Service Economies

<div> <div><i>Service Economies</i> presents an alternative narrative of South Korean modernity by examining how working-class labor occupies a central space in linking the United States and Asia to South Korea's changing global position from a U.S. neocolony to a subempire.</div> <div><br> Making surprising and revelatory connections Jin-kyung Lee analyzes South Korean military labor in the Vietnam War domestic female sex workers South Korean prostitution for U.S. troops and immigrant/migrant labor from Asia in contemporary South Korea. Foregrounding gender sexuality and race Lee reimagines the South Korean economic miracle as a global and regional articulation of industrial military and sexual proletarianization.</div> <div><br> Lee not only addresses these under-studied labors individually but also integrates and unites them to reveal an alternative narrative of a changing South Korean working class whose heterogeneity is manifested in its objectification. Delving into literary and popular cultural sources as well as sociological work Lee locates South Korean development in its military and economic interactions with the United States and other Asian nation-states offering a unique perspective on how these practices have shaped and impacted U.S.-South Korea relations.</div> </div>