Review of “The Logic of Compressed Modernity”

Abstract

The cover of Chang Kyung-Sup’s new book The Logic of Compressed Modernity features a person peering out of a small window in a ramshackle structure with disorganized electrical cables running this way and that, whereas a dazzling landscape of skyscrapers lingers in the distance, hovering behind and, importantly, above the person in the window. The image encapsulates the book’s thesis well. Chang describes how the unprecedented pace of economic and social transformation in South Korea during more than the past 50 years has led to a contemporary era of mass inequality. In Chang’s telling, the perpetual pursuit of transformation, by the state and its citizens, has become the desired ends of South Korean society. As a result, Chang observes a society with layers of changes stacked on top of one another. The book draws on historical evidence in making its argument, and Chang seems to draw inspiration by taking the perspective of the person in the window of the ramshackle structure: how has societal transformation affected their position? Although such people live amidst the skyscrapers and metaphorically constitute the foundation upon which these pristine buildings stand, they are constrained to reside behind isolated, small windows.