They Are Not Machines

Prize: 2005, runner-up, Best Sociology of Labour Book Award 2005, Labour and Labour Movements Section of the American Sociological Association '...the contemporary South Korean labor movement has so far received scant attention from scholarly communities outside Korea...They Are Not Machines: Korean Women Workers and their Fight for Democratic Trade Unionism in the 1970s is a great addition to this tiny literature...a rare book...the most valuable part of the book is the detailed biographical account of Yi So-sun, the mother of all the workers?...the story of this woman is utterly dramatic and deeply moving.' Journal of Asian Studies 'The book is based on compelling and evocative accounts by the participants. It is woven together by the author in a way that captures both the wider picture of the political and economic events that underwrote the so-called economic miracle, as well as the very personal sufferings that enabled this miracle to occur. The book traces out the costs and the dilemmas that faced the leading participants, as well as the ordinary women who continued to labour in the sweatshops. This book is a powerful and compelling statement about industrialisation in the Asian region and it should have a broad audience.' Professor Peter Fairbrother, Cardiff University, UK 'Chun's book is a fascinating and worthy account of the often forgotten face of Korea's economic miracle.' Asia Pacific Business Review '...this remarkable book...received a well-deserved honourable mention from the American Sociological Association section on labour and the labour movement as one of the best books in 2005 written about labour...Chun not only uncovers the previously ignored role of women in the Korean trade union movement but also challenges the conventional notion that the movement for democratic trade unions began in 1987.' Korean Studies 'This impeccably researched and expertly written new book will undoubtedly assume its rightful place a