Against Abandonment Repertoires of Solidarity in South Korean Protest

"This book is a brilliant and breathtaking study of protests in South Korea since the 2000s. Based on inspiring ethnographic research in South Korea, Chun and Han investigate how precarious workers in diverse sectors resist their social death through iconic extralegal actions. Against Abandonment is a rare study that puts theory and history in productive dialectics. Written by two leading figures in Korean studies, the book is a model of fruitful collaboration that melds sociological and interdisciplinary studies of protest, gender, and affect. It is a rich, comprehensive account of South Korean protests-their unknown histories, contexts, and unexpected twists and turns."
-Hyun Ok Park, author of The Capitalist Unconscious: From Korean Unification to Transnational Korea "This extraordinary book looks to the seemingly strange world of extreme protest and offers vital insight into contemporary political life. Han and Chun's analysis is as generative as it is probing, showing how through spectacular acts of refusal, people without economic or existential security create infrastructures to transform their worlds."
-Deborah Cowen, University of Toronto