Shin publishes book about urban development in Seoul

Dr. Kyoung-Ho Shin, a professor of sociology at Northwest Missouri State University, recently co-authored a book “Seoul, Korea’s Global City: A New Urbanism for Upward Mobility.” 

Shin’s book is a scholarly effort in urban sociology to examine the city of Seoul’s interaction with global economic forces and local reactions. Through the global political economy approach to urban development, he explains how global forces affect employment structure within the city and how chaebols, or conglomerates, are closely connected to the state.

The book highlights the ways urban issues such as labor structure and inequality are connected to a global economy through the dynamics of regional economy. In addition, the book explores how people in the city and its government react to the competitive global market and global forces in the perspective of urban sociology.

“As I was born in Seoul, I have had a long desire to study the city,” Shin said. “One chapter of my dissertation years ago was the starting point for the study, and I hope readers gain some knowledge about Seoul as a modern vibrant global city in Asia.”

Shin joined the Northwest faculty in 1999 and his academic interests are globalization and urban development, sociology of education and comparative sociology.