Jamie Doucette
@jamiedoucette.bsky.social
Reader in Human Geography @ University of Manchester. Author of The Postdevelopmental State: Dilemmas of Economic Democratization in Contemporary South Korea (Michigan: 2024, OA). Co-Editor: Developmentalist Cities? (Brill/Haymarket 2019). North sea surfer
New article on platforms and webtoon workers in Korea by my excellent colleague Ahlem Faraoun.
Platform Capitalism, Labour, and Social Reproduction in South Korea: Webtoons and Webnovels
Over the past two decades, platform capitalism has become a major driving force in the global restructuring of labour and social relations. While existing scholarship has abundantly examined the te...
tandfonline.com
Cho Don-mun's new book looks good: he's always been a strong progressive voice in these types of debates.
Lee has a mandate to tackle inequality. Will he betray it?
[Book review] The sociologist Cho Don-moon’s “The Equal Society Project” explores strategies by which Korea might move toward a more equal society
english.hani.co.kr
Another great interview over at @madeinchinajournal.com with @chenchenzhang.net Lot's of comparisons to be made here with the Korean far-right, I'm afraid.
Easting the West: A Conversation with Chenchen Zhang | Made in China Journal
At a time when right-wing populism appears to be rampaging through global politics, studies about its discourses and strategies remain thin and even marginal in the field of international relations. T...
madeinchinajournal.com
Reposting this excellent interview in @jacobinmag.bsky.social It really gets into the complexities of worker organizing in Samsung, the necessity of East Asian worker solidarity, internal movement dynamics and Yellow Envelope Law. I appreciate the take on recent Samsung agreement. Simply excellent.
Samsung Workers’ Fight Is Just Beginning
Semiconductor workers at multinational South Korean corporation Samsung won significant contract gains after a credible strike threat this spring. Their struggle is a crucial one for the global labor ...
jacobin.com
Looks like a big victory for the Riders Union in Korea, Court declares that platform delivery workers are, indeed, 'workers' not simply independent contractors.
법원, 배달 플랫폼 라이더 근로자성 첫 인정 판결
▲ 서울고등법원이 배달 플랫폼 등을 통해 일하는 배달 라이더도 근로기준법상 근로자에 해당한다고 판결했다. 또한 플랫폼 회사가 일방 통보한 계약 해지도 사실상 해고에 해당한다고 판단했다. 법원이 배달 라이더의 근로자성
n.news.naver.com
Pretty decent (for joongang) backgrounder on protest tactics here.
Rest in protest: How funeral wreaths became Korea's weapon of dissent
From a high school baseball scandal to K-pop and politics, funeral wreaths have evolved into a striking tool of public protest in Korea.
koreajoongangdaily.com
⏳Friendly reminder! Only days left to propose your session for the XXI ISA World Congress of Sociology 🌏 Gwangju, Korea · 4–10 July 2027 Theme: "Global Sociology in Turbulent Times" Bring your idea to RC26 here👇 isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc20... ⬇️ Instructions below 📅 25 June, 23:59 UTC #ISAWCS27
New, short article out with Jinsoo Lee. We chart the embrace MAGA-scripts and anti-Chinese sentiment by the Korean far right as a type of political realignment in light of the US-China rivalry and in a context where the 'pro-North' bogeyman is not longer as effective in regimenting politics. 1/3
The Geographical Journal | RGS Research Journal | Wiley Online Library
This article examines South Korea’s recent martial law crisis as an untimely or ‘late’ instance of authoritarian politics and notes the utility of a ‘global conjunctural frame’ for situating it withi...
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Expect both Republicans and Democrats to throw a shitfest over this because despite Coupang being a Korean-primary company, they rely on American incorporation to bully ROK against any sort of enforcement action: www.wsj.com/business/ret...
South Korea Fines Coupang $410 Million Over Data-Law Breaches
The fine on the e-commerce company is the largest ever imposed on a single company in South Korea.
wsj.com
To read later: www.421.news/en/ia-thiel-...
The Philosophy Behind Artificial Intelligence: Cyber-Kantianism and Dark Girardianism
Are Thiel and Karp entrepreneurs or philosophers? What are the ideas that enable AI to think: from Hume and Kant to Girard’s mimetic desire? Yuk Hui’s new book serves as a starting point for questioni...
