Competition for Academic Success: An Ethnographic Content Analysis of the Korean TV Series "SKY Castle"

• In Event: Innovative International Research

Abstract

The study aims to understand how individuals respond to social discourses of academic achievement in South Korea and the meaning of related experiences. For this purpose, the researcher has analyzed the popular Korean TV series “SKY Castle” using ethnographic content analysis. The findings demonstrate that human capital ideas serve as guiding principles for relationship-building as well as educational decision-making, resulting in distorted family relationships and self-alienation. The study also reveals that the habitus of individuals shaped by social discourses plays an important role in reproducing the social structure and sustaining educational problems. This all suggests that research expands the focus to include dynamics and mutual impact between social structure and individual agents to address educational issues.

Author

• Jonga Lee, University of Georgia - Athens