Dr Ha-Joon Chang will discuss the political economy of Parasite. 

In this talk, Ha-Joon Chang will use the first ever non-English-language winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, Parasite, by Bong Joon-ho, in order to analyse the political economy of inequality in today’s South Korea. Behind the socio-economic ills depicted in the movie, Chang will argue, lies the history of Korea over the last two generations that first created a relatively equal society with high social mobility and optimism for the future and then an increasingly unequal society with falling social mobility and despair and hopelessness for many. Particular attention will be paid to the interactions between the economic structure, the regulatory regime, the welfare state, and the education system that have generated the uniquely Korean dynamic of inequality and conflicts that is so brilliantly portrayed in Parasite. 

Professor Francisco Ferreira will be the event discussant and Professor James Putzel will chair the event. 

Dr Ha-Joon Chang teaches economics at the University of Cambridge. In addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters, he has published 16 authored books (five co-authored) and 11 edited books. His main books include The Political Economy of Industrial Policy, Kicking Away the Ladder, Bad Samaritans, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism, and Economics: The User’s Guide. His writings have been translated and published in 42 languages and 44 countries. Worldwide, his books have sold over 2 million copies. He is the winner of the 2003 Gunnar Myrdal Prize and the 2005 Wassily Leontief Prize.

Francisco H. G. Ferreira is the Amartya Sen Professor of Inequality Studies and Director of the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is also affiliated with the Department of Social Policy at LSE.

Professor James Putzel is Professor of Development Studies and served as the Director of the Crisis States Research Centre. He headed the Centre's research programme on Crisis States, which was funded by the Department for International Development of the UK government. 

This talk is part of the Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking & Practice, 2021/22, series, a high-profile lecture series run by the Department of International Development at LSE and organised by Professor James Putzel and Professor in Practice Duncan Green.

The Department of International Development promotes interdisciplinary postgraduate teaching and research on processes of social, political and economic development and change. 

Twitter Hashtag for this series: #CuttingEdge2021