Journal Articles

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Oh, J. (2025). Reimagining independence: Relational selves in the Korean disability justice movement. Current Sociology. Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921251394721

     This ethnographic study examines how Korean mothers of young adults with severe developmental disabilities reinterpret Western notions of independent living through locally embedded frameworks of selfhood. Drawing on 2 years of fieldwork with the Korean Parents’ Network for People with Disabilities and in-depth interviews with 31 activist mothers, this article argues that activist mothers reframe independence not only as self-sufficiency but also as the capacity to claim socially recognized roles through community participation based on a sociocultural understanding of personhood. Concretely, through the vision of a ‘meaningful daytime’, mothers seek pathways for their children to restore their independent selves by entitling social titles and responsibilities embedded in social relationships. This reinterpretation further prompted mothers to reflect on their own erosion of identity as long-term caregiving extended. Foregrounding fluid, contextual, and performative approaches to selfhood, this article concludes by theorizing the cultural translation of mobilizing ideas within non-Western disability justice and human rights movements, expanding current sociological debates on globalization, intersectionality, and rights discourse.

 

Oh, J. (2025). Meanings of independence and assistance: textual analysis of personal assistance in South Korea. Disability & Society, 40(5), 1285-1304. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2024.2360431.

     Both Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the growth of the Independent Living Movement (ILM) have contributed to the introduction of the concept of personal assistance in East Asian countries. However, policymakers in East Asian countries need to translate personal assistance into their languages and sociocultural contexts. With the assumption that the language and terminology used in policy contain social interpretations and cultural understandings of policymakers, this article examines how personal assistance has been translated into Korean legal and administrative texts. Results show that the current Korean personal assistance services have a narrow understanding of independence and assistance while implicitly assuming family intervention. Moreover, assistance has been interpreted as an act of caregiving, which can impair the quality of the services. This article concludes with the importance of qualitative textual analysis of personal assistance services with consideration of sociocultural specificity.

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Oh, J. (2023). Between “devoted mothers” and “disability advocates”: When Korean mothers of developmentally disabled adults become committed to social change. Ethos, 51(4), 416-431. https://doi.org/10.1111/etho.12403. [PDF File] 

     This study explores how mothers of children who are young adults with developmental disabilities in South Korea experience identity strain and tension when they engage in advocacy on behalf of their children. Based on in-depth interviews with 20 mothers in Korea who are members of parents’ advocacy groups, this article found that women experienced feelings of tension that arose when they deviated from normative understandings of what it means to be “devoted mothers.” Furthermore, they created two alternative versions of maternal roles—professional “I” mothers and professional “WE” mothers—that supported their identities as “disability advocates” in order to alleviate their emotional experiences. Such differences led them to practice different styles of advocacy in their interactions with disability welfare services. Based on these findings, this article discusses identity strain that emerges during the mothers’ political engagement on behalf of their disabled children. In doing so, it contributes to expanding current attention to parental advocacy activities in order to more deeply understand women's agential power to force social change and to act against existing state policies and power.