Myungji Yang
M.A. in Sociology, Yonsei University (South Korea)
Contact Information:
Brown University
Department of Sociology
Box 1916
Providence, RI 02912
T
el:
(401) 339-1577
Fax: (401) 863-3213
Myung_Ji_Yang@brown.edu
Year of Entry: 2004
Previous Degrees:
M.A. in Sociology, Yonsei University (South Korea) 2003
B.A. in Sociology, Yonsei University (South Korea) 2001
Areas of Interest:
Political Sociology, Comparative Historical Method, Social Movements
In my MA thesis entitled to "Class Politics as a Ruling Strategy during the Park Chung Hee regime: Working Class Exclusion and Middle Class Cooptation," I examined the state policy of the Park Chung Hee regime (an authoritarian regime in South Korea) and reactions of each class against the regime. I investigated, through the state policy of working class exclusion and middle class inclusion, a certain pattern of interaction evolved out of the struggles between state and society, which ultimately favored the state in soliciting societal consent.
I am currently interested in how specific aspects of state-society relations during authoritarian rule generate different dynamics in the post-transition period. In light of the comparative historical method, I would like to examine how the transitional processes are deeply embedded in political and cultural geography shaped from the past. I want to answer the following questions: First, how do different experiences of contention and their outcomes under authoritarianism lead to multiple paths in post-transition societies? Second, how do social actors in transitional settings restructure and reconstruct political institutions and discourse? Finally, how patterns of conflict among social actors and their configuration change in the post-transition period?