Affective citizenship and peripheral intimacies: children’s inter-ethnic relations in South Korean schools

This paper examines how issues of citizenship and belonging within an emergent “multicultural” South Korea are articulated through inter-ethnic relations among elementary school children. Based on ethnographic data and drawing on theories of affective citizenship and intimacy, I argue that affective dimensions of citizenship provide insight into everyday dynamics of exclusion and inclusion, through which citizenship, especially a sense of belonging, is negotiated and contested. This has implications for global citizenship education in South Korea.