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Jaeyeon Won

Yonsei University · Social Sciences

About the Lab

Professor Jaeyeon Won's research lab focuses on critical labor studies, transnational labor relations, and the sociology of post-socialist transformation, particularly in East Asia. The lab explores the dynamics of labor control, industrial restructuring, and social movements in Chinese factories managed by Korean transnational corporations, as well as the lived experiences of unemployed workers in post-industrial China. It also investigates the historical and intellectual roots of public sociology in Korea, especially through the lens of pioneering scholars like Ha Kyung-dae, and examines the methodological potential of sociological regional studies beyond mainstream empiricism. The lab emphasizes critical theory, comparative historical analysis, and ethnographic research to understand power, resistance, and social change in transitional societies.

labor relationstransnational factoriespost-socialismpublic sociologyindustrial restructuring

Research Overview

Papers
43
Total Citations
103
Papers (5y)
8
Primary Field
Social Sciences

Research Output Trend

Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.

Publications per year (5y)
8total
2019
2020
2021
2024
2025
Citations per year (5y)
2total
20192020202120242025

Selected Papers

15
1
Article|30 citations·2004
Withering away of the iron rice bowl? The reemployment project of post-socialist China
Jaeyoun Won
SJR Q1Studies in Comparative International Development
Political Science and International RelationsSocial Sciences
2
Article|13 citations·2007
Post-socialist China: Labour relations in Korean-managed factories
Jaeyoun Won
SJR Q1Journal of Contemporary Asia

Abstract How are labour relations practiced in Korean-managed factories in China? It is often said that labour relations in Korean transnational factories are abusive, even despotic. In this article, I argue that the disciplinary nature of labour relations in Korean factories in China is more complex and so multi-dimensional that they cannot be characterised as a simple economic matter of labour exploitation. These relations entail hierarchical segregation, normalising workers' behaviour through

Cultural StudiesSocial Sciences
3
Article|7 citations·2016
안당(晏堂) 하경덕: 격동기의 공공사회학자
원재연

이 논문은 한국사회학의 역사가 제도적인 학과들의 역사에 그치는 것이 아니라 그 이전에 활동했던 사회학자들과 그들의 연구 활동도 포함된다는 문제의식에서 출발한다. 그 한 사례로 하버드에서 사회윤리학 박사학위를 받았던 하경덕의 사회학에 대해서 논의한다. 하경덕은 사회학을 사회예술이라 부르며 사회의 개혁에 적극적으로 참여하는 실천적인 공공사회학자의 모습을 보였다. 이러한 그의 사상은 저작인 사회법칙론을 통해서 구체적으로 들어나는데, 사회연구에서는 자연과학과 같은 엄밀성을 가진 법칙은 찾을 수 없다는 주장이다. 본 논문은 2008년 이후 미국 하버드 대학 사료관에서 새로 발견된 자료들을 바탕으로 작성되었으며, 이론적으로는 마이클 부러보이의 ‘공공사회학’의 개념을 사용하여 하경덕의 사회학과 실천활동에 대한 논의를 전개하였다. 하경덕은 식민시기에서 탈식민사회로의 이행하는 격동기에 1) 전문사회학 저서를 통해 공공사회학의 지향을 보였으며, 2) 연희전문이라는 상아탑에서 공공사회학을 수행하였고,

4
Article|6 citations·2005
사회학적 중국연구방법의 모색
원재연

최근 우리사회에서의 중국에 대한 학문 내적/학문외적 관심이 급속히 증가하고 있다. 하지만 우리사회의 사회학적인 지역 연구, 특히 중국연구는 현재까지 크게 활성화되지 못하고 몇몇 연구자들의 개별적인 연구에 제한되었던 것이 사실이다. 이 글에서는 다른 학문분야와 다른, 사회학에서의 지역연구의 가능성을 중국연구의 경우를 통해서 모색해 보고자 한다. 다른 사회과학분과들과 구별되는 사회학과 지역학의 만남은 어떤 모습이 될 것이며 구체적으로 어떠한 방법론을 사용하여야 하는가? 일반적으로 주류사회학은 거대한 법칙추구와 일반화를 그 목적으로 하며, 인식론적으로는 실증적인 계량적 연구를 지향한다. 구조적인 차원의 거시인과분석을 위해서는 한 사례 혹은 한 지역에 대한 연구로는 불충분하기 때문에 일반적으로 다국가간 비교연구를 수행하게 되는 동시에, 자료들도 대개 수량적인 통계적 자료에 의존하게 된다. 마르크스, 베버, 무어, 스카치폴 등 사회학에서의 고전적인 저작뿐만 아니라 최근 일련의 사회학자들의 작

5
Article|4 citations·2008
Why Is Marx Classical? : The 18Th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and Marxist Legacy in Historical Sociology
Jaeyoun Won
Seoul National University Open Repository (Seoul National University)OA

