Suyoung Kim was a visiting researcher at the Centre for BOLD Cities between September 2023 and June 2024. During her visit from South Korea, where she holds a position as associate professor at the Department of Social Welfare at Seoul National University, Suyoung spend her time conducting research and participating in many of the Centre's events. Just before her return back to South Korea, we asked her a few question to reflect on her time at the Centre.
How did you become affiliated with the Centre for BOLD Cities?
In today’s digital age, many people turn to platforms like Google, Instagram, and YouTube for information rather than relying on personal connections. I also discovered the Centre for BOLD Cities through an online search while preparing for my first sabbatical in 2022. Using the term "digital welfare states," I found the Centre for BOLD Cities at the top of my Google search results. The Netherlands, like South Korea, is renowned for its advanced digital government and consistently ranks among the top 10 countries in the UN’s biannual E-Government Development Index. I was intrigued to find that the Centre's research projects aligned with my interests, particularly in the critical study of digital welfare states. While few South Korean scholars address the negative impacts of digitalization, the Centre for BOLD Cities had researchers with similar critical perspectives, including Margot Kersing, whose work resonated with mine. Additionally, Liesbet van Zoonen’s (the Centre's academic director) background in political science, communication, and her interest in feminism and culture appealed to me, given my own studies in communication and sociology. Excited by the prospect of connecting with like-minded researchers, I reached out to Liesbet and was warmly welcomed, becoming a member of the Centre for BOLD Cities.
What were your activities during your time at the Centre?
The Centre for BOLD Cities served as a gateway for me to connect with numerous Dutch scholars researching similar topics. As a visiting scholar at the Centre, I participated in various events, including the Netherlands Institute of Governance Conference, the Erasmus Platform Labor Group's monthly seminars, and colloquiums on Street-Level Bureaucracy in the 21st Century. These experiences allowed me to present my research conducted in South Korea and engage in dynamic discussions about digital societies in both Dutch and Korean contexts. The Centre also hosted a BOLD Lunch Talk, where I had the opportunity to present South Korea’s digital welfare technologies to Dutch scholars and students, alongside my colleague, Professor Sochung Lee from Namseoul University. Additionally, my involvement in the Centre’s minor program, researcher-artist collaborative outing and international staff gatherings at Erasmus University significantly broadened my academic and educational perspective.
"(..) my involvement in the Centre’s minor program, researcher-artist collaborative outing, and international staff gatherings at Erasmus University significantly broadened my academic and educational perspective."
What kind of research did you do?
I am theoretically interested in the structural changes that digital technologies bring to the modern state, market, and civil society. In this line, I have conducted qualitative case studies on digital welfare states, the digital platform economy, and online communities over the past decade. Based on these studies, I have sought to offer suggestions on how future social policies should be designed. Spending ten months in the Netherlands was particularly meaningful, as it allowed me to directly compare the differences and similarities between digital welfare states and platform labor markets in East Asian and European countries. I look forward to conducting comparative policy research on these topics with the researchers at the Centre for BOLD Cities and Erasmus Platform Labor Group in the near future.
Spending ten months in the Netherlands was particularly meaningful, as it allowed me to directly compare the differences and similarities between digital welfare states and platform labor markets in East Asian and European countries."
Were you involved in any teaching?
Thanks to the invitation from Professor Roland Ortt and Project Manager Merlina Slotboom, I had the opportunity to serve as an external mentor for the Smart and SHARED Cities minor program. This program is a project-based curriculum where undergraduate students from Delft University of Technology, Leiden University, and Erasmus University collaborate on social impact projects. In this role, I provided guidance to a team of students that analyzed platform labor issues and conducted empirical surveys. Having been accustomed to traditional lecture-based courses led by individual professors, I found the collaborative, socially focused educational approach involving multiple external mentors to be an intriguing and refreshing challenge. I plan to use the Centre’s minor program as a model to propose new educational courses for my own department.
What did you enjoy the most during your year at the Centre?
During my sabbatical, I achieved various academic accomplishments and gained a lot of educational inspiration. However, if I had to choose just one thing that made me the happiest, it would be the connections I made with the people at the Centre. Margot, who patiently answered all my questions about digital government as well as Dutch culture and people; Merlina and Sarah, who understood my needs even before I did and supported me wholeheartedly; Saleh, with whom I shared an office and enjoyed conversations about the history of Asia; Roland, who demonstrated what genuine participatory education truly means; Marjolijn, who asked insightful questions about my research; and Roos, Ada, and Ivana from the T-19 floor, with whom I had enjoyable chats—these people were the highlights of my time in the Netherlands. Above all, I am deeply grateful to the Centre's academic director, Liesbet for making all these experiences possible and for guiding me to be a creative and enthusiastic scholar.
Working papers
Interested in Kim's academic work? During her time at our Centre, two of Kim's papers were translated in English and published on our website as working papers. They can be found here:
- Working paper 12 - Ethical Dilemmas of Using Big Data in Social Welfare Administration
- Working paper 13 - Platform Workers’ Experiences of Time and Space