Research: From Collapse to Resilience: Informal Economy and the Reproduction of State Power in North Korea
This dissertation examines how informal economies have transformed state–society relations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) from the collapse of the 1990s to the present, arguing that North Korea’s resilience cannot be explained through conventional modernization or transitology frameworks. Instead, it proposes a Gramscian reinterpretation of authoritarian stability, analysing how marketization, rather than eroding state power, has been selectively incorporated into the regime’s hegemonic strategy.
The study develops its argument in three steps. First, it critically reviews existing scholarship on North Korea’s political economy, challenging collapsist assumptions and highlighting the gendered nature of marketization. To address the limits of existing theories, the thesis articulates a Gramscian lens emphasizing hegemony, the integral state, and passive revolution as tools to interpret state adaptation.
Second, the research reconstructs the historical and ideological foundations of DPRK hegemony and traces the emergence of informal markets during and after the Arduous March. It argues that while marketization created new social hierarchies and a nascent entrepreneurial class (donju), these dynamics have not produced systemic instability. Instead, the regime has rearticulated control by tolerating, regulating, and co-opting informal economic practices.
Third, drawing on triangulated data, the thesis investigates how marketization has reshaped perceptions of authority, legitimacy, and everyday survival.
Overall, the dissertation argues that North Korea’s evolution is best understood not as a trajectory toward collapse or democratization, but as a process of hegemonic adaptation in which informal economies play a central role. This work contributes new insights into the nature of authoritarian resilience and the complex interplay between autonomy and control in contemporary North Korea.
02/2023-01/2024 Adjunct Lecturer - Korean Philology (LT - LM) - Sapienza University of Rome
03/2023-10/2023 Teaching Assistant for Korean Curriculum Mobility Programs - Sapienza University of Rome
10/2022-06/2023 Teaching Assistant for CIVIS program - Tübingen University