College rank and neo‐liberal subjectivity in South Korea: the burden of self‐development

Abstract This paper explores the ways in which contemporary college students in South Korea inhabit new discourses of human development in the context of South Korea's neo‐liberal turn and globalization. By using ethnographic methods, we examine the lives of college students across three campuses, a top‐tier private school and two mid‐tier schools. The college students who we introduce all aspire to and accept the burden of managing their personal formation for a changing world. We note that the individuated way in which they narrate and take responsibility for their circumstances and predicaments is quite new and resonant with discussions of neo‐liberal subjectivity. We show, however, how the burden of self‐development is borne variously, according to differences in the 'brand capital' of the students' university, gender, and family background. We argue that neo‐liberal subjectivity, highlighting personal ability, style, and responsibility, works to obscure escalating structural inequality in South Korea. Keywords: neo‐liberal subjectivitycollege studentscollege rankself‐development Acknowledgments We are grateful to generous and enormously helpful feedback on drafts of this article from Amy Borovoy, Ed Bruner, Bong Gun Chung, Noriko Muraki, Myung‐gyu Pak, Cathy Prendergast, and Jesook Song. Additionally, comments by Fred Carriere, Greg Brazinsky, and Kirk W. Larsen at George Washington University where an earlier version of this article was presented were very helpful. Also, this article has benefited enormously from feedback at seminars at Columbia, Harvard, and Stanford Universities and at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. We also extend thanks to Jinheon Jung who assisted during summer 2004 Borovoy, Amy. . 'What color is your parachute? New middle‐class subjectivities in the post‐gakureki society'. conference paper, presented at the conference of Researching Social Class. Japan. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan. [Google Scholar] research. In addition, this ethnographic research was enabled by the generosity of introductions facilitated by Byung‐ho Chung, Hye‐young Jo, Jin‐Heon Jung, Donghu Lee, Deok‐hee Seo and Keehyeung Lee. Finally, we are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Notes 1. Critically important is that the state has effected recent higher education transformations in a centralized manner, concentrating on the country's top‐tier universities and thus intensifying the already enormous stratification of South Korean education with neo‐liberal reforms (J. Lee 2004 Lee, Ju‐Ho. 2004. 'The school equalization policy of Korea: past failures and proposed measure for reform'. Korea Journal, 44(1): 221–234. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Although our focus is on structural correlates of college rank, we also understand that in many cases college and class capital overlap. The correlation between college and class capital seems to be increasing as contemporary education in South Korea offers to consumers with economic means many new arenas for investment, foremost the option of study abroad prior to college. A 550 million‐dollar venture in the first quarter of 2004, doubling the figures from 2002, the so‐called 'early study abroad' (chogi yuhak) is an escalating market (Hankook Ilbo 2004 Hankook Ilbo. 2004. 'Significance of U.S. educational institutions' entry into Korea'. Korea Focus, 12(3): 57–59. Originally published on Hankook Ilbo, 1 May [Google Scholar]). Parents struggle as to how to best educate their children for a transformed South Korea in a transforming world (Park 2006 Park, So Jin. 2006. 'The Retreat From Formal Schooling: 'Educational Manager Mothers' in the Private After‐school Market of South Korea', Urbana‐Champaign: University of Illinois. PhD dissertation [Google Scholar]). A not uncommon discussion is the one that asks, 'Which will be more valuable into the future, a degree from Harvard or from Seoul National [South Korea's premier university]?' These options present new, and sometimes risky, human capital development strategies. In the self‐development narratives of the students featured in this article, we will see that they enthusiastically embrace these risks. Of course, however, such a struggle – even just with second‐ or third‐tier schools in both countries – is not separable from the student's class resources. 2. While we observe the interaction between patriarchal family forms and neo‐liberal subjectivity – particularly the ways in which gender and patriarchal norms mediate family investment in children and human development ideals – this paper does not further larger discussions of the articulation of gender and neo‐liberal subjectivity, a still theoretically and empirically underdeveloped topic in the literature (see Anagnost 2000 Anagnost, Ann. 2000. 'Scenes of misrecognition: maternal citizenship in the age of transnational adoption'. Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 8(2): 389–421. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Park 2007 Park, So Jin. 2007. 'Educational manager mothers: South Korea's neo‐liberal transformation'. Korea Journal, 47(3): 186–213. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Walkerdine 2003 Walkerdine, Valerie. 2003. 'Reclassifying upward mobility: femininity and the neo‐liberal subject'. Gender and Education, 15(3): 237–248. 