The purpose of this paper is to partially provide an answer for the critical question of "Why Is Classical Theory Classical," in the case of Karl Marx. This paper argues that Marx, as the canon of sociology is still relevant because of his contribution to contemporary sociology in his discussion of class formation and the comparative analysis of social revolutions, and that his classical work The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte has been extremely influential in shaping the theory and the method

Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
6
Article|4 citations·2005
THE MAKING OF THE POST-PROLETARIAT IN CHINA*
Jaeyoun Won

This paper deals with the question of how unemployed workers in China responded to the imposition of new employment practices, xiagang, which threatened their livelihoods and most of all, their status as workers. The actions of unemployed workers are not one-sided or simplistic —they are diverse, both active and passive, conservative and progressive, violent and nonviolent, and aggressive and defensive at the same time. Based on my fieldwork in Northeast China, I discover two types of actions. U

Political Science and International RelationsSocial Sciences
7
Book Chapter|3 citations·2009
Farewell to Socialist Labor in China
Jaeyoun Won
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks

In his small, dark, dilapidated apartment that he received from his parents, Mr. Han looked weary and dejected. He smoked continuously during our interview.1 Mr. Han is a forty-seven-year-old worker from Changchun, Northeast China. After working at a local tractor factory for more than twenty years, he was laid off three years before our meeting; after losing his job he simply remained at home all the time (bu chumen). In spite of a government regulation preventing layoffs of both the husband an

Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
8
Article|2 citations·2020
The Making of Post-Socialist Citizens in South Korea?
Jaeyoun Won
SJR Q2Pacific Affairs

This paper aims to capture the complex process through which former socialist North Koreans are remade as South Koreans. I argue that the process by which border crossers from North Korea are remade into post-socialist subjects is complex and multi-dimensional. I address the interlocked nature of institutions and subjectivities in citizen-making processes. On the one hand, it involves the institutionalizations of border crossers with the purpose of screening out "dangerous socialist subjects" fo

Political Science and International RelationsSocial Sciences
9
Article|2 citations·2006
중국 실업 노동자들의 탈사회주의화 과정에 대한 연구
원재연

The Chinese working class has been devastated, degraded, and marginalized, to the point of becoming an underclass of unemployed workers who subsist on probationary, temporary, and part-time employment, or else existing as an industrial reserve army excluded from the state enterprises. Based upon ethnographic fieldwork in China, I argue that the Chinese state has withdrawn material forms of support for workers, at the same time that an ethic of individualism and entrepreneurship has been propagat

10
Article|2 citations·2010
사회주의 중국에서‘진리안의 삶’의 모색: 저항지식인 류 샤오보를 중심으로
원재연
현상과 인식

본 논문은 중국 지식인 류 샤오보의 사례를 통하여 사회주의 중국에서의 지식인과 저항을 논의하며‘진리안의 삶’의 가능성을 타진해 보고자 한다. 천안문 민주화운동 20주년을 맞아 08헌장을 작성하며 중국 사회에 자유와 민주라는 화두를 던진 류 샤오보를 통하여 단순한 일회성이 아니며, 또한 비판을 넘어 책임을 지며 대안을 모색하는 저항의 모습은 어떤 것인가를 논의한다.

11
Article|1 citations·2005
The Making of Post- Proletariat in China
원재연

This paper deals with the question of how unemployed workers in China responded tothe imposition of new employment practices, xiagang, which threatened their livelihoodsand most of all, their status as workers. The actions of unemployed workers are not one-sided or simplistic — they are diverse, both active and passive, conservative and progressive, violent and nonviolent, and aggressive and defensive at the same time. Based on my fieldwork in Northeast China, I discover two types of actions. Un

12
Article|0 citations·2018
Compliance Management As Neo-Liberal Strategy in China
Jaeyoun Won
XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)
Information Systems and ManagementDecision Sciences
13
Article|0 citations·2005
Book Review: The Employment Impact of China’s WTO Accession
Jaeyoun Won
SJR Q1China Information
General Economics, Econometrics and FinanceEconomics, Econometrics and Finance
14
Article|0 citations·2008
From "Socialist Person" to "Homo Economicus": the Stories of North Korean Refugees in South Korea
Jaeyoun Won, Uh Young Park
Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
15
Article|0 citations·2009
Fanon Beyond Marx: Toward Sociology of (Post)Colonialism
Jaeyoun Won
한국사회학

The issue of colonialism has not gained much attention from the Canons of Sociology, but R.W. Connell challenges us to rethink about the issues of Orientalism and colonialism within the traditions of sociology. In this paper, I take Connell’s work as legitimate challenges to one of the Canons, Marx, and consider Frantz Fanon’s works as devising what is missing in Marx’s theory. I consider Marx’s theory not as ‘iron doctrine,’ but as something can be revised and developed through continuous effor

Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences

Research Areas

Sociology and Political SciencePolitical Science and International RelationsCultural StudiesAerospace EngineeringGender StudiesInformation Systems and Management

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