Seunghoon Yang양승훈
Assistant Professor, Departments of Sociology and Digital Marketing, Kyungnam University
I am a science, technology and innovation policy researcher whose work grows out of industrial experience. Before joining Kyungnam University in 2017, I worked in strategy and management innovation at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (2012–2016). I study how firms build and transform technological capabilities, how public policy shapes the conditions for that transformation, and what it means for workers and industrial regions.
Methods — Mixed methods — ethnography, qualitative interviews, historical research, and quantitative and policy analysis
Organizations, technology, and territory
Organizational sociology is my analytical foundation, in dialogue with science and technology studies (STS), innovation studies, and economic geography. I examine how production is organized, how engineers coordinate knowledge and work, and how these arrangements enable or constrain technological change. My research combines ethnography and interviews with historical research, quantitative analysis, and policy analysis. I received a PhD in Engineering from KAIST in 2025, majoring in Science and Technology Policy.
Factories, families, and regional futures
My books on Geoje and Ulsan connect the organization of manufacturing to families, urban life, and generational change. Research on industrial patriarchy and the politics of scale extends these questions to gendered labor markets, social reproduction, and regional restructuring. Together, these inquiries inform a longer-term comparison of production systems across industries and countries.
Research and public policy
My policy engagement brings these questions into discussions of industrial transition, workforce development, and regional futures. I chair the Future Planning Subcommittee of the National Economic Advisory Council and serve in advisory roles with the Economic, Social and Labor Council's Special Committee on Industrial Transition and the National Assembly Research Service. These activities connect research on firms, work, and place with policy choices about industrial change.
Research interests
- Organizational capability and manufacturing innovation
- Executionism and fragmented executionism; bottlenecks of second catch-up
- Digital transformation, backend labor, and the organizational conditions of automation
- Industrial patriarchy, gendered labor markets, and spatial divisions of labor
- Innovation policy, regional innovation systems, and industrial transition
- Anthropocene perspectives on industrial afterlives
Education
- PhD in Engineering · Major: Science and Technology Policy — KAIST Graduate School of Science and Technology PolicyThesis: Locked-in Innovation: Production Mode Shift and Multidimensional Complex Challenges in the South Korean Shipbuilding Industry Since the 2010s · Advisor: So-Young Kim2019–2025
- M.A. · Major: Cultural Studies — Yonsei UniversityThesis: Military Reform in the 2000s and Class Reproduction through 'Self-Development' during Military Service · Advisor: Haejoang Cho2009–2012
- B.A. · Major: Political Science — Konkuk University2001–2005
Academic appointments
- Assistant Professor — Kyungnam University, Department of Sociology2017–present
- Assistant Professor (concurrent appointment) — Kyungnam University, Department of Digital MarketingSeptember 2025–present
- Visiting Scholar — Fukuoka UniversityJuly–August 2026
Professional experience
- Assistant Manager, Strategy and Management Innovation — Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (now Hanwha Ocean)2012–2016
- Air Defense Control Officer — Republic of Korea Air Force, Operations Command2006–2009
Public service & policy advising
- Chair, Future Planning Subcommittee — National Economic Advisory Council2026.03–
- Advisory Member — Special Committee on Industrial Transition, Economic, Social and Labor Council2026.02–
- Advisory Member for Legislative Policy — National Assembly Research Service2025.01–2026.12
- Expert Member — Shipbuilding Industry Win-Win Council, Ministry of Employment and Labor2022.08–2024.12
International collaboration
- Scott Knowles (Northeastern University, DIBI)Korea–U.S. shipbuilding comparison
- Ijin Hong · Shih-Jiunn Shi (National Taiwan University, GIND)East Asian labor markets and welfare
- Michelle Fei-Yu Hsieh (Academia Sinica)Semiconductor production networks
- Sungchul Noh (Hitotsubashi University Business School)Korea–Japan–Taiwan engineering labor markets
- Youngjin Ryu (Fukuoka University)Korea–Japan industrial cities
- Klaus Dörre network (German sociology of labor)Comparative industrial transition
Awards & recognition
- International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), U.S. Department of State2026
- Korean Sociological Association Academic Award — Book category2020
- 60th Korean Publishing Culture Award — General nonfiction2020
- Sejong Books selection — General-interest books2019