In Civic Activism in South Korea: The Intertwining of Democracy and Liberalism, Seungsook Moon delivers a nuanced analysis of the development of civic organisations in South Korea and their efforts to navigate the tensions between democracy and neoliberal governance. Through a 16-year qualitative study, Moon examines three types of civic organisations working toward institutional and social change, arguing that neoliberalism simultaneously enables and constrains civic activism.

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of social, cultural, political and economic capital, Moon explores activists’ varied motivations and agency. She extends her broader scholarship as a political and cultural sociologist concerned with the intersections of citizens and democratic governance within global neoliberalism.

One critical insight is how civic organisations, while challenging neoliberal structures, often mirror the hierarchies they seek to dismantle.

Moon conceptualises neoliberal transformation as promoting partnerships among government, business and civil society within a market framework. In the latter part of the 20th century, this neoliberal development became entangled with democratisation in South Korea. In this context, neoliberalism is sometimes considered a prerequisite for democracy.

The opening chapters provide a thorough context for South Korea’s neoliberal reforms since the 1990s, highlighting the profound economic and social restructuring driven by international institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation. These institutions had a profound impact that didn’t only restructure South Korea’s economy but also its society. Moon illustrates how these shifts, while advancing economic growth, deepened inequalities that spurred citizens towards action. She details how civic organisations were formed, rooted in democratic ideals, to address the resulting socioeconomic and political imbalances within the country that were caused or exacerbated by neoliberalism.

Through four case studies, Moon examines three different types of civic organisations. These include a large national advocacy organisation, two medium-sized local organisations focused on women’s issues and a small grassroots organisation that supports foreign migrants. These studies reveal both the nature of their advocacy and the internal dynamics of organisational development, sustainability and relationships with the state. A critical insight is how civic organisations, while challenging neoliberal structures, often mirror the hierarchies they seek to dismantle.

Moon contrasts the professionalised leadership of the large national organisation with the volunteer-led model of the small local group, revealing how organisational size and structure shape issues of autonomy, recruitment and stability. She emphasises the precarious balance organisations must strike between securing financial stability and maintaining their transformative capacity. Such organisations thus walk a thin line between transformational change and conformity to neoliberalism to sustain their actions.

In the latter part of the volume, Moon shows how civic organisations navigate the challenges posed by neoliberal frameworks through cooperation, partnerships and networking. Yet these engagements often undermine their autonomy and grassroots connections, shrinking democratic spaces or prompting the creation of alternative civic arenas. Her analysis of how the state appropriates and co-opts activism highlights the ongoing need for civic organisations, especially at the grassroots level, to renegotiate their role within governance systems.

Moon challenges the assumption that neoliberalism inevitably weakens democracy, showing how it can open new opportunities for civic participation.

One of the most valuable contributions of this work lies in its reframing of democratisation beyond Western paradigms. Moon challenges the assumption that neoliberalism inevitably weakens democracy, showing instead that it can open new, albeit complicated, opportunities for civic participation. It made me think more broadly about civic activism and how organisations are more than the sum of their current situations and governance environments.

In Civic Activism in South Korea: The Intertwining of Democracy and Liberalism, Seungsook Moon provides a timely and incisive exploration of how civic activism plays a dual role, showing that it can both challenge and reinforce neoliberal principles. She makes an essential contribution to contemporary debates on the complex entanglements of neoliberalism and democracy, rejecting a simplistic one-way model of how the former influences the latter.

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