Igniting the Internet: Youth and Activism in Postauthoritarian South Korea by Jiyeon Kang (review)

In early December 2016, Gwanghwamun Square, the center of Seoul, drew more than a million people. Outraged and stunned by President Park Geun Hye's corruption scandal, ordinary citizens held candles and demanded her immediate resignation. The candlelight protests had been held every Saturday evening for months, and eventually succeeded in helping to oust President Park. These protests were extraordinary in many ways: Not only were they peaceful, festive, and family-friendly, but these protests also became a site of diverse cultural activities that expressed their anger against Park with innovative and creative signs and slogans, political parodies, and music performances. This historic moment in South Korea served to raise questions about the origins and sources of movement power.

In describing the trajectory of candlelight protests between 2002 and 2013, Jiyeon Kang's book Igniting the Internet: Youth and Activism in Postauthoritarian South Korea helps us answer these important questions—how this unique form of protest came about and how it has evolved since the early 2000s. Mainly focusing on the 2002 and 2008 candlelight protests, considered to be key events, the chapters are structured in a chronological order. Throughout the book, Kang argues that it emerged from online communities, which provided a new social space where Internet users disseminated information, shared and expressed their opinions, forged alliances, and facilitated offline actions. Drawing on data from online discussion boards, mainstream newspapers, and in-depth interviews, Kang demonstrates how internet-born, youth-driven protests have become established as a vital part of the activist repertoire in Korea. As one of the first comprehensive studies of South Korean activism during the post-authoritarian, post-economic crisis era, Kang's book paints a broad picture of new forms of Korean activism.

Those familiar with Korean activism in the 1980s will remember violent scenes of student and labor protest, with tear gas, riot police, Molotov cocktails, and stone throwing. Massive protests were often centrally organized by movement organizations from the top down. Protesters then were more ideologically committed, and ran a high risk of getting arrested, being tortured, and spending years in jail. Igniting the Internet shows how the Internet and new communication technology have transformed the nature of political participation and social movements through the politics of captivation. By "enabling scattered users to express similar opinions, forge temporary alliances, and make judgments without any social pressure to conform to established political discourse" (p. 154), the politics of captivation creates new political subjects and new patterns of protests—more decentralized, contingent, and less ideological with heterogeneous voices and festive gatherings. The book powerfully shows the dialectical relationship between Internet activism and mainstream politics. The Internet did not merely mobilize disgruntled youths in virtual spaces; instead, young users growing up familiar with the logic of online culture contributed to reshaping politics in the real world, often using techniques of parody and subversion when criticizing state authority.

Critics often expect youth activism to produce "a new generation of activists," but Kang sees this view as simplistic. Portraying the divergent individual trajectories of the youths who have participated in candlelight protests, Kang emphasizes how heterogeneous identities have emerged from protest experiences. The ways in which the participants remember and interpret the protests are various, and shape individual paths in different ways. Yet the protests have had a long-term effect as a sort of political socialization—individuals have developed "their own ethical and aesthetic judgments about how to respond to perceived injustice" (p. 151). Through vivid individual narratives, Kang suggests that young Koreans' experiences in both Internet and street politics can evolve into diverse forms of politics. While not unified under one voice in a particular format, the past experience of protests has become an important currency that will continue to shape democratic sensibilities, popular politics, and social movements in the future.

While I agree that the Internet and social media provide new spaces where youths share new...