The Conditions of Legitimized Violence: The Case of Institutionalized Repression to Evictees in South Korea

• In Event: 594 - Section on Political Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 14. Political Violence

Abstract

Abundant work in social movement scholarship has documented the manner in which the state adroitly co-opts dissent by opening up institutional space for the incorporation of social movement groups. Appeasing the opposition by signaling opportunity for inclusion is considered to be a cost-effective move for a state, especially when democratic pressure, that holds the state accountable to its constituents, forces the state to maintain legitimacy (Meyer and Tarrow, eds., 1998). Less scholarly attention has been paid to the repression of social movements, as if repression is now a relic of the past in the democratic world that are shifting to a much subtle mode of controlling dissent. However, even in the democratic world, the incentive to repress social movements may still be present either directly from the state—whether the justice system, the police, or the military— or increasingly so, from the private agents if the capitalistic stake in silencing, rather than engaging the dissenters, is deemed profitable. Therefore the question, here, is less so ‘why’, but rather, ‘when’ and ‘how’ violence is exercised to repress dissent, and how such violence is legitimized. By examining the violent repression of Korea’s anti-eviction movement, where violence form of repression became institutionalized and formalized after its shift to democratic regime, I lay out the conditions for violent capitalist accumulation. I combine the urban sociology literature on urban growth machine to create my own theory that links capitalistic urban redevelopment, repression, and legitimacy.

Author

• Yewon Lee, University of California-Los Angeles