Re-invigorating Cultural Studies as Critical Theory
Inspired by Althusser and other critical theorists, I am interested in radically re-conceptualizing and theorizing concepts such as ideology, discourse, and structures of feeling, which are widely used in cultural studies. In particular, by (re)articulating cultural studies, which has evolved to analyze the everyday lives of people, with the critique of political economy that has focused on labor, capital, material elements and commodification, I aim to revive cultural materialism. This endeavor seeks to forge theoretical frameworks and perspectives that simultaneously offer a profound understanding of laypeople’s daily lives and a sophisticated critique of social structures. Through this, I attempt to approach the relationship between structure and agency in a new way and explore the day-to-day life that is both conditioned by and conditions the specific economic circumstances of today, such as global financial capitalism.
Relevant projects
Korean Band Music Surfing the Korean Wave: The Case of the Korean Band Survival Audition TV Program, Great Seoul Invasion [2025] (Link)
The Vacillating Imagination of “us” in Black Panther (2018) [2024] (Link)
An Exploratory Note to (Re)Articulate Cultural Studies with Political Economy [2018] (Link)
Updating Media and Cultural Studies in the Digital Age
Now we have faced the rise of new technologies and media environments, such as social media, digital platforms, OTT services, smartphones, and apps. In line with the massive shift, there has emerged a need to update media and cultural studies initially formulated for comprehending the media environment centered on television. These technological advances have transformed people’s ways of life, leading to significant changes in media interaction, the selection and deciphering of texts by users, the role of AI in message distribution, and the structure of cultural production. Within this new conjuncture dominated by digital media platforms, I have revisited and refined core concepts in media and cultural studies such as Williams’s concept of “mobile privatization” and Hall’s “Encoding/Decoding model,” with the aim of developing new theoretical tools for critically interpreting popular culture in the digital era.
De/encoding, lincoding, affordecoding, and en/decoding model
Relevant projects
Hall’s encoding/decoding model revisited in the digital platform age: de/encoding, lincoding, affordecoding, and en/decoding [2025] (Link)
Financialization of Daily Life through a Stock Investment App [2023] (Link)
Youth Culture under the Crises of Social Reproduction
Through cultural studies, a tool designed for a critical understanding of everyday life of laypeople, I have been researching and bringing to light the voices of young adults, Cheong-Nyeon, [청년], in South Korea, who are in a state of instability. My research on this group, to which I belonged, has been an exploration of how I, others, society, and world are interwoven. In particular, issues related to young adults, such as unstable work, high housing price, the rise of Korean version of incels, and low birth rates, are both the causes and effects of the crises of social reproduction in the Korean context. I have provided critical diagnoses of Korean society, centering on the lived experience of Korean young adults.
Relevant projects
Dark Azure Age: The Development of Korean Young Adult Studies from 2008 to Present [2023] (Link)
On Critically Examining the Roles and Signifying Features of a Landmark Human Documentary Text by EBS [2018] (Link)
An Autobiography on the Identity Formation Process of a Youth Cultural Theorist and the engagement of Korean Young Adult Studies [2017] (Link)
A Cultural Analysis of the Varying Modes of Survival and the Particular Structures of Feeling among Young Adults in Contemporary South Korea in an Era of Fierce Competition and Widespread Social Uncertainty [2017] (Link)
A Cultural Analysis of Self-Introduction Letters Produced by Young Job Seekers [2015] (Link)
Tentative title for the doctoral dissertation
Personalized Emancipation through Capital Improvement:
The Formation of Korean Young Adult Stock Investor Subjectivity in the Post Covid-19 Era
My doctoral dissertation will seek to examine the emergence and development of stock investor subjectivity among young adults in South Korea. This socio-cultural phenomenon that has gained prominence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, had led to personalizing social risks and the subsequent (re)production of global financial capitalism, along with the perpetuation of multiple social inequalities. By analyzing the role of media in representing and facilitating stock investment, as well as probing the lived experiences and media usage of young adults, the dissertation aims to delve into the intricate processes through which financialization permeates their daily lives. Through this, it seeks to critically explore the stock investor subjectivities among Korean young adults and its cultural-political implications.
Dongwook Song 