From tradition to consumption: The rise of a materialist culture in South Korea

The dissertation treats problems of cultural change resulting from the transformation of an agrarian economy into market oriented capitalism. Its setting is south Korea, whose economy is one of the most rapidly growing in Asia.; The analysis focuses on the rise of a materialist culture whose central concerns for a new middle class appear to be those of consumption. As rising production for the market requires rising levels of consumption, it follows in the Korean case that both economic power and urban social change will generate pressures against traditional values in favor of a new culture of consumption. In order to trace fundamental dimensions of the process of change, the dissertation, following a theoretical introduction to the problem, first describes the cultural base of Korean history. Thereafter, the analysis concentrates on the relationship between industrialization and the changing structure of the Korean family, on the one hand, and the influence of modern advertising on the other. A central concern throughout is the changing role of urban middle-class women, on who the effects of the cultural transformation are clearest.; In its final chapter the dissertation addresses issues of social change and cultural tension consequent upon the rapid growth of a new capitalist economy and the political implications of economic and social transformation.