421.news
@uofmpress.bsky.social have a spring sale on atm. SPRING26 gets you 50% off a range of titles. Sale includes my book on the dilemmas of contemporary Korean politics encountered by progressive efforts to resolve inequality and address the enduring power of the chaebol and the conservative bloc.
The Postdevelopmental State
Over the last 25 years, South Korea has witnessed growing inequality due to the proliferation of non-standard employment, ballooning household debt, deepening export-dependency, and the growth of supe...
press.umich.edu
The Hynix and Samsung ‘bonanza’ deals have raised a lot of questions about who and what unions fight for in Korea lately. Great for many direct employees but ‘divisionsal’ unionism seems just as bad if not worse than enterprise unionism. Not to mention the plight of undercompensated subcontractors.
Samsung workers set for $400,000 bonus after deal to share AI profits
Agreement with union ends wrangling over how to share spoils of boom at memory-chip maker
giftarticle.ft.com
Some of you may have seen this bewildering story yesterday. But the background characters are quite interesting and reveal a bit about the MAGA aligned Korean far right. 1/6
Starbucks Korea CEO dismissed over ad evoking massacre of pro-democracy protesters
‘Tank Day’ event causes outrage with ‘malicious mockery’ of deadly crackdown during dictatorship era
theguardian.com
Not sure who the blogger is, but I was reminded this morning of once reading a (IIRC) quasi-Poulantzian article by Starmer in a mid 1980s issue of SA found in a used book shop.
The Socialist Alternatives Project & Keir Starmer 1986-2025. This is the story of Morgan McSweeney
The Socialist Alternatives Project & Keir Starmer 1986-2025. Beyond Ripping Yarns On Monday May 20th 2024 Benjamin Schoendorff spoke at a socialist history seminar at the Institute of Hist…
kmflett.wordpress.com
Just imagine what a Labour government could achieve with a 150+ seat majority
Enjoyed this piece for its look at the esoterica of the ruling LG family's shareholding practices. I've written a bit about (cross)shareholding in my book and elsewhere in reference to Samsung, but every Chaebol has its own take on it. In this case 'borrowed-name' holdings are prominent.
Secret Recordings, Hidden Shares and a Family Rift at the South Korean Giant LG
nytimes.com
Really important initiative from some colleagues in geography and beyond.
Palestine: Spaces and Politics
Introductory Curriculum
palestine.araburbanism.com
Ah man, they are coming for work wear now? I don’t want to go back blazers.
Quinn Slobodian@quinnslobodian.com · 3mo agobaker's jacket (automated killchain jacket)
baker's jacket (automated killchain jacket)
Olivier Tesquet@oliviertesquet.bsky.social · 3mo agoMétapolitique par le vêtement : et maintenant, les technofascistes de Palantir s’approprient le workwear français. Ou comment braconner une esthétique du travail populaire pour en faire le signal d’appartenance à un projet réactionnaire. www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/arti...
Running a fieldcourse built on practitioner access is harder to organise than tours or a transect survey, but the pedagogical payoff is fantastic. Huge credit to my co-instructors, esp @jamiedoucette.bsky.social for making it happen.
Students also ran their own research projects across the week. Interviews, observation, field notes and it was great to see their semester’s worth of prep materialise into fieldwork and initial findings!
The visit to L'Olivera was a highlight of the week. A worker cooperative producing wine and olive oil in a model that integrates people with disabilities as full cooperative members, not as recipients of charity but as owners of the enterprise.
Day 1 we visited Can Batlló, a former industrial complex in Sants reclaimed by neighbours and transformed into a community hub. Emphasis on community ownership and alternate social relations.
Back in Manchester after a great week in Barcelona with our 2nd year geographers @uomseed.bsky.social. Fieldcourse on coop economies and alternative economic spaces. We took students into the world of Barcelona's solidarity economy. Worker co-ops, housing cooperatives, social currencies...
Coupang has been flying an American flag of convenience and cosying up to MAGA. The latest salvo is a letter cosigned by 56 Republicans. Is this the new shape of globalization: Maga-adjacent geopolitical positioning to leverage the US state to help protect domestic tech monopoly rents back home?
Seoul rejects US Republicans' claims of discrimination against Coupang - The Korea Times
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected claims by dozens of U.S. Republican lawmakers that Seoul is discriminating against American companies oper...
koreatimes.co.kr
