South Korea under Compressed Modernity

Chang Kyung-Sup, a Ph.D. from Brown University, is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Social Development and Policy Research, both at Seoul National University.

"Chang Kyung-sup, professor of sociology at Seoul National University, introduces a concept called 'compressed modernity' as a key tool to unlock the Korean society and its contemporary transformation. At the core of the foundations that prop up Korea's economic, social, and political life, Chang argues, is none other than the family. He offers an insightful perspective about how family relations and family-oriented values shape the structural and institutional changes in Korea today.With an integrative theoretical perspective of compressed modernity, Chang dissects the family-centered social order and everyday life in Korea in a way that sheds light on the country's remarkable transformations." - The Korea Herald"This work by Chang provides a fascinating approach to contemporary economic, political and social life of South Korean society in transition... the analysis in the book with an integrative conceptualization of compressed modernity is quite innovative... This book is a result of the author's scholarly endeavours of many years and is an indispensable reading source for anyone who studies family, economy or developmental policy of modern Korean society." - Kyoung-Ho Shin, Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, USA; Pacific Affairs: Volume 84, No. 4 - December 2011

• 1.Compressed Modernity and Its Familial Basis 2. Accidental Pluralism 3. The Social Investment Family and Educational Politics 4. The Nuclear Family and Welfare Politics 5. Women’s Labor and Gendered Industrialization 6. The Peasant Family and Rural-Urban Relations 7. Chaebol: the Logic of Familial Capitalism 8. Politics of Defamiliation 9. The Sustainability Crisis of Familial Modernity