Byung-Chul Han
Philosopher and cultural theorist
Byung-Chul Han is a South Korean-born German philosopher and cultural theorist who writes critically about neoliberalism and its effects on society.
1 summary 14 min of listening
Born 1959 in Seoul, South Korea
Influenced by Michel Foucault, Martin Heidegger, Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, Pierre Bourdieu
About Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han was born in 1959 in Seoul. He first studied metallurgy in Korea. In the 1980s he relocated to Germany, where he studied philosophy, German literature and Catholic theology at Freiburg and Munich. He earned his doctorate at Freiburg in 1994 with a dissertation on Martin Heidegger. Han has taught at the University of Basel, HfG Karlsruhe and the Berlin University of the Arts. His work mostly offers a critique of neoliberalism and what it does to individuals and society. He has written on subjects including burnout, depression, transparency and social media. His book The Burnout Society is in our catalog.