From Tradition to Consumption: Construction of a Capitalist Culture in South Korea

From Tradition to Consumption is a ground breaking work that provides a wonderfully innovative and insightful explanation of the eclipse of traditional society and the rise of a new consumer culture during South Korea's recent march to economic development. The book convincingly portrays this shift to cultural modernity as the reasoned response of people to rapidly shifting forms of labor, everyday life, and state narratives. Key to this transformation from agriculture to a modern life has been the drastic alteration of the family from a unit of production to a unit of consumption.

This state-led industrialization also has redefined gender roles in Korea. The pressing needs for production and consumption to bolster economic development have resulted in the creation of a middle-class family marked by the white collar male and urban housewife. These new social roles serve to make the process of consumption central to the family, and to promote the act of consumption as the basis for modern identity for many Koreans