Research Interests: Economic sociology; globalization and inequality; diversity; cultural boundaries; quantitative methods

Kwan Woo Kim is a doctoral student in Sociology.

Kwan Woo’s primary research interests center on the formation and change of economic institutions, both in macro and in micro levels. In macro level, he is interested in the process how transnational economic changes (e.g., global financial crisis, economic integration, diffusion of neo-liberal policies) affect social inequalities, and how social boundaries, relations, and policies mediate the effects. In micro level, he plans to extend his previous research on film industry, in which he argues on the coevolution process between hierarchical and horizontal identities. Specifically, he is interested in developing ideas on how audiences identify producers under blurred categorical boundaries, and how this perception mechanism is related to the emergences, declines, and hybrids of categories. He thinks the two ways of theorizing institutional change need to be more closely connected, and hopes to develop a theoretical work which illuminates how macro- and micro-level institutional dynamics correlate.

Kwan Woo is originally from Seoul, South Korea.

Previous Degrees:
BA, Sociology and Political Science, Yonsei University (2007)
MA, Sociology, Yonsei University (2013)