Critically Capitalist presents an ethnography of South Korea’s asset seekers, including amateur stock investors, real estate enthusiasts, and money coaches, to demonstrate how financialized asset capitalism is sustained. As they hunt for profit margins, rent, and dividends, they simultaneously critique capitalism and posit their pursuit of assets as a form of resistance. Bohyeong Kim theorizes this new spirit of capitalism in South Korea as “critical capitalism,” arguing that it reflects the popular discontent with both national development and financial neoliberalism. As a paradoxical critique and legitimation, Bohyeong Kim argues that critical capitalism valorizes the capitalist economy not through a triumphant narrative, but by highlighting the emotional wounds, destroyed communities, and oppressive tactics of modern capitalism.
Drawing on multi-sited ethnography and in-depth interviews with a broad community of aspiring millionaires, Critically Capitalist illuminates how contemporary capitalism thrives by channeling discontent into financial and real estate markets, which in turn has cemented critical capitalism as the cultural and affective backbone of South Korea’s economy.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Introduction to Critical Capitalism
Chapter 2: The Entrepreneurial Communitarianism of Aspiring Millionaires
Chapter 3: Anti-Capitalist Investing
Chapter 4. Emotional Wounds
Chapter 5. Flipping Homes, Flipping Victimhood: The Social Reproduction of Foreclosure Investors
Chapter 6: Single and Wanna Be Rich
Epilogue
Methodological Appendix
About the Author :
Bohyeong Kim is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and Asian Studies at Vanderbilt University.
Review :
"Critically Capitalist is an invitation to engage with the political-economic trajectory that turns the wounds into the individualized energy to pursue asset owner's dream, not an imagination of an otherwise world. Kim undertakes this challenging inquiry and offers valuable insights into often overlooked everyday financial practices, unleashing our imaginations upon community, anti-capitalist spirit, and agency in a time of asset capitalism"."
-- "Yoonai Han, Journal of Asian Studies"
"This unique, critically capitalist culture will intrigue cultural studies scholars who are interested in economics and finance--in particular to those who examine how individuals develop a group identity of an economic being that is shaped by personal circumstances, online and in-person social interactions, and historical contexts. This book will also interest scholars who study contemporary South Korean society, in particular class conflicts and gender roles."
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-- "Micky Lee, International Journal of Communication"
