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The Cultural Politics of Affective Bureaucracy in Service Delivery to North Korean Refugees in South Korea

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The Cultural Politics of Affective Bureaucracy in Service Delivery to North Korean Refugees in South Korea University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 6-30-2016 The ulturC al Politics Of Affective Bureaucracy In Service Delivery To North Korean Refugees In South Korea Seo Yeon Park University of South Carolina Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Other Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Park, S. Y.(2016). The Cultural Politics Of Affective Bureaucracy In Service Delivery To North Korean Refugees In South Korea. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3381 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF AFFECTIVE BUREAUCRACY IN SERVICE DELIVERY TO NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES IN SOUTH KOREA by Seo Yeon Park Bachelor of Arts Yonsei University, 2003 Master of Arts Yonsei University, 2008 Master of Arts University of South Carolina, 2011 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2016 Accepted by: Jennifer F. Reynolds, Major Professor Marc Moskowitz, Committee Member Drucilla Barker, Committee Member Amy Mills, Committee Member Lacy Ford, Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies © Copyright by Seo Yeon Park, 2016 All Rights Reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been published without many others’ support. Greatest thanks should be directed to my dissertation advisor, Dr. Jennifer Reynolds. Her enduring patience and keen academic eyes on guiding the dissertation played a paramount role in the creation of this project. I also cannot thank enough to Dr. Marc Moskowitz, Dr. Drucilla Barker and Dr. Amy Mills, whose academic knowledge and passion provided several valuable insights to this paper. All of my committee members are truly my role models, who have showed academic integrity, deep empathy and warm caring which I cannot find any suitable words to express my full gratitude for. I also would like to express my deepest thanks to those who participated in this research. Without their engagements, this project would have never been possible. My colleagues, staff and mentors at Department of Anthropology, my friends in and out of Columbia, my life-time friends, church members and families in Korea and my MSN community including pastor Tom Wall all sustained me through the seemingly unending doctoral project. These people have truly been my source of power, guidance and joy. This project is a tribute to you all. iii ABSTRACT This study explores the affective dimensions and intersecting politics of service operations for North Koreans, focusing on semi-government institutions, Hana Centers in two different regions of South Korea. It probes into how bureaucratic service institutions for North Koreans operate on the ground using affect-laden languages and practices in creating a specific type of clientele subjectivity. This study also points out how the state bureaucracies identifying themselves as “practical” and “neutral” agencies reveal contradictory and fragmented governing which is antithetical to how the state institutions are imagined. There are underlying politics working in the realm of a so-called neutral service agency, such as Cold War memories, imagined homogeneity regarding ethnicity, and neoliberal changes in the welfare area and beyond. Even though these are hidden on public and formal policy and statements, they inevitably emerge in unexpected contexts in forms of mistrust, conflicts and anxiety among the service providers and the recipients. Through ethnographic research, this study highlights flexible, performative and emotional aspects of the relationships between the service providers and the service recipients by attending to affective dimensions. It finds that desirable figures of North Korean clientship are represented differently, depending on distinctive characteristics of the locations as well as different modes of governing. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................. vii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................1 1.1 ANTHROPOLOGY OF STATE INSTITUTIONS AND BUREAUCRACY FOR CARING POPULATION ...........................................................................................................6 1.2. NORTH KOREAN IDENTITY AND ETHNIC HOMOGENEITY IN THE DIVIDED NATION ...................................................................................................................15 1.3 NEOLIBERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE SOUTH KOREAN SERVICE REGIME .........21 CHAPTER 2 ETHICS AND METHODOLOGY ...........................................................................28 2.1 ETHICS .................................................................................................................30 2.2 METHODS ............................................................................................................38 2.3 DATA ANALYSIS .................................................................................................72 CHAPTER 3 POLICY ANALYSIS ON NORTH KOREAN SUPPORT AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES OF HANA CENTERS ............................................................................76 3.1 THE SOUTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT’S POLICY CHANGES REGARDING NORTH KOREAN SETTLERS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE ........................................................76 3.2 THE ORGANIZATIONAL POSITIONS OF HANA CENTERS IN THE WEB OF SERVICE PROVISION ...............................................................................................................87 CHAPTER 4 AFFECT-LADEN SERVICE DELIVERY FOR NORTH KOREANS IN HANA CENTERS’ PROGRAMS ........................................................................................................................104 v 4.1 HANA CENTERS’ MODUS OPERANDI: STANDARDIZATION AND INDIVIDUALIZATION ............................................................................................105 4.2 SERVICE PROGRAMS AT HANA CENTERS ........................................................107 4.3 MEANS OF AFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE .............................................................130 CHAPTER 5 COLD WAR, TRUST AND PROTECTION IN INSTITUTIONAL SPACE ...................139 5.1 MEANINGS OF COLD WAR IN SOUTH KOREA IN THE 2010S ............................139 5.2 “PROTECTION” IN ADMINISTERING NORTH KOREANS ....................................143 5.3 AFFECTIVE OPERATIONS OF TRUST ................................................................147 CHAPTER 6 NEOLIBERAL ARRANGEMENT OF HANA CENTERS AND NORTH KOREAN CLIENTELE SUBJECTIVITY .....................................................................................171 6.1 NEOLIBERAL WELFARE REGIME AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVICES FOR COST- EFFICIENCY AND PROFESSIONALISM ....................................................................175 6.2 “RESPONSIBILIZATION OF THE SELF” – A CALL FOR NORTH KOREAN REFUGEE- CLIENTELE SUBJECTIVITY AND ITS CONTRADICTION ...........................................187 CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................194 REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................199 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Settlement of North Koreans by region (Ministry of Unification 2015) ...........39 Table 2.2 Summary of research methods and field sites ...................................................41 Table 2.3 Field sites categorized by organization and city ...............................................43 Table 2.4 Interviewee for the research ...............................................................................59 Table 3.1 Number of incoming North Koreans (Ministry of Unification 2015) ...............80 Table 3.2 Relevant laws and policy changes ....................................................................81 Table 3.3 Settlement support system (Ministry of Unification 2014) ..............................85 Table 3.4 Organizational history of Hana Centers ............................................................90 Table 3.5 Qualifications for Hana Center assignment ....................................................100 Table 4.1 A guideline for settlement helpers ..................................................................117 Table 5.1 Resettlement support process ..........................................................................143 Table 6.1 Monthly report card for settlement helper ......................................................181 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Cities visited for the research ...........................................................................44 Figure 2.2 A map of Seoul and the northeastern part of the city .......................................46 Figure 2.3
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