Lim So Hyung
Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
Appl Geogr. 2021 Nov;136:102560. doi: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2021.102560. Epub 2021 Oct 15.
This research examines institutional responses to shocking events, in this case, the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. I argue that our analysis should consider state-led nationalism in finance and financialization especially when new modes of financial accumulation can be correlated with state projects of crisis management. Also, in dealing with shocking events, which are an inevitable aspect of capitalism, I claim nationalistic deregulations and speculation stimulated by institutional discourse can put ordinary people into permanently unpayable debt and reshape social exclusion. Drawing from interpretative policy analysis, I examine how early COVID-19 management by the Korean government took advantage of sloganeering of upper-K words, initiated by the Korean Wave, as discursive tools in invoking nationalistic sentiments. The instutional nationalism in the upper-case K as prefix is examined in promoting Korean biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and their stocks. Further, I demonstrate how the accumulation strategies of this nationalistic COVID-19 management regarding bio and pharma industries were already practiced before COVID-19 in Korea, by the regulatory sandbox policy along with the Korean legitimation crisis. This set of practices has eventually accelerated the financialization of everyday life and Othering. I call for a critical lens to analyze the pressing agenda of discursive practices in institutional crisis responses.
本研究考察了机构对令人震惊事件的反应，在本案例中即新冠疫情及其他事件。我认为，我们的分析应考虑金融领域中由国家主导的民族主义及金融化，尤其是当新的金融积累模式与国家危机管理项目相关联时。此外，在应对资本主义不可避免的令人震惊事件时，我认为机构话语所激发的民族主义放松管制和投机行为会使普通人陷入永远无法偿还的债务，并重塑社会排斥现象。借鉴解释性政策分析方法，我研究了韩国政府早期对新冠疫情的管理如何利用韩流引发的以大写字母K开头的口号作为话语工具来唤起民族主义情绪。在推广韩国生物技术和制药公司及其股票方面，对大写字母K作为前缀的机构民族主义进行了研究。此外，我还展示了韩国在新冠疫情之前，通过监管沙盒政策以及韩国的合法化危机，这种针对生物和制药行业的民族主义新冠疫情管理的积累策略是如何实施的。这一系列做法最终加速了日常生活的金融化和他者化。我呼吁用批判性视角来分析机构危机应对中话语实践的紧迫议程。
