Anthropological Study on Reconstruction of Middle-Class Lifestyles in Globalizing South Korea

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23320190
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cultural anthropology/Folklore
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: HONDA Hiroshi 東京大学, 人文社会系研究科, 准教授 (50262093)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HIDEMURA Kenji 明星大学, 人文学部, 教授 (60218724) ; NAKAGAWA Yuri 専修大学, 経済学部, 教授 (10311250)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): ITO Abito 早稲田大学, アジア研究機構, 教授 (50012464)
• Research Collaborator: KIM Yangsook ; CHUNG Yuri ; HARADA Shizuka ; MIYAHARA Yoko ; GOTO Michiko ; CHUNG Yukcha
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: グローバル化 / 新自由主義 / 都市中産層 / 生き方 / 主体性 / 早期英語教育 / キリスト教 / 帰農

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project examined reflections, negotiations and compromises in the reconstruction of middle-class lifestyles in today's globalizing, neo-liberalist South Korea, by means of the ethnographic research method. As the most fruitful ethnographic outcome, the project demonstrated fission of the mainstream developmentalist lifestyle constructed in the process of industrialization, as well as complex amalgamation of the mainstream and alternatives after the mid 2000's. As a theoretical prospect, it leads to a view that multiplication and dissociation as well as contact and negotiation in the process of the middle-class people's lifestyle making promote (re)construction of subjectivity which produces creative and productive practices while bound by the immediate politico-economical and/or socio-cultural conditions.

Free Research Field

文化人類学，韓国朝鮮研究