Jeehwan Park is an expert in Japanese studies and sociocultural anthropology. His research focuses on social differentiation and urban activism in contemporary Japan. His doctoral dissertation examined how Japanese secondary schooling exacerbates disparities in educational performance and aspirations between advantaged and disadvantaged students, thereby contributing to societal divisions. His subsequent project investigated the forms of solidarity and self-reliance that Japanese citizens seek to cultivate through an examination of various forms of social activism in a working-class district in Osaka. He has recently explored how rural youth in Japan navigate the divided society. Additionally, he is planning to investigate how Korean and Japanese undergraduate students perceive university admission systems, as well as how elementary and junior-high schools in Korea assist multiethnic children in achieving academic success.
2020.03 – current
Associate Professor, Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University
2014.12 – 2020.02
Assistant and Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology, Jeonbuk National University
2013.09 – 2014.12
HK Assistant Professor, Institute for Japanese Studies, Seoul National University
2011.10 – 2013.8
HK Research Professor, Institute for Japanese Studies, Seoul National University.
2011
Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America
Dissertation: School as Classificatory Machine: Sorting, Socialization, and Class in a Japanese Middle School
2003
Master of Arts in Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
Thesis: The Social Production and Social Construction of Bundang New Town: A Study on the Relationship of Space and Class (in Korean)
2001
social inequality, urban studies, education, social movement, youth, Japan, and Korea
[Books (including translation)]
2024
Public Practices in a Working-Class Area of Osaka, Japan (일본 도시 하층 지역에서의 공공적 실천). Seoul National University Press.
2022
The Transformations of Japan’s Education System and Educational Aspirations (일본 교육제도의 구축과 재편 그리고 교육열망). Shina. [co-authored]
2021
Understanding East Asia through the lens of Cultural Anthropology (문화인류학으로 보는 동아시아). Nulmin. [translated]
2020
Introducing Urban Anthropology (도시인류학: 우리가 세상을 해석하는 방법) . Ilchokak. [co-translated]
2019
Resilient Schools: Overcoming the Achievement Gap in East Asia and Western Europe (世界のしんどい学校). Akashishoten. [co-authored]
2018
Contemporary Cultural Anthropology (현대문화인류학). Hyungseol. [co-edited]
2017
Transformations of Post-war Japan and its Search for Social Solidarities (안전사회 일본의 동요와 사회적 연대의 모색). Bakmun. [co-edited]
2014b
2014a
Transformations of Post-war Japanese Society and its Public Engagements (일본 생활세계의 동요와 공공적 실천). Bakmun. [edited]
2013
The Great East Japan Earthquake Observed in the Field (현장에서 바라본 동일본대 지진). HanulBooks. [co-authored]
[Articles]
2024c “Failures in Japan’s University Admission Reform and Perceptions of Fairness: A Case Study on the Implementation of English-Speaking Tests in University Entrance Exams.” (일본 대학입시제도 개편에 드러난 공정성・공평성에 대한 인식: 민간영어시험 활용 계획을 중심으로) Asia Review 14(2).
- 2024b “Inclusive education in Japan and its role in international cooperation: analysis of a project for children with disabilities in Mongolia.” Asia Pacific Education Review 25: 229-242. [with Subin Cho, corresponding author]
- 2024a “Non-metropolitan youths and their attachment to hometown in post-growth Japan.” Asian Journal of Social Science 52: 8-16.
- 2023c. “The Emergence of an Alternative Public Space in Contemporary Japan: The (Trans)formation of Civic Movements in a Working-class District in Osaka.” Filip Kraus, Kateřina Šamajová, Renata Westlake and Blanka Ferklová eds. Continuity and Change in Asia. Palacký University Olomouc. Pp. 333-364.
- 2023b “Relocating to the ‘Just Right Countryside’: Japanese Youths’ Rural Migration and their Lifestyles.” (‘적당히 시골이면서 적당히 도시인 곳’으로: 일본 청년의 지방 이주 동기와 라이프스타일) Korean Cultural Anthropology 56(3): 131-181.
- 2023a “Gender Differences in Regional Mobility and Career Choice Among Japanese Non-metropolitan Youths.” (일본 지방청년의 진로 선택 시 성별에 따른 지역 간 이동의 차이) Korean Journal of Japanese Studies 29: 238-273.
- 2021 “The Background and Significance of Merge in Japanese National Universities in the 2000s.” (2000년대 일본 국립대학 통합의 배경과 의미) Review of International and Area Studies 30(4): 111-141. (with Chanhui Lee, corresponding author).
- 2020 “From Slum to Yoseba: Spatial Production and Construction of Marginalized Masculinity in Contemporary Japan.” (슬럼에서 요세바로: 현대 일본에서의 주변적 남성성의 공간적 생산과 구성) The Korea Journal of Japanese Studies 52: 124-155.
- 2018b “The Making of Innovative School in Chonbuk Province, and a Reflection on Learning-Process Oriented Education.” (지역사회의 혁신학교 만들기와 과정 중심 교육에 대한 성찰) Journal of Local History and Culture. 21(2): 195-232.
