Ing-Yeo Subjectivity and Youth Culture In
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Being Surplus in the Age of New Media: Ing-yeo Subjectivity and Youth Culture in South Korea A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University by Sangmin Kim Master of Arts Seoul National University, 2002 Bachelor of Science Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1993 Director: Hugh Gusterson Affiliate Faculty, Cultural Studies, George Mason University Professor, Anthropology and International Affairs, George Washington University Fall Semester 2015 George Mason University Fairfax, VA This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Boosoo Kim and Chaerip Song, and my parents-in-law, Chungsik Yu and Myungja Woo. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am honored to have worked with my dissertation committee. I would first like to express my sincere gratitude to my academic advisor and dissertation chair, Hugh Gusterson. His thorough scholarship and social engagement as a social scientist serve as a model for my academic life. I would like to thank Alison Landsberg and Tim Gibson for their generous and encouraging feedback as well as inspiring teaching in visual culture and media studies. In addition, I would like to thank Roger Lancaster, Denise Albanese, and Paul Smith for introducing me to the fascinating field of cultural studies. I am indebted to my many colleagues in the cultural studies program. I am especially grateful to my mentor Vicki Watts, who supported and encouraged me to overcome hardships during my early years. Rob Gehl, Jarrod Waetjen, Nayantara Sheoran, Fan Yang, Jessi Lang, Randa Kayyali, Cecilia Uy-Tioco, David Arditi, Dava Simpson, Ozden Ocak, and Adila Laïdi-Hanieh have all been wonderful colleagues. I am also grateful to my Korean colleagues, Young-A Chung and Gyu Tag Lee, for their camaraderie. I was very fortunate to have a chance to work with Anne Schiller and Minkyung Park in the Office of Global Strategy at Mason. Thanks to them, I was able to contribute to building and opening Mason’s Korea Campus. I will never forget that initial year working with Matthew Zingraff, the first president of Mason Korea. I really appreciate his leadership and generosity. I would also like to thank Jiye Chang, Sharon Kim, Rev. Andrew Gil, Handeok Yu, Josh Park, and Erica Yoo for their enormous efforts and support for the new campus. Many people helped me during my field research in South Korea. In particular, I would like to thank Wook-Inn Paik and Kwang-Suk Lee at Seoul National University of Science and Technology for providing me many opportunities to participate in Korean academic networks. I am also grateful to Yeran Kim and Dongwon Cho, who shared their thoughts and knowledge on new media with me in a seminar on Bit Political Economy. This dissertation was also significantly enriched through my conversations with anonymous ing-yeo interviewees. I thank them for their ing-yeo-ryeok. My parents and parents-in-law have always been supportive and patient during my graduate years, and this dissertation would not exist without them. I thank my sister for encouraging me to pursue my Ph.D. I owe my every achievement to my dear wife Jiun Yu and my lovely two kids Yunsa and Jay, and thank them for their unconditional love and inexhaustible inspiration. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ix Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Who or What is Ing-yeo? ................................................................................................ 5 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................. 12 Emergence of Ing-yeo Subjects in Korea ...................................................................... 16 Objectives and Methods ................................................................................................ 32 Outline of Chapters ....................................................................................................... 40 Chapter 1. Generation without Exit in Neoliberal Society ............................................... 44 1.1. Self-improvement Culture ...................................................................................... 45 1.2. Subject without Subjectification ............................................................................ 53 1.3. Imagination of Class through Technology ............................................................. 66 Chapter 2. New Media Technologies for Ing-yeo ............................................................ 73 2.1. State-led Construction of ICT Infrastructure ......................................................... 74 2.2. 1997 Financial Crisis and Introduction of Neoliberalism ...................................... 81 2.3. Networks of Friendship: PC Bang and StarCraft ................................................... 92 2.4. Imagined Cyber Communities ............................................................................. 104 Chapter 3. Ing-yeo Culture ............................................................................................. 122 3.1. Self-recognition of the Subject as Ing-yeo ........................................................... 123 3.2. Economic and Cultural Ing-yeo ........................................................................... 134 3.3. Ing-yeo Time, Ing-yeo-ryeok and Ing-yeo-jit ...................................................... 149 3.4. Anxious and Precarious Life ................................................................................ 166 3.5. In Search of Happiness ......................................................................................... 175 Chapter 4. Precarious Subjects in New media ................................................................ 183 4.1. A Feeling of Being Surplus .................................................................................. 184 v 4.2. Precariat: Subject of Impossible (Re-)Production ................................................ 188 4.3. Digital Proletariat and Cognitive Surplus ............................................................ 197 4.4. People Deprived of Attention ............................................................................... 208 4.5. Capture of Ing-yeo in the Circuit of Drive ........................................................... 216 4.6. Crisis in the Production of Subjectivity ............................................................... 228 Conclusion: What Does It Mean to Be Ing-yeo? ............................................................ 233 Becoming Ing-yeo ....................................................................................................... 234 Ing-yeo Politics ........................................................................................................... 236 Living as a Bug in Hell-Joseon ................................................................................... 240 Distribution of Ing-yeo through the Net ...................................................................... 246 Appendices ...................................................................................................................... 251 Glossary .......................................................................................................................... 255 References ....................................................................................................................... 257 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 2.1 Ranks of Korea in International Informatization Indices ................................. 80 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 2.1. Number of Internet Users and PC Bangs in Korea. ....................................... 86 Figure 2.2. Unemployment Rates. .................................................................................... 87 Figure 2.3. Cyworld’s Minihompy. ................................................................................ 106 Figure 2.4. Gaejugi, the Mascot of DC Inside, and Its Parody Image. ........................... 112 Figure 4.1. Rate of Non-regular to Whole Employment (%). ........................................ 191 Figure 4.2. Number of Non-regular Employment (thousand). ....................................... 191 viii ABSTRACT BEING SURPLUS IN THE AGE OF NEW MEDIA: ING-YEO SUBJECTIVITY AND YOUTH CULTURE IN SOUTH KOREA Sangmin Kim, Ph.D. George Mason University, 2015 Dissertation Director: Dr. Hugh Gusterson In the late 2000s in South Korea, a social phenomenon emerged of youth who call themselves “ing-yeo,” or “surplus human being.” This dissertation argues that this term is in fact an expression that properly reflects these youths’ political-economic reality and their characteristics in cultural activities. Since the late nineties, with increased productivity through technological development and the introduction of neoliberal policies, Korean society has faced a situation in which more and