlexW2124389845
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited16

This article examines the process through which the state nurtured urban middle-class formation during the Park Chung Hee regime in South Korea. While existing studies have focused on the size and characteristics of the middle class, few studies explore the political process or mechanisms through which the middle class was on the rise as a mainstream force. This article argues that urban middle-class formation was a political-ideological project of the authoritarian state to reconstruct the nation and strengthen the regime's political legitimacy. In particular, this article explores the two concurrent processes of urban middle-class formation in Korea: one is the growth of the middle class in an objective sense, as a result of state-directed economic development; and the other is the production of urban middle-class norms. Drawing on the discourses of the Korean government and the media disseminated during from 1961 to 1979, I trace how the formation of the middle class in Korea was intertwined with modernity and nationalism in order to consolidate state power

Authoritarianism · Democracy · Ideal (ethics) · Ideology · Legitimacy · Mainstream · Middle class · Modernity · Modernization theory · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Asian Industrial and Economic Development · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Japanese History and Culture · Law

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