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The Moral Economy Of The Networked Financial Subject: Cultures Of “Wealth-Tech” (Financial Self-Help) And Moneymaking In South Korea, Bohyeong Kim

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a multi-sited ethnography on the culture of wealth-tech in South Korea. Wealth-tech (chaet'ek'ŭ) refers to techniques of personal finance and moneymaking, including investments in stocks, mutual funds, real estate, and other financial products. It entered the everyday lexicon in the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, when South Korea witnessed radical economic restructuring and neoliberal social governing. Situating the wealth-tech boom within the restructuring of the economy and subjectivity after the 1997 crisis, this dissertation explores a new mode of subject formation under the financialization of the South Korean economy. Based on 15 …