- 2018a “Cultural Anthropological Reflections on the Formation of Kobe as a Sweets Paradise.” (양과자 천국 고베의 형성에 대한 문화인류학적 고찰) Korean Journal of Japanese Language and Literature. 78: 347-370
- 2017c “The Employment Support Policy of Local Governments and Its Significance: A Case Study on Osaka Prefecture and Toyonaka City.” (일본 지방자치단체에 의한 취업지원정책과 그 의의: 오사카부 도요나카시의 사례) Japan Space. 22: 168-195
- 2017b “Place Making for and by the Aged: A Case Study of Hitohana Center in Osaka, Japan.” (고령자를 위한 고령자에 의한 장소 만들기: 오사카시 히토하나센터의 사례) Contemporary Japanese Studies 40: 1-29.
- 2017a “The Sociocultural Significance of Ibasho and Self-reliance in Contemporary Japan: A Case Study on an Art-NPO in Osaka.” (현대 일본사회에서 이바쇼와 자립의 사회문화적 의미: 오사카시 예술-비영리조직에 관한 사례연구) Journal of Democracy and Human Rights 17(1): 111-149.
- 2016c “German Historicism and in the 19th Century and Franz Boas’ Historical Method.” (19세기 독일 역사주의와 프란츠 보아스의 역사적 방법) Social Science Studies 40(3): 113-133.
- 2016b “Three Approaches to Educational Stratification and Their Implications in the Anthropology of Education.” Cross-Cultural Studies 22(2): 391-423.
- 2016a “Transformations in the Transition from School to Work in Contemporary Japan: The Significance of Career Guidance Co-led by High School and Public Corporation.” (현대 일본에서의 학교-직장 이행기의 변동: 학교-공익단체 연계형 진로지원활동의 의미) Journal of Democracy and Human Rights 16(1): 127-164.
- 2015 “An Examination of Cultural Anthropological Research on Contemporary Japanese Society: Reviewing Ethnography of Japan from the 1990s to the 2000s.” (현대 일본사회에 대한 문화인류학적 연구 검토: 1990년대 이후의 민족지를 중심으로) Social Science Studies 39(2): 179-206.
- 2014b “The Development and Significance of Machizukuri in an Urban Lower-Class District, Japan: A Formation of Participatory-Democratic Civic Space.” (일본 도시하층지역 마을 만들기의 성립과 그 의의: 참여민주적 시민공간의 형성) Review of International and Area Studies 23(3): 131-158.
- 2014a “Hierarchical Socialsation in a Japanese Junior High School: The Formation of a Sense of One’s Place.” Social Science Japan Journal 17(2): 189-205.
- 2013 “From Anti-Unemployment Movement to Welfare Service?: The Development and Transformation of Homeless Support Movement in Kamagasaki, Osaka” (운동에서 복지로? 오사카시 가마가사키 노숙인 지원운동의 전개와 변형) Journal of Democracy and Human Rights 13(3): 73-114.
- 2012c “The Politics of Precarity and Play: A Culture of Demonstration and Anti-Nuclear Movement in 21st Century Japan.” (불안정과 재미의 정치: 2000년대 일본 시위문화와 탈원전운동) Studies in Humanities 35: 501-526.
- 2012b “Social Movement in Post 3.11 Japan: Anti-Nuclear Demonstrations of ‘Amateur’s Revolt’.” (동일본대지진 이후 일본의 사회운동: ‘아마추어의 반란’의 탈원전데모를 중심으로) The Korea Journal of Japanese Studies 36: 31-55.
- 2012a “The Differential Construction of Educational Aspirations: Placement Counseling in a Japanese Middle School.” (교육열망의 차등적 구성: 일본 공립중학교의 진로지도방식에 대한 사례 연구) Korean Cultural Anthropology 45(3): 105-151.
- 2011b “Formations of Buraku Culture in Contemporary Japanese Society: A Case Study on Middle-School Graduate Buraku Boys.” (현대 일본사회에서 부락문화의 형성: 중졸 부락 남학생의 사례를 중심으로) The Journal of Asiatic Studies 54(3): 151-182.
- 2011a “A Study on Socio-cultural Transformations in the Transition from Middle to High School in Contemporary Japanese Society.” (현대 일본사회의 중고등학교 이행기를 둘러싼 사회 문화적 변화에 대한 연구) Cross-Cultural Studies 17(2): 45-86.
- 2007 “A Review of Political Anthropology: The Growing Importance of Research on the State.” (정치인류학에 대한 일 고찰: 국가연구의 중요성 확대) Korean Cultural Anthropology 40(2): 163-202.
- 2005 “The Social Production and Construction of Bundang New Town: A Study on the Sociocultural Making of Class Space.” (분당신도시의 사회적 생산과 구성: 계급-공간의 사회적 형 성에 관한 연구) Korean Cultural Anthropology 38(1): 83-123
