Overview

"Past scholarship on the culture of nationalism has largely focused on the ways in which institutions utilize memory and ""history"" to construct national identity. Laura C. Nelson challenges these assumptions with regard to South Korea, arguing that its identity has been as much tied to notions of the future as rooted in a recollection of the past. ""Measured Excess"" offers an analysis of the ways in which South Korean economic development strategies have reshaped the country's national identity - giving specific attention to the manner in which women, as the primary agents of consumption, have been affected by this transformation. Following a backlash against consumerism in the late 1980s, the government spearheaded a programme of frugality that eschewed imported goods and foreign travel in favour of strengthening South Korea's national identity. Consumption - with its focus on immediate gratification - threatened those future-oriented aspects of the state's discourse of national unity. In response to this perceived danger, Nelson asserts, the government cast women as the group whose ""excessive desires"" for material goods were endangering the nation."

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Provides an insightful analysis of the ambivalent attitude of the residents of Seoul to South Korea's growing material prosperity through the decades of the 1980s and 1990s. -- Journal of Asian Studies Nelson's eloquent writing style allows the rare pleasure of readfing social science research that comes through factually as well as emotionally... highly recommended. -- Gender & Society An insightful analysis of the ways in which South Korean economic development strategies have reshaped the country's national identity. -- Mikyeong Bae, Acta Koreana

"""Provides an insightful analysis of the ambivalent attitude of the residents of Seoul to South Korea's growing material prosperity through the decades of the 1980s and 1990s."" -- Journal of Asian Studies ""Nelson's eloquent writing style allows the rare pleasure of readfing social science research that comes through factually as well as emotionally... highly recommended."" -- Gender & Society ""An insightful analysis of the ways in which South Korean economic development strategies have reshaped the country's national identity."" -- Mikyeong Bae, Acta Koreana"

Author Information

Laura C. Nelson is an associate at MDRC, a nonprofit research organization, where she currently focuses on poverty, employment, and social policy in the United States.

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