THE HOPE AND CRISIS OF PRAGMATIC TRANSITION: POLITICS, LAW, ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOUTH KOREA A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School Of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Amy Beth Levine May 2011 © 2011 Amy Beth Levine THE HOPE AND CRISIS OF PRAGMATIC TRANSITION: POLITICS, LAW, ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOUTH KOREA Amy Beth Levine, Ph.D. Cornell University 2011 This dissertation demonstrates how the urgent condition of crisis is routine for many non-governmental (NGO) and non-profit organization (NPO) workers, activists, lawyers, social movement analysts, social designers and ethnographers. The study makes a contribution to the increasing number of anthropological, legal, pedagogical, philosophical, political, and socio-legal studies concerned with pragmatism and hope by approaching crisis as ground, hope as figure, and pragmatism as transition or placeholder between them. In effect this work makes evident the agency of the past in the apprehension of the present, whose complexity is conceptualized as scale, in order to hopefully refigure ethnography’s future role as an anticipatory process rather than a pragmatic response to crisis or an always already emergent world. This dissertation is based on over two years of fieldwork inside NGOs, NPOs, and think tanks, hundreds of conversations, over a hundred interviews, and archival research in Seoul, South Korea. The transformation of the “386 generation” and Roh Moo Hyun’s presidency from 2003 to 2008 serve as both the contextual background and central figures of the study. This work replicates the historical, contemporary, and anticipated transitions of my informants by responding to the problem of agency inherent in crisis with a sense of scale and a rescaling of agency. I demonstrate this scale of agency—ideology, field, sacrifice, discourse, project, and agenda—along with its double bind entanglements. In so doing this dissertation shows the utopian and post-utopian hope in rescaling kinship from filiation to affiliation and rescaling agency from person to movement and from revolution to social design. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates the importance of scale and its shifts in the generation and sustainability of hope for NGO and NPO workers, activists, lawyers, social movement analysts, social designers, and ethnographers alike. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Amy Levine was born in Texas and grew up in North Carolina, Maryland, and Florida. She received her B.A. in Anthropology and Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2002. She received her M.A. in Anthropology from Cornell University in 2005. Amy lived in Seoul, South Korea for a total of about four years from 2001 to 2007 as a student and researcher. She has lived and worked as a visiting professor at Changwon National University in Changwon, South Korea since 2008. Her research and teaching interests include NGOs, NPOs, think tanks, artifacts of work, leisure, hope, generation, crisis, and change, the anthropology of activist and academic knowledge, pragmatism, politics, law, pedagogy, science, economics, South Korea and the United States. iii For my mother Leslie and father Lewis iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation has been a gift; it has introduced me to so much inspiration disguised as people. First and foremost I wish to thank my friends and colleagues in South Korea. Professor Young Shin Park has been a kind, incisive, and incredibly generous advisor over the years. Seung-guk Choi, Eun Ae Choi, Sangmin Han, Myunghee Jeong, Haeae Kim, Jenam Kim, Ta- Kyun Kim, Ji Seon Koh, Kidon Lee, Michael Mo, Jae Cheul Seo and everyone at Green Korea United taught and continue to teach me so much. This project would not have existed without the guidance and support of my senior and good friend, Yujin Lee. Special thanks are also due to the Beautiful Foundation, CAC, Gonggam, Hope Institute, KWAU, and Nanum. I benefited greatly from the intellectual and social wisdom of B.J. Ahn, Peter Beck, Hee Yeon Cho, Myung-Rae Cho, Youngsook Cho, Yukyung Kim-Cho, Sang Il Choi, Chin-Seung Chung, John Frankl, Geon-Soo Han, Sun-Kyung Han, Joo Eun Hong, Michael Hurt, Tariq Hussein, Pil Kyu Hwang, Sohee Im, Amy Jang, Kee Yun Jeong, Yeon-Sik Jeong, Elisa Jun, Woong-Jung Jung, Sung-Goo Kang, Won-Taek Kang, Ae- Hwa Kim, Chong-Su Kim, Kim Choony, Kim Eun-Shil, Geo-Sung Kim, Kim Hae-joang, Hank Kim, Jae Won Kim, Jae Yeol Kim, Joongi Kim, Mira Kim, Steven Kim, Yeonhee Kim, Kim Yeong Rae, Brenda Lee Kwon, Sanghun Kwon, Anselmo Lee, Changwoo Lee, Kyoung-Sook Lee Gu, Sanghun Lee, Antti Leppanen, Gil-Chin Lim, Jungkeun Lim, Jehong Lui, Moon Seok Jin, Sangmin Nam, Yunju Nam, Jeong Taek Oh, Kwan-Young Oh, Christian J. v Park, David Hun Joo Park, Go Wun Park, Se-Il Park, Wonsoon Park, Han- Kyun Rho, Hyun-Sun Seo, Si Kyung Seong, Ra-Mi So, Kyung A Shin, Matty Wegehaupt, Jin