IT development in Korea: a broadband nirvana?

192 Pages·2011·2.608 MB·English

by  Kwang-Suk Lee

IT Development in Korea
This book investigates the contextual factors that led to Korean society becom-
ing “broadband heaven”—the most wired nation in the world—by scrutinizing
the historical contexts surrounding the Korean Information Infrastructure (KII)
project (1995–2005), which aimed to establish a nationwide high- speed back-
bone network, as well as its later evolution, which involved redesigning the
public infrastructure.
The book details the hidden mechanisms and the real elements of building the
“broadband heaven”: the global constraints conditioning its telecom policies, the
dense state–capital linkages, and the bureaucratic desire for social control. It
draws on the state- in-society approach to analyze the deformations caused by the
symbiosis between the state and big business in implementing the rosy vision of
the broadband network. This book provides insights into how to formulate future
telecom policies along much more democratically participatory lines, while
restraining the overwhelming power of the telecom oligopolies and conglomer-
ates. It stands alone as a comprehensive study of the recent East Asian model of
IT development, written specifically to examine Korea’s socio- historical mech-
anisms for promoting physical speed and broadband mobility.
This book will be important reading to anyone interested in Korean Studies,
Information Technology and I.T. Development.
Kwang- Suk Lee (이광석 李光錫) is an assistant professor in the Graduate
School of Public Policy and Information Technology at Seoul National Univer-
sity of Science and Technology, Seoul, South Korea; and Honorary Visiting
Fellow at the University of Wollongong, Australia.
Routledge advances in Korean Studies
1 The Politics of Economic 8 The Development of Modern
Reform in South Korea South Korea
A fragile miracle State formation, capitalist
Tat Yan Kong development and national identity
Kyong Ju Kim
2 Market and Society in Korea
Interest, institution and the textile 9 Industrial Relations in Korea
industry Diversity and dynamism of
Dennis McNamara Korean enterprise unions from a
comparative perspective
3 Social and Economic Policies in Jooyeon Jeong
Korea
10 The Global Korean Motor
Ideas, networks and linkages
Industry
Dong- Myeon Shin
The Hyundai Motor Company’s
global strategy
4 North Korea in the World
Russell D. Lansbury,
Economy
Chung- Sok Suh and Seung- Ho
Edited by E. Kwan Choi,
Kwon
Yesook Merrill and
E. Han Kim
11 Korean Workers and Neoliberal
Globalisation
5 Legal Reform in Korea
Kevin Gray
Edited by Tom Ginsburg
12 Korea in the New Asia
6 Women, Television and East Asian integration and the
Everyday Life China factor
Journeys of hope Francoise Nicolas
Youna Kim
13 Foreign Direct Investment in
7 Transformations in Twentieth Post- Crisis Korea
Century Korea European investors and
Edited by Chang Yun-S hik and ‘mismatched globalization’
Steven Hugh Lee Judith Cherry
14 Korea Confronts Globalization 20 New Millennium South Korea
Edited by Chang Yun-S hik, Neoliberal capitalism and
Hyun- ho Seok and transnational movements
Donald L. Baker Edited by Jesook Song
15 Korea’s Developmental Alliance 21 Human Rights Discourse in
State, capital and the politics of North Korea
rapid development Post- colonial, Marxist and
David Hundt Confucian perspectives
Jiyoung Song
16 Capitalist Development in Korea
Labour, capital and the myth of 22 Digital Development in Korea
the developmental state Building an information society
Dae- oup Chang Myung Oh and James F. Larson
17 Political Protest and Labour 23 The Politics of Coalition in
Movements in Korea Korea
Solidarity among Korean white- Between institutions and culture
collar workers Youngmi Kim
Doowon Suh
24 South Korean Social Movements
18 Retirement, Work and Pensions From democracy to civil society
in Ageing Korea Edited by Gi-W ook Shin and
Edited by Jae-j in Yang and Paul Chang
Thomas R. Klassen
25 IT Development in Korea
19 South Korea Under Compressed A broadband nirvana?
Modernity Kwang- Suk Lee
Familial political economy in
transition
Kyung- Sup Chang
IT Development in Korea
A broadband nirvana?
Kwang-S uk Lee
First published 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2012 Kwang- Suk Lee
The right of Kwang- Suk Lee to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Lee, Kwang-Suk.
IT development in Korea : a broadband nirvana? / Kwang-Suk Lee.
p. cm. – (Routledge advances in Korean studies ; 25)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Information technology–Social aspects–Korea (South) 2.
Communication and culture–Korea (South) 3. Technology and state–
Korea (South) I. Title.
HM851.L446 2012
303.48'33095195–dc23
2011024482
ISBN: 978-0-415-58746-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-15269-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
To my parents, in gratitude for their patience and love
Contents
List of figures xi
List of tables xii
Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xv
Introduction: South Korea as broadband heaven? 1
1 The political economy of networked mobility: a theoretical
overview 14
Some theoretical considerations: globalization, the state, and
space 14
The new conditions of globalization: a global networked
mobility 15
The developmental state theories of East Asian growth and their
limits 22
Critical geographies: the state–space–capital links 30
2 From a physical infrastructure to a virtual infrastructure in
modern Korea 37
Geographical reconfiguration and national infrastructure 37
The birth of the nationwide electronic backbone network 43
3 Local telecommunications policy within the digital mode of
global capitalism 53
The digital phase of “catching up” 54
A “newly advanced economy”? 56
Global pressure or national sovereignty? 60
Dialectics of external-i nternal constraints on the KII
project 72
x Contents
4 The state–business symbiosis in Korea’s broadband
infrastructure plan 75
A final flowering of the developmental state 76
The transformative phases of the developmental state in Korea 77
The infrastructural broadband plan as a legacy of the
developmental state model 87
The close state–business linkages throughout the KII project 89
Casualties of the state–Chaebol crony relationship 108
5 The transformation of state surveillance practices toward a
grid of control 109
The desire for social control 110
The rise in government surveillance practices 111
Solid and disciplinary power 113
Liquid and normalizing power 116
A case study: the “National Education Information System”
(NEIS) 123
Lessons about surveillance, privacy, and protest in the broadband
Internet era 130
6 Conclusion: beyond a developmental state model 132
Notes 142
References 153
Index 172
Figures
I.1 Overview of the research design 10
1.1 Two different layers of spatiality 32
2.1 National income growth, 1945–2005 44
2.2 Composition of Korea’s exports 44
2.3 Traffic capacity of the Korean broadband network 48
3.1 OECD broadband penetration and GDP per capita 57
3.2 Information and communication indicator in South Korea 58
3.3 Annual government telecom investment until the completion
of the KII project 64
3.4 The Korean telecom market: global constraints and local
adjustment 66
3.5 Foreign ownership in Korea’s major network service
providers since the global telecom liberalization 69
3.6 The dynamics of the global–local nexus surrounding the KII
project 74
4.1 Income inequality in Korea, 1965–2010 80
4.2 The Chaebols’ entrance into the domestic telecom service
market 83
4.3 The evolving phases of the developmental state (1963–2012)
and the KII project 89
4.4 Organizational chart of the KII Planning Board 96
4.5 Organizational chart of the Committee for the KII
Advancement 97
4.6 Rate of IT consumption per household in Korea, Japan, and
the US 107