Dr Nahee Kang

Biography

Dr Nahee Kang is a Lecturer in Political Economy of Emerging Markets. Prior to joining King’s, she was a Lecturer in Development Management at the Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM), University of Manchester. Before that, she held both an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship and a Visiting Fellowship at the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ICCSR), Nottingham University Business School. She was also a Temporary (fixed-term) Lecturer in Economic Sociology at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge.

Before coming to England, she worked briefly as a researcher at the Korea Institute of Finance (KIF) in South Korea, and held visiting fellowships at the International Centre for the Study of East Asian Development (ICSEAD) and United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) in Japan.

She obtained a BA in Sociology and a MA in International Studies (fully funded) from Ewha Woman's University, and an MPhil in Development Studies (partially funded by the Cambridge Overseas Trust) and a PhD in Social and Political Sciences (fully funded by the Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust) from University of Cambridge.

Research

• Varieties of late capitalisms in Asia
• The political economy of the middle-income trap
• Inclusive industrial growth: jobs, wages and skills

Nahee’s research interests lie at the intersection of economic sociology, political economy, and development studies. Her main scholarly contributions are on private sector governance in East Asia, and the empirical applications and extensions of these frameworks to study the role of private industrial firms as engines of growth and vehicles of redistribution.

She draws on new institutional theory and employ comparative historical methods to conduct systematic qualitative analyses. Her research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Postdoctoral Fellowship) and the British Academy (Rising Star Engagement Award).

Teaching

Undergraduate

• 5YYD0004 Diversity and Change in the Political Economy of East Asia
• 6YYD0004 National Development Strategies
• 4YYD0004 Social and Political Analysis of Emerging Economies

Postgraduate

• 7YYD0012 Industrial Development: Strategy and Competitiveness of East Asian Firms
• 7YYD0004 The Political Economy of Market Reforms

PhD supervision

While Nahee focuses on South Korea as an empirical site for exploration and illustration, she would also be interested in supervising research that explores the politics and the institutional processes and outcomes of industrialisation in Northeast and Southeast Asia. Some topics include:

• the developmental state
• state-business relations
• labour relations (industrial relations, labour market, education and training)
• private governance (corporate governance and social responsibility)
• private sector development and firm capabilities

Principal supervisor

• Jisun Yi (successfully completed in 2018)
• Kahee Jo
• Jessica Loy
• Han Hee Lee

Further details

See Nahee's research profile