Ju Yang, Denise K.H. Yoon, Jung-Sook Yoon, Yoon Kwang Young, Jong-Il You, Richard You, Eugene Yun, Sun-chul Yun, and Suk In Yun. My main advisor, Annelise Riles, opened a new world of thinking and people to me. She pushed, nurtured, and pulled back to enable this work and the promise of future works. This work would not have been possible without the challenges she set or the vision she demonstrated. Hiro Miyazaki has challenged me from our first meeting together as temporary advisor and advisee. This work would not have been possible without the patience or care he has shown from the beginning of the degree. Roger L. Janelli has quietly and confidently kept me focused on the significant things, both large and small, through the process. His knowledge, good humor, patience, and generosity have helped this project immensely. Stacey A. Langwick has reminded me of the stakes and provided a much welcomed spark at the end of the process. The more time goes by, the more I appreciate all that my committee did and did not do. I wish to thank Arturo Escobar, Judith Farquhar, Bill Lachicotte, Don Nonini, Peter Redfield, Debra Skinner, and Silvia Tomaskova for first introducing me to anthropology. Judy and Peter in particular have given me so much over the years. I also wish to thank Deborah Battaglia, Tom Boellstorff, Don Brenneis, Tony Crook, Carol Greenhouse, Doug Holmes, Iris Jean-Klein, Michael Lynch, vi George Marcus, Bill Maurer, Kirin Narayan, Peter Redfield, Adam Reed, and Marilyn Strathern for providing generous and incisive feedback at key moments. Marilyn in particular has set an example as a person and as a scholar. While at Cornell, I have benefited greatly from the collegiality of Brett de Bary, Hairhin Diffloth, Jane Fajans, Fred Gleach, Davydd Greenwood, David Holmberg, Billie Jean Isbell, Bernd Lambert, Mitch Lasser, Jane Marie Law, Mike Lynch, Kath March, Barbara Mink, Viranjini Munasinghe, Scott Peters, Nerissa Russell, Steve Sangren, Helene Schember, Suman Seth, Mike Shin, Jae-Jung Suh, Bill Trochim, Terry Turner, Amy Villarejo, Marina Welker, and Andrew Willford. Keith Hjortshoj and many others in the Knight Institute helped me tremendously not only to write, but also to teach. I wish to thank Nancy Abelmann for being an invaluable guide and advisor throughout my engagement with Korea. Jae Chung, Chad Futrell, Sue-Je Gage, Robert Oppenheim, Nan Youngnan Paik-Kim, and Jesook Song have also helped shape this work. In Kang, Hyesoo Lee, Jae-il Lee, Kichul Kevin Lee, and Joon Woo Sohn provided invaluable research assistance. The Korea Foundation generously supported my field research and introduced me to Professor Hyuk-Rae Kim. I benefited greatly from my friendships with Helen Kim, Blaz Kriznik, Candice Lee, Beatrix Mesci, Taru Salmenkari, Seung- Heon Rhee, CedarBough Saeji, and Jeeeun Song during my fellowship. vii My colleagues at Changwon National University—Young Chul Chung, William Edwards, Younghee Her, Cecile Hwang, Soojung Kim, Sujin Kim, Kyunghee Moon, Lee Myunghoon and Eunju Park—have been supportive, understanding, and wonderfully kind over the last year and a half. My students at the university and Lifelong Education Center have also been remarkably supportive and understanding while teaching me many things. Jessica Falcone and Noni Session helped me start the writing process with (W)holy Objects and saw me through to the end. Matt Bernius, Paul Buchholz, Adriana Chira, Dan Costura, Maureen Costura, Aly Dersch, Kristin Haeger, Miranda Cady Hallett, Samuel Henderson, Marie-Andrée Jacob, Annie Koh, Shu-chin Grace Kuo, Brad Lowe, Sandy Lowe, Eunjeong Ma, Towns Middleton, Nicole Nelson, Amy Pollard, David Rojas, Melissa Rosario, Jennifer Shannon, Sara Shneiderman, Amanda Snellinger, Alicia Swords, Mark Turin, Saiba Varma, Chika Watanabe, Courtney Work, and Andrew Yeo have sustained the process with their feedback and friendship. Leticia Barrera, Jason Ettlinger, Samuel Henderson, Marie-Andrée Jacob, and Amanda Snellinger helped tremendously in the final stages. Leticia Barrera has been a wonderful colleague and friend over the years. I hope that some of her wisdom and care has rubbed off on this work. This work has also been nurtured by my collaboration with Andrea Ballestero, Leticia Barrera, Jason Cross, and Gemma John through various Association of viii Political and Legal Anthropology and the Law and Society Association events. They have been extraordinary colleagues, collaborators, and friends. Jason Ettlinger has shaped my thinking and social imagination at every step of this process. He has been my friend, colleague, comic, cheerleader, and social designer throughout. I want to thank my parents, Lewis and Leslie Levine, for everything they have given me. They began this journey well before I realized it and helped will it into completion. Greg and Kristin have been parents, godparents, and friends over the years. Ron, Karen, Sarah, Benjamin, and Andrew have helped me grow up and goof off.