Abstract
In this paper, we focus on the roles of the steel and shipbuilding industries as generative sectors in Koreas rapid economic ascent. We argue that a world-systems analysis focusing on these generative sectors provides a more complete understanding of Koreas rapid economic ascent than do other theoretical models. We outline the similarities between this case and those analyzed by Bunker and Ciccantell (2005, 2007) both in terms of the central role of generative sectors in raw materials and transport industries and how the creation and growth of these two industrial sectors shaped institutional patterns and the broader economic ascent of South Korea and East Asia. Even though South Korea has not and may never become a challenger for global hegemony, its rapid ascent has helped reshape East Asia and the capitalist world-economy. We use the model of generative sectors to analyze the critical industries that underlay and shaped South Koreas ascent from a low wage, light industry base to a world leader in electronics, automobiles, and other advanced industries.
Highlights
We will show in this paper the similarities between this case of rapid economic ascent and those analyzed by Bunker and Ciccantell (2005, 2007) both in terms of the central role of generative sectors in raw materials and transport industries and how the creation and growth of these two industrial sectors shaped institutional patterns and the broader economic ascent of South Korea and East Asia
The South Korean case strongly resembles these earlier cases, including the central role of the existing hegemon in supporting the rising economy’s ascent and the central roles of steel and shipbuilding during this ascent. These similarities and differences, and the parallels between the rise of South Korea and of China, make this case study of South Korea an important step in a more general analysis of ongoing changes in the capitalist world-economy resulting from the rise of East Asia and an opportunity to assess the utility of this theoretical model for examining other cases of rapid economic ascent that do not challenge for hegemonic status
This study examined the pivotal roles that the generative sectors of the Korean economy, the steel and shipbuilding industries, played in the process of driving economic ascent
Summary
How did South Korea move from being one of the world’s poorest nations embroiled in one of the Cold War’s bloodiest conflicts to a rapidly rising semiperipheral nation challenging for core status today with world-leading research, development and production in shipbuilding, electronics, and other industries?1 In this paper, we use world-systems analysis not to focus on the maturity or. The South Korean case strongly resembles these earlier cases, including the central role of the existing hegemon in supporting the rising economy’s ascent and the central roles of steel and shipbuilding during this ascent These similarities and differences, and the parallels between the rise of South Korea and of China, make this case study of South Korea an important step in a more general analysis of ongoing changes in the capitalist world-economy resulting from the rise of East Asia and an opportunity to assess the utility of this theoretical model for examining other cases of rapid economic ascent that do not challenge for hegemonic status. The conclusion outlines the implications of East Asian economic ascent and competition for restructuring the global economy
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