ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the television drama Queen of the Office and the reality show The HumanCondition, and explores their representations of the dissatisfaction of many Korean people with the current socioeconomic order. 'This is the era when the number of non-regular contract workers has reached 8 million', says the voiceover narration of the Korean television drama Queenof the Office. The boom in social enterprise and social economy discourse in Korea mirrors this philosophy of just sustainability. As Mulgan observes, the boom in social enterprises in Korea, in particular, is closely connected to democratization and related social movements. In Korea, television dramas are one of the most popular modes of mass communication and as such wield enormous social influence. Locally produced television dramas signify either macro- or micro-histories of Korean people and society. Queen of the Office represents and critiques this discriminatory work practice in Korea's current neoliberal capitalist environment.
