KIRN

Intergenerational Social Mobility and Demographic Behaviors in South Korea: How Do Relative and Absolute Social Mobility Matter in a Lowest-Low Fertility Context?

Colloquium in September 2025 Dohoon Lee (Seoul National University) How does intergenerational social mobility matter for family formation and childbearing? To address this question, this study (1) distinguishes between relative and absolute mobility; (2) conceptualizes intergenerational mobility as a central social contextual factor shaping demographic behaviors; and (3) empirically evaluates Read more…

By KIRN, ago

The rise of single-person household and income inequality in South Korea

Colloquium in June 2025 Soo-yeon Moon and Kwang-yeong Shin (Chung-ang University, Department of Sociology) This paper analyzes the factors affecting the formation of single-person households, and the relationship between single-person households and income inequality. First, considering that the types and causes of single-person households vary throughout the life course, we Read more…

By KIRN, ago

School Mobility and Academic Achievement in Standardized Education Systems: Evidence from South Korean Elementary Students

Colloquium in May 2025 Soo-yong Byun (The Pennsylvania State University, Professor of Education, Demography, and Asian Studies) Changing schools is a common experience for American students, but it often has negative consequences for academic performance. However, relatively little is known about school mobility and its effects in non-Western contexts. In Read more…

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Colloquium in April 2025 Hoyong Jung (Seoul National University, Graduate School of Public Administration and Korea Institute of Public Affairs) Amidst the ongoing phenomenon of Seoul-centric concentration in South Korea, this study examines wage differentials among graduates of In-Seoul universities in the early labor market. Even after controlling for individual Read more…

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From Growing Disadvantages to Strategic Adaptation: The Permanent Evolution of Asian American Men’s Socioeconomic Status, 1940 to 2018—22

Colloquium in March 2025 ChangHwan Kim (University of Kansas, Department of Sociology) Stereotypical images of Asian Americans have shifted from unassimilable aliens to the Model Minority, and Strategic Adaptation has been proposed as a key mechanism of their success. However, few studies have explored the origins and evolution of Strategic Read more…

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Varieties of Meritocratic Beliefs and Their Divergent Connections to Inequality Attitudes

Colloquium in January 2025 Dongkyun Im (Seoul National University, Department of Sociology) A wide range of studies and arguments suggested that meritocracy reinforces or justifies inequality, thereby solidifying a winner-takes-all system. In addition, criticisms have been raised that the rise of meritocracy leads individuals to obsess over a narrow definition Read more…

By KIRN, ago

Men’s and women’s aversion to female status-dominant relationships: Linking individual attitudes to macro-level contexts

Colloquium in December 2024 Sangsoo Lee (Ewha Womans University, Department of Sociology) This study explores individuals’ attitudes toward female status-dominant relationships using data from the seventh wave of the World Values Survey. Findings reveal that men, on average, show greater aversion to female status-dominant relationships than women. Both men and Read more…

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Premarital Pregnancy in South Korea: Socioeconomic Disparities and Children’s Early Developmental Trajectories

Colloquium in November 2024 Won-tae Koh (CLIO Institute for Social Development Studies, Yonsei University) This study explores the possibility that the recent increase in premarital pregnancies may reflect differential demographic behaviors across social strata and examines whether this serves as a pathway for intergenerational inequality reproduction. Analysis using The Panel Read more…

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The gendered impact of parenthood on job-related training participation in Germany and the United Kingdom

Colloquium in October 2024 Misun Lim (Postdoctoral research fellow at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and University of Siegen, Germany) Recent studies highlight the role of parenthood in perpetuating persistent gender inequality in the labour market. We examine whether the transition to parenthood influences job-related training participation. This study Read more…

By KIRN, ago