Service Economies: Militarism, Sex Work, and Migrant Labor in South Korea
Service Economies presents an alternative narrative of South Korean modernity by examining how working-class labor occupies a central space in linking the United States and Asia to South Korea's changing global position from a U.S. neocolony to a subempire.

Making surprising and revelatory connections, Jin-kyung Lee analyzes South Korean military labor in the Vietnam War, domestic female sex workers, South Korean prostitution for U.S. troops, and immigrant/migrant labor from Asia in contemporary South Korea. Foregrounding gender, sexuality, and race, Lee reimagines the South Korean economic "miracle" as a global and regional articulation of industrial, military, and sexual proletarianization.

Lee not only addresses these under-studied labors individually but also integrates and unites them to reveal an alternative narrative of a changing South Korean working class whose heterogeneity is manifested in its objectification. Delving into literary and popular cultural sources as well as sociological work, Lee locates South Korean development in its military and economic interactions with the United States and other Asian nation-states, offering a unique perspective on how these practices have shaped and impacted U.S.-South Korea relations.
"1119381285"
Service Economies: Militarism, Sex Work, and Migrant Labor in South Korea
Service Economies presents an alternative narrative of South Korean modernity by examining how working-class labor occupies a central space in linking the United States and Asia to South Korea's changing global position from a U.S. neocolony to a subempire.

Making surprising and revelatory connections, Jin-kyung Lee analyzes South Korean military labor in the Vietnam War, domestic female sex workers, South Korean prostitution for U.S. troops, and immigrant/migrant labor from Asia in contemporary South Korea. Foregrounding gender, sexuality, and race, Lee reimagines the South Korean economic "miracle" as a global and regional articulation of industrial, military, and sexual proletarianization.

Lee not only addresses these under-studied labors individually but also integrates and unites them to reveal an alternative narrative of a changing South Korean working class whose heterogeneity is manifested in its objectification. Delving into literary and popular cultural sources as well as sociological work, Lee locates South Korean development in its military and economic interactions with the United States and other Asian nation-states, offering a unique perspective on how these practices have shaped and impacted U.S.-South Korea relations.
27.5 In Stock
Service Economies: Militarism, Sex Work, and Migrant Labor in South Korea

Service Economies: Militarism, Sex Work, and Migrant Labor in South Korea

by Jin-kyung Lee
Service Economies: Militarism, Sex Work, and Migrant Labor in South Korea

Service Economies: Militarism, Sex Work, and Migrant Labor in South Korea

by Jin-kyung Lee

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Overview

Service Economies presents an alternative narrative of South Korean modernity by examining how working-class labor occupies a central space in linking the United States and Asia to South Korea's changing global position from a U.S. neocolony to a subempire.

Making surprising and revelatory connections, Jin-kyung Lee analyzes South Korean military labor in the Vietnam War, domestic female sex workers, South Korean prostitution for U.S. troops, and immigrant/migrant labor from Asia in contemporary South Korea. Foregrounding gender, sexuality, and race, Lee reimagines the South Korean economic "miracle" as a global and regional articulation of industrial, military, and sexual proletarianization.

Lee not only addresses these under-studied labors individually but also integrates and unites them to reveal an alternative narrative of a changing South Korean working class whose heterogeneity is manifested in its objectification. Delving into literary and popular cultural sources as well as sociological work, Lee locates South Korean development in its military and economic interactions with the United States and other Asian nation-states, offering a unique perspective on how these practices have shaped and impacted U.S.-South Korea relations.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780816651269
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Publication date: 11/02/2010
Pages: 408
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jin-kyung Lee is associate professor of Korean and comparative literature at the University of California, San Diego.

Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Proletarianizing Sexuality and Race
1. Surrogate Military, Subempire, and Masculinity: South Korea in the Vietnam War
2. Domestic Prostitution: From Necropolitics to Prosthetic Labor
3. Military Prostitution: Gynocentrism, Racial Hybridity and Diaspora
4. Migrant and Immigrant Labor: Redefining Korean Identity
Postscript: The Exceptional and the Normative in South Korean Modernization
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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