17.12.2024 - 10:00

EAF Online Guest Lecture by Bonnie Tilland

South Korean Families in ‘Not-Seoul’: Decentralization and Demographic Futures  |  Tue, Dec. 17, 2024, 10–12 h CET  | Online Lecture

Bonnie Tilland is a university lecturer in the Institute for Area Studies at Leiden University.

Abstract:
Despite its decades since “local autonomy” measures following democratization, South Korea is widely known as a state with a high degree of centralization. The mega-city of Seoul, with a population of over 10 million (and 23 million for the greater metropolitan area), overshadows all other cities in South Korea by a wide margin. This paper analyzes regional sentiment and decentralization discourse through both visual analysis of media (film, television) representing non-Seoul regions, and ethnographic data in order to highlight contributions of marginalized regions to South Korean social and cultural movements and to broader social life. In particular, I draw on interviews and participant-observation with South Korean mothers in provincial cities over a ten-year period, who explained that living in “not-Seoul” meant that their children had less access to educational resources than children in the capital area; on the other hand, some parents spoke of local community and regional culture as benefits for children. I argue that representations of “not-Seoul” on screen and non-Seoul residents’ readings of them complicate understandings of national and regional space in South Korea since decentralization measures started in the 1990s. These mediated, affective dimensions of citizenship have implications for regional South Korean families’ experiences, and by extension, demographic futures.

Link to the website of East Asian Futures:
https://east-asian-futures.de