Seunghoon Yang
Policy researcher & ethnographer
From the field
Into the research
Organization, technology & geography
My research in science, technology and innovation policy starts from industrial workplaces. I ask how firms build and transform technological capabilities, how policy shapes those conditions, and what industrial change means for workers and regions. Organizational sociology, STS, and economic geography guide my field-based, mixed-methods research.
- Ethnography
- Interviews
- Historical research
- Quantitative analysis
Recent & selected research
All publications →- New publication
Behind ‘Youth Conservatization’: The Visible Few, the Lukewarm Many, and Political Sensibilities in Southeastern Korea
동향과 전망(128): 442–477
- New publication
The Human Backend of Smart Shipyards: Data Stability and Precarious Work in the South Korean Shipbuilding Industry
Journal of Asian Public Policy · SSCI
Examines the precarious work that keeps smart shipyard data stable.
- Selected work
Gender, Engineering, and Innovation in South Korea: An Empirical Investigation of the Industrial Patriarchy of the Southeastern Region
Asian Journal of Technology Innovation 34(2): 436–459 · SSCI
Examines how industrial patriarchy shapes women engineers’ entry and retention in southeastern South Korea.
In press
- Listening in Order Not to Listen: Relational Practice and the Labor of Consideration among Young Adults in Southeastern Korea →The Korean Journal of Cultural Sociology
- Basic Research as an Alibi: An STS Commentary on the Research Support System for the Humanities and Social Sciences →Critical Review of History
Current projects
Research overview →- New projectPlanned
Circuits of Mobility and Staying (working title)
How do pathways out of industrial cities diverge from pathways of staying?
- Ongoing
Organizational capabilities & technological change
Why do accumulated executional routines fail to transform into a new architectural regime?
The Korean mode of production →Work in progress
- Seunghoon Yang, Jun Ho Jeong · In revision
- Seunghoon Yang · Out for review
Research program & connections
Research overview →Long-term research program
The Korean Mode of Production through an Organizational Lens: Cross-Industry and Cross-National Comparative Research
Organizational capabilities & technological change
Why do accumulated executional routines fail to transform into a new architectural regime?
Technology in organizations
What organizational conditions obstruct or reshape the adoption of smart factories, digital twins, and physical AI?
Engineers & Economic Geography
How do production organizations and labor markets shape the formation, mobility, and settlement of engineers and the spatial division of regional economies?
2025 · Coauthored
After the Square: Beyond Hatred, Polarization, and Generational Discourse
광장 이후 — 혐오, 양극화, 세대론을 넘어 (공저)
2024
Ulsan Dystopia: The Dismal Future of a Manufacturing Powerhouse
울산 디스토피아 — 제조업 강국의 불안한 미래
Examines the limits of South Korea’s manufacturing-led growth model through labor, urban change, and generations in Ulsan.
2019
The Utopia of the Heavy-Industry Family
중공업 가족의 유토피아 — 산업도시 거제, 빛과 그림자
Reads the formation and fractures of Geoje’s shipbuilding economy through the interlocking worlds of companies, families, and the city.