general wellbeing. Ironically, however, their deep-seated embrace of these new narratives of personhood appear blind to the structural transformations that have fashioned these new subjectivities.
Furthermore, in a South Korea that is becoming increasingly class stratified or, as many have argued, polarized, we are particularly interested in how students do or do not take stock of their structural positions, which are registered here through college ranking. 8 For South Korea and other recently democratized states, the trappings of neoliberal personhood are particularly appealing because they stand for liberal democratic reform in which people can enjoy self-authorship, personal freedom, and self-styled consumption (see Song 2003; 2006). Thus the ironic meeting of neoliberal and postauthoritarian/collective liberal “individuals” is such that young South Koreans can unabashedly celebrate what might otherwise appear to be so nakedly pernicious (Song 2003 and Chapter Ten in this volume). As neoliberal transformations are easily celebrated in the name of liberal values, so too are particular features of the authoritarian developmentalist education system, especially its egalitarian ideology and standardization, which are now dismissed as backward historical burdens (Park 2006). 9
South Korean higher education, along with South Korean mainstream K–12 education, has long been driven by social demand. In earlier decades, this was for equal access, and more recently, for neoliberal reforms, namely deregulation, privatization, diversification, and globalization. Although some charge that the state continues to lag behind consumer demand (
Hankook Ilbo
2004; D. Lee 2004), South Korea today offers a case of state-managed deregulation of higher education in accordance with neoliberal values of efficient self-management, productivity and excellence, diversification, and global competition (Mok and Welch 2003; Mok, Yoon, and Welch 2003; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] 2000). 10 In other words, although neoliberal reforms have been accelerated by social demand and global pressures in the aftermath of the IMF Crisis, as Mok and his coauthors (2003) argue, they have also been highly orchestrated by the South Korean state.
The new model student is an autonomous student-consumer who is responsible for managing his or her own lifelong creative capital development. 11 South Korea’s elite university students have benefited most from the government distribution of national resources through the selective state support of higher education. Their coeducational campuses most deeply enact the new global human capital development that these students are well able to articulate.
This is the historical context in which contemporary college students are able to narrate their human capital development while obscuring the structural workings of college rank and family capital. The self-focused narration of this new generation works against a more broadly social imagination because it celebrates individuals who do not conform to collectivist demands. We are intrigued to find young champions of flexibility when it is flexible labor structures that jeopardize the secure futures of young people and, in particular, young women. This meeting of liberal and neoliberal values—precisely to the extent that flexible labor appears to speak to personal freedom—thus champions endless reinvention and frequent career changes. Indeed, a number of students we interviewed, particularly women, looked forward to flexible work lives in which they will be able to exercise their creativity, grow, and accrue experience. We were struck by the absence of talk about the gendered constraints in this new labor market and the burden flexibility imposes on women.
This “more radically individuated sense of personhood” (Comaroff and Comaroff 2000: 305) thus obscures class and other structural differences. In the words of our interlocutors,
Furthermore, in a South Korea that is becoming increasingly class stratified or, as many have argued, polarized, we are particularly interested in how students do or do not take stock of their structural positions, which are registered here through college ranking. 8 For South Korea and other recently democratized states, the trappings of neoliberal personhood are particularly appealing because they stand for liberal democratic reform in which people can enjoy self-authorship, personal freedom, and self-styled consumption (see Song 2003; 2006). Thus the ironic meeting of neoliberal and postauthoritarian/collective liberal “individuals” is such that young South Koreans can unabashedly celebrate what might otherwise appear to be so nakedly pernicious (Song 2003 and Chapter Ten in this volume). As neoliberal transformations are easily celebrated in the name of liberal values, so too are particular features of the authoritarian developmentalist education system, especially its egalitarian ideology and standardization, which are now dismissed as backward historical burdens (Park 2006). 9
South Korean higher education, along with South Korean mainstream K–12 education, has long been driven by social demand. In earlier decades, this was for equal access, and more recently, for neoliberal reforms, namely deregulation, privatization, diversification, and globalization. Although some charge that the state continues to lag behind consumer demand (
Hankook Ilbo
2004; D. Lee 2004), South Korea today offers a case of state-managed deregulation of higher education in accordance with neoliberal values of efficient self-management, productivity and excellence, diversification, and global competition (Mok and Welch 2003; Mok, Yoon, and Welch 2003; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] 2000). 10 In other words, although neoliberal reforms have been accelerated by social demand and global pressures in the aftermath of the IMF Crisis, as Mok and his coauthors (2003) argue, they have also been highly orchestrated by the South Korean state.
The new model student is an autonomous student-consumer who is responsible for managing his or her own lifelong creative capital development. 11 South Korea’s elite university students have benefited most from the government distribution of national resources through the selective state support of higher education. Their coeducational campuses most deeply enact the new global human capital development that these students are well able to articulate.
This is the historical context in which contemporary college students are able to narrate their human capital development while obscuring the structural workings of college rank and family capital. The self-focused narration of this new generation works against a more broadly social imagination because it celebrates individuals who do not conform to collectivist demands. We are intrigued to find young champions of flexibility when it is flexible labor structures that jeopardize the secure futures of young people and, in particular, young women. This meeting of liberal and neoliberal values—precisely to the extent that flexible labor appears to speak to personal freedom—thus champions endless reinvention and frequent career changes. Indeed, a number of students we interviewed, particularly women, looked forward to flexible work lives in which they will be able to exercise their creativity, grow, and accrue experience. We were struck by the absence of talk about the gendered constraints in this new labor market and the burden flexibility imposes on women.
This “more radically individuated sense of personhood” (Comaroff and Comaroff 2000: 305) thus obscures class and other structural differences. In the words of our interlocutors,
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