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Borovoy analyses both how class works such that some youth are not afforded the opportunity to develop these new subjectivities, and how for elite youth these new requirements challenge deeply held values as well as ambivalences about American‐style capitalism (Borovoy 2004 Borovoy, Amy. . 'What color is your parachute? New middle‐class subjectivities in the post‐gakureki society'. conference paper, presented at the conference of Researching Social Class. Japan. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan. [Google Scholar]). 7. The complex political colors of the current education policy climate are easily observed through a recent JoongAng Ilbo editorial which denounced South Korean education as an 'outdated steam engine' that hampers the 'nation's competitiveness.' The editorial continued, 'Korea is still mired in the age of democratization, in which remnants of previous authoritarian regimes continue to linger. As such, the influence of ideology remains evident' (D. Lee 2004 Lee, Deok‐nyung. 2004. 'Dreaming about a revolution in education'. Korea Focus, 12(1): 39–41. Originally published in JoongAng Ilbo, 10 April [Google Scholar]: 39–40). 8. Yoon summarizes South Korea's education transformation in terms of several key shifts: from standardization to autonomy, diversification, and specialization; from provider to consumer; and from classroom education to open and life‐long learning (Mok et al. 2003 Mok, Ka‐ho and Welch, Anthony. 2003. "'Globalization, structural adjustment and educational reform'". In Globalization and Educational Restructuring in the Asia Pacific Region, Edited by: Mok, Ka‐ho and Welch, Anthony. 1–31. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 61). 9. As Mok et al. characterize, 'the Korean government openly acknowledges that the existing system has failed to equip the society with autonomous capacity' to solve the problems presented by the new knowledge economy (Mok et al. 2003 Mok, Ka‐ho, Yoon, Kiok and Welch, Anthony. 2003. "'Globalization's challenges to higher education governance in South Korea'". In Globalization and Educational Restructuring in the Asia Pacific Region, Edited by: Mok, Ka‐ho and Welch, Anthony. 58–78. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 62–63). Former President Kim Dae Jung was committed to education reform that nurtured 'autonomous' and 'creative' human capital (Mok et al. 2003 Mok, Ka‐ho and Welch, Anthony. 2003. "'Globalization, structural adjustment and educational reform'". In Globalization and Educational Restructuring in the Asia Pacific Region, Edited by: Mok, Ka‐ho and Welch, Anthony. 1–31. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 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A Study of the System of Special Purposed High School , Seoul: Korean Educational Development Institute. [Google Scholar]; Lee 1998 Lee, Chong‐chae. 1998. "'An analysis of the debate on the relative evaluation system of the high school grades for special purposed high schools' ''". In Review of Korean Education 1997 1997, Edited by: Korean Educational Development Institute. 201–219. Seoul: Kyoyuk‐Kwahak‐sa. [Google Scholar]). 12. In South Korea, top‐rated women's schools are easier to enter because of the decreasing popularity of women's schools generally. 13. English has long been a class marker in South Korea: namely, knowledge of, and comfort with, English has been a sign of educational opportunity, especially study abroad, and of social success, including successful jobs and career promotion in South Korea (see Park and Abelmann 2004 Park, So Jin and Abelmann, Nancy. 2004. 'Class and cosmopolitan striving: mothers' management of English education in South Korea'. Anthropological Quarterly, 77(4): 645–672. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Several universities now have English course and examination requirements for graduation. 14. This refers to the list produced by The Times of London, a list that is well known in South Korea. 15. Here Heejin referred to South Korean state's longstanding ideological commitment to egalitarian education – especially the 'high‐school equalization policy'. Her assertion echoed some neo‐liberalist arguments that South Korea's recent educational turn is not a thorough neo‐liberal one because it has sustained equalization policies (D. Lee 2004 Lee, Deok‐nyung. 2004. 'Dreaming about a revolution in education'. Korea Focus, 12(1): 39–41. Originally published in JoongAng Ilbo, 10 April [Google Scholar]: 39–40). 16. In informal on‐line rankings of South Korean colleges and universities, Myôngji University appears most often in the upper quadrant of schools; 'second‐tier' then would be more accurate. 17. See Borovoy (2004 Borovoy, Amy. . 'What color is your parachute? New middle‐class subjectivities in the post‐gakureki society'. conference paper, presented at the conference of Researching Social Class. Japan. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan. [Google Scholar]) for a fascinating discussion of college clubs as a mark of university status in Japan. More broadly, she takes college clubs as a key element of elite 'college socialization' that prepares students for elite corporate work and social life. She considers both what it means that students at a provincial 'low‐level' college participate in clubs at significantly lower rates (30%) because many of them are commuter students; as well as differences in the 'easy come easy go' way in which they participate in the clubs. 18. Since July 2005, public servants work only five days from Mondays to Fridays. 19. We are grateful to an anonymous reviewer who pushed us to think about the implication of our findings and argument for collective alliance.