The Social Life of Human Capital: the Rise of Social Economy, Entrepreneurial Subject, and Neosocial Government in South Korea

The Social Life of Human Capital: The Rise of Social Economy, Entrepreneurial Subject, and Neosocial Government in South Korea Seung-Cheol Lee Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Science COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2018 © 2018 Seung-Cheol Lee All Right Reserved ABSTRACT THE SOCIAL LIFE OF HUMAN CAPITAL: THE RISE OF SOCIAL ECONOMY, ENTREPRENEURIAL SUBJECT, AND NEOSOCIAL GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH KOREA SEUNG-CHEOL LEE This dissertation explores the rise of social economy in South Korea, in order to understand the transformations of sociality, ethicality, and subjectivity in the contemporary capitalism. In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, we have witnessed “the return of the social” through introduction of various socio-economic projects—such as social economy, social innovation, and social entrepreneurship—that aim to graft morality and sociality onto the market. In the last decade, South Korea’s social economy sector has also grown quickly with the active support and promotion by the government, representing a new model of development as well as a feasible solution to reproduction crisis. This rapid growth has generated public and academic debates over whether the returned “socials” are the seeds of post-neoliberalism or just an ideological cloak for the expansion of market rationality. Based on ethnographic research on the social economy sector in Seoul, this dissertation focuses on an often-neglected question in these debates: what forms of the social imaginary, knowledge, subjectivity, and ethicality have emerged in the new “socials” as a result of the imbrication of moral aspirations with the neoliberal human condition? To address the question, I first demonstrate how contemporary neoliberalism presupposes a new form of homo œconomicus, human capital, who is expected to manage all the aspects of life within a single value frame, acting as a “portfolio manager.” As the new subjectivity incorporates non-economic elements—including social logics and moral orientations—as assets that can be translated into economic value, the responsibilities for society and the construction of social bonds are directly devolved on the new economic subjects. This dissertation goes on to show how the financial logic of human capital has conditioned and created a new sociality and ethicality. In examining the various fields from community development through the social care market to fair trade activism, I trace how community, care, affective labor, and ethical practices have been intermingled and articulated with the new form of economic rationality and have contributed to the economization of sociality and ethicality. Notions such as “enterprization of community,” “projective ethicality,” “affective labor (hwaldong),” and “marketized gift- exchange” are discussed to flesh out the transformation and articulation more clearly. Finally, this thesis conceptualizes the dynamics of the new subjectivity, ethicality, and social imaginary in terms of “neosocial government,” in which the crisis of the neoliberal human capital regime is managed and addressed through social ties based on care, affective labor, and gift. In unveiling how the new governing rationality prioritizes and reifies intimate social bonds over political engagement and structural transformation, this dissertation not only illuminates the depoliticized aspects of the newly returned socials but also highlights the necessity of reinventing a universal vision of politics upon which the broken link between social solidarity and politics can be restored. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ......................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv PROLOGUE: “LET THEM TASTE A FISH” ............................................................................. vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: NEW HUMAN CONDITION, NEW SOCIALS .....................1 Into the Field ........................................................................................................................1 Historical Contexts...............................................................................................................6 Fieldwork Research ...........................................................................................................24 Theoretical Engagements ...................................................................................................25 Objects and Method ...........................................................................................................38 The Chapters ......................................................................................................................45 CHAPTER 2. SEEING LIKE A SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR: A NEW EPISTEMOLOGY OF POVERTY AND COMMUNITY .............................................................................49 Introduction ........................................................................................................................49 In Search of New Community Development .....................................................................52 Enterprising Community ....................................................................................................60 New Epistemology of Poverty and Community ................................................................75 Conclusion: Seeing Like a Social Entrepreneur ................................................................84 CHAPTER 3. ETHICAL CITIZENSHIP IN PRACTICE: MAKING THE SOCIAL CARE MARKET, PRODUCING PROJECTIVE ETHICALITY .........................................87 Yuna’s Street ......................................................................................................................87 The Crisis of Reproduction and Creating the Social Care Market ....................................95 The Case of Fortune Care ...............................................................................................105 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................126 i CHAPTER 4. THE AFFECTIVE LIFE OF POST-DEVELOPMENT: YOUTH, PRECARITY, AND AFFECTIVE LABOR.....................................................................................131 Blue Spring ......................................................................................................................131 Post-Development Youth as “Social Innovators” ............................................................141 The Mobilization of Hwaldong as Affective Labor .........................................................146 The Segmented Field and Heterogeneous Aspirations ....................................................159 Conclusion: Hope as Counterfeit Money .........................................................................168 CHAPTER 5. THE MORAL ECONOMY OF FACE: GIFT-EXCHANGE, RECOGNITION, AND DEPOLITICIZED SOLIDARITY ..................................................................173 Introduction ......................................................................................................................173 Gift-Exchange, Face, and the Politics of Recognition .....................................................176 Fair Trade as Marketized Gift-Exchange .........................................................................180 The Return of Faces: Entrepreneurial Producer and Responsible Consumer ..................185 In Place of Conclusion: Marketized Morality and Depoliticized Solidarity....................195 CONCLUSION: INNOVATION, CARE, GIFT, AND GARY BECKER ................................203 In Search of Society .........................................................................................................207 Towards New Combinations of Dispositifs .....................................................................212 Innovation, Care, Gift, and...X? .......................................................................................214 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................217 ii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1. Headquarters of Social Innovation Park. ......................................................................4 FIGURE 2. SSEC Community Map ................................................................................................8 FIGURE 3. Seoul Social Economy Center ......................................................................................9 FIGURE 4. Youth Hub’s Co-Working Place ..................................................................................9 FIGURE 5. Bukjeong Maul Community Map ..............................................................................62 FIGURE 6. “Mr. Wild Flower” QR Code Image ..........................................................................67 FIGURE 7. Various Types of Community Assets .........................................................................82 FIGURE 8. Government’s Promotion of Co-op ..........................................................................104 FIGURE 9. Fortune Care Three-Year Plan .................................................................................116 FIGURE 10. Contrast between Generations ................................................................................137

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