The Online Colloquium of the Winter Term 2024/25 by the Research Training Group GRK 2833 “East Asian Futures” will host a lecture by Dr. Bonnie TILLAND. You are cordially invited to attend.

Please note that this lecture has been postponed from its initial date on November 29, 2024 (Fri) to December 17, 2024 (Tue). Additionally, the access information for the Zoom meeting room has changed. The new access data is provided at the end of this post. We apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause and thank you for your understanding.

Dr. Bonnie TILLAND (Universiteit Leiden)
South Korean Families in ‘Not-Seoul’: Decentralization and Demographic Futures
Tuesday, December 17, 2024, 10 am – 12 pm (Central European Time)

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.

Organizer
Research Training Group 2833 “East Asian Futures: Visions and Realizations on National, Transregional and Global Scales”, Ruhr University Bochum and University of Duisburg-Essen.

Access to the Meeting
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/62881098055?pwd=tuGxpWIfMSG8HqUh4i7gfTbXet1HyT.1
Meeting ID: 628 8109 8055 | Code: 609765