Year: 2025

New publication alert: “Working-in-Commons in the Middle of Precarity”

Article abstract: This article explores the endogenous characteristics of commons within the frameworks of precarity and commons through the urban commons movement in 1970s South Korea. During Korea’s compressed capitalist transformation, rural migrants became the urban poor, occupying the lowest position in urban labour hierarchies. Through qualitative research methods and historical analysis, we examine the Nangok shantytown in Seoul, demonstrating how commons production is shaped by specific socio-cultural, geographical, and anthropological realities. Despite their marginalised status in a patriarchal society, urban poor housewives emerged as agents of an urban commons movement by developing new urban sensibilities, challenging the capitalist norms of work and home and the conventional community practice. This article reveals how their “working-in-commons” constituted new social relationships, illuminating how people’s collective attempts to reorganise livelihoods transcend the work/home or production/reproduction dichotomy. Our analysis enhances the understanding of the commons movement as rooted in everyday urban struggles in rapidly urbanising societies.

New publication: Entrepreneurial Neo-managerialism in China, Urban Studies

Jin, Y. and Shin, H.B. (2025) Revisiting urban governance in China: The manifestation of entrepreneurial neo-managerialism in shantytown redevelopment in Luzhou. Urban Studies 62(10): 2136 – 2153 Over the past few decades, much of the discussion around China’s urban transformation has focused on the entrepreneurial nature of local governments—those acting like business agents, aggressively pursuing land development, […]

Honoured to Join the Academy of Social Sciences Fellowship

I am deeply honoured and thrilled to announce that I have been elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS). This prestigious recognition celebrates my contributions to the social sciences and affirms the impact of my work in advancing the field. Link: https://acss.org.uk/news/the-academy-of-social-sciences-welcomes-64-leading-social-scientists-to-its-fellowship/ As part of this distinguished fellowship, I join 63 […]

New student contributions on my teaching blog on urban Asia

A little before the Covid-19 pandemic, I experimented with a new mode of teaching assessments that involved the writing of academically informed but public-facing blogs. Some of the exemplary pieces have been released on this teaching blog, https://urbanasia.blog. The site, https://urbanasia.blog, is designed for educational purpose to share primarily the writings of students who carry […]

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