Measured Excess: Status, Gender, and Consumer Nationalism in South Korea

by Laura Nelson

Overview

This insightful analysis of the ways in which South Korean economic development strategies have reshaped the country's national identity gives specific attention to the manner in which women, as the primary agents of consumption, have been affected by this transformation. Past scholarship on the culture of nationalism has largely focused on the ways in which institutions utilize memory and "history" to construct national identity. In a provocative departure, Laura C. Nelson challenges these assumptions with regard to South Korea, arguing that its identity has been as much tied to notions of the future as rooted in a recollection of the past.

Following a backlash against consumerism in the late 1980s, the government spearheaded a program of frugality that eschewed imported goods and foreign travel in order to strengthen South Korea's national identity. Consumption—with its focus on immediate gratification—threatened the state's future-oriented discourse of national unity. In response to this perceived danger, Nelson asserts, the government cast women as the group whose "excessive desires" for material goods were endangering the nation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231116176
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	12/06/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1450L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Laura C. Nelson is an associate at MDRC, a nonprofit research organization, where she currently focuses on poverty, employment, and social policy in the United States.

Table of Contents

Preface: Notes on Methods and Writing
1: Consumer Nationalism
First Vignette: 1992
2: "Seoul to The World, The World to Seoul''
Second Vignette: 1985
3: Producing New Consumption
Third Vignette: 1991
4: "Kwasobi Ch'ubang": Measuring Excess
Fourth Vignette: 1993
5: Endangering the Nation, Consuming the Future
Fifth Vignette: 1991
6: Coda
Appendix

What People are Saying About This

John Lie

Sensitive and stylish, Laura Nelson's insightful book on consumption in South Korea contributes immensely to our understanding of consumption and culture in general, and South Korean political economy in particular. Purchase it to promote scholarship!

— John Lie, Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Katharine H.S. Moon

An eloquent balance of scholarly engagement and personal insights blended into a very poignant story about how South Korean women create their lives, lifestyles, and identities in the face of rapidly changing material and social conditions.

Editorial Reviews

Provides an insightful analysis of the ambivalent attitude of the residents of Seoul to South Korea's growing material prosperity through the decades of the 1980s and 1990s.

Journal of Asian Studies

Nelson's eloquent writing style allows the rare pleasure of readfing social science research that comes through factually as well as emotionally... highly recommended.

Gender & Society

An insightful analysis of the ways in which South Korean economic development strategies have reshaped the country's national identity.

Acta Koreana - Mikyeong Bae

An insightful analysis of the ways in which South Korean economic development strategies have reshaped the country's national identity.

— Mikyeong Bae

Acta Koreana

Nelson (an anthropologist) presents the results of her field work in South Korea, centering on the relationship between consumer nationalism, gender and status. These six chapters explicate the concept of consumer nationalism, describe the influences which have created it, and describe its role in Korean culture and society. The status associated with excess and the dangers of over-consumption are considered in turn. Five vignettes provide glimpses into South Korean society at particular moments in recent history, between 1985 and 1993. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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