Cohort: SOMET 42

Topic of the thesis: Family Welfare as a Site of Exclusion: Pronatalist Policy and Same-sex Couples in South Korea

Abstract: This project examines how pronatalist demographic governance intensifies the precarity of same-sex couples and families in South Korea. Through investigating how state policies systematically exclude same-sex couples from family-based welfare provision, this research reveals how pronatalist welfare benefits, although framed as benevolent welfare interventions, end up reproducing heteronormative biopolitical governance. Furthermore, this project explores alternative strategies of care and family-making that emerge in response to institutional exclusion, shedding light on the stratification of social citizenship that the heteronormative biopolitical governance produces and its consequences for social reproduction. Employing a qualitative, inductive approach, the study will utilise semi-structured interviews with same-sex couples alongside critical policy analysis of pronatalist policy packages. By doing so, the project contributes to broader debates on the relationship between the welfare state, sexuality, and social citizenship, demonstrating how demographic governance becomes institutionalised through the unequal distribution of social protection.

Research interests: Social Policy; Welfare Regime; Family Sociology; Social Inequalities

Graduated from: London School of Economics and Political Science; Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Degrees obtained: BA (double major) in Italian and International Studies; MSc in Gender, Policy and Inequalities

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