"The Public Sphere in Colonial Life: Residents' Movements in Korea under Japanese Rule."

“The Public Sphere in Colonial Life: Residents’ Movements in Korea under Japanese Rule.” Past & Present no. 220 (August 2013): 217-48. 

‘Can a robust public sphere coexist with an authoritarian state?’ Scholars have posed this question in regard to both political life in Japan before 1945 and civic life in South Korea after 1945. Between these two distinct areas of inquiry, however, lies the history of Japanese rule over the Korean peninsula (1910–45), which has remained outside their purview. This article extends the question to colonial Korea by adding another question of comparative importance: can the colonizer and the colonized together constitute a viable civil society?