I’m studying the left-wing intellectual history from 1980’s to contemporary Korea in light of its connection to what Vijay Prashad calls the Third World project and global discourses on political economy. It has been commonly argued that contemporary South Korea has become a neoliberal society in which there is nothing left but the naturalized sense of competition between individuals without any senses of human solidarity. Although many arguments have been made regarding how neoliberalism as a system works in South Korean politics and culture, there have not been many historical and comparative analyses of it. In this regard, my research pursues two objectives. First, referring to the recent scholarships about the historical formation of neoliberalism, I want to evade the pessimism that neoliberalism is so naturalized in Korea that it cannot be overcome. Second, connecting the global history of political economics with the Third World project and South Korean left-wing intellectual history, I want to build up a framework in which South Korean left-wing intellectual history can become a source of inspiration for contemporary social activism both from within and without South Korea.
Dongkyu Yeom
