Given its close ties with Confucianism, East Asian exceptionalism could be defined as the inversion of Max Weber's doctrine that Confucian values inhibit rationality and lead to economic stagnation. That revaluation, which has contributed to an inversion of `Orientalism' as it relates to East Asia, becomes a core premise of what may be called the Singapore model of East Asian development theory. Another premise of that model is the primacy given to economic over political development, i.e., over democracy. In opposition (...) to this reactionary turn, and in the light of current revisionism in Japanese studies, this article follows Kim Dae Jung in positing a `Korean model' which challenges prevailing assumptions of East Asian exceptionalism. It is argued that Korea's record of democratic development over the last 15 years deserves a more affirmative response than has been allowed by some of the most vocal American Koreanists. This model, moreover, affirms Kim's belief in an organic rather than exogenous explanation of Korea's political development. It is argued that Korea, rather than Japan, offers the best available prototype for Asian political development in its `post-exceptional' phase, and that Korea's emerging political culture - in striking contrast to Singapore's - bears witness to the fact that economic development can be consistent with liberal-democratic objectives. In Kim Dae Jung's opposition politics, and now in his presidency, one finds a rare balance of political and economic priorities. In the long run the `Korean Model' could prove far more important for East Asia than anything the IMF has to offer. (shrink)

Since the turn of the millennium South Korea has continued to grapplewith transgressions that shook the nation to its core. Following the serial killings of Korea's raincoat killer, the events that led to the dissolution of the United Progressive Party, the criminal negligence of the owner and also the crew members of the sunken Sewol Ferry, as well as the political scandals of 2016, there has been much public debate about morality, transparency, and the law in South (...) class='Hi'>Korea. Yet, despite its prevalence in public discourse, transgression in Korea has not received proper scholarly attention. Transgression in Korea challenges the popular conceptions of transgression as resistance to authority, the collapse of morality, and an attempt at self- empowerment. Examples of transgression from premodern, modern, and contemporary Korea are examined side by side to underscore the possibility of reading transgression in more ways than one. These examples are taken from a devotional screen from medieval Korea, trickster tales from the late Choson period, reports about flesheating humans, newspaper articles about same- sex relationships from colonial Korea, and films about extramarital affairs, wayward youths, and a vengeful vigilante. Bringing together specialists from various disciplines such as history, art history, anthropology, premodern literature, religion, and film studies, the context- sensitive readings of transgression provided in this book suggest that transgression and authority can be seen as forming something other than an antagonistic relationship. (shrink)

Korea Wave means the vigorous drive toward Korean mass culture among the young generation of East Asian countries. The Korea Wave has had great socio-cultural and economic effects on China and East Asian countries and even made a new word 'Hawhanzoo (哈韓族)' which mean the Korea Wave fan. The most important characteristic of the Korea Wave is that the followers are the young generation of the upper classes of those regions who are apt to learn and (...) use the Internet and the culture of the Information Age. This means that the future leaders of the East Asia countries are sympathizing with the characteristics of modern Korean culture and its vision. They are absorbing positively the Korea Wave as their spiritual foundation upon which their world views and valuejudgments are conglomerated. In this article I'd like to consider new possibilities in the Korea Wave which pave roads to a cultural community around East Asia in the age of information. Therefore, I will analyze three dimensions of Korea Wave which are material, symbolic and experiential dimensions. (shrink)

Korea Wave means the vigorous drive toward Korean mass culture among the young generation of East Asian countries. The Korea Wave has had great socio-cultural and economic effects on China and East Asian countries and even made a new word 'Hawhanzoo (哈韓族)' which mean the Korea Wave fan. The most important characteristic of the Korea Wave is that the followers are the young generation of the upper classes of those regions who are apt to learn and (...) use the Internet and the culture of the Information Age. This means that the future leaders of the East Asia countries are sympathizing with the characteristics of modern Korean culture and its vision. They are absorbing positively the Korea Wave as their spiritual foundation upon which their world views and valuejudgments are conglomerated. In this article I'd like to consider new possibilities in the Korea Wave which pave roads to a cultural community around East Asia in the age of information. Therefore, I will analyze three dimensions of Korea Wave which are material, symbolic and experiential dimensions. (shrink)

Semiotic studies in South Korea have a relatively short history; nevertheless, they enjoy a rapid development from a high starting point, so their research scale and insightful perspectives should not be underestimated. The introduction of “structuralist theory” in the late 1960s paved the way for Korean semiotics to enter the academic arena ideologically and theoretically. In the process of following the international trend of semiotic research, Korean semiotics has also formed its own characteristics. After over 40 years of development, (...) it has become an important part of the world’s semiotic studies. It has experienced three historical stages, namely, the budding period, the steady development period, and the comprehensive advancement period. The current Korean semiotics presents obvious new trends as follows: conducting cross-regional integration research, highlighting the national characteristic culture, and focusing on the current application of research. First, Korean scholars switched their focus to East Asia, and emphasized the presentness and application of related research while focusing on the combination of semiotics with traditional cultural classics and cultural heritage. Second, in terms of the field of study, Korean semiotics has expanded across multiple fields such as linguistics, literature, aesthetics, philosophy, communication and traditional culture, music, dance, film, architecture, design, and so forth. Finally, in terms of studying the application of semiotics, it has already reached a considerable scale and depth. Although semiotic research in Korea still needs continuous efforts in enhancing theoretical depth and rigor, it has created a wide development space and displayed unlimited potential in terms of innovation of research perspectives and novelty of ideas. (shrink)

This paper traces the diverse contexts of radiation protection from liberation in post-1945 South Korea to its professionalization by the early 1970s, using the emerging field of health physics as the focus. The Korean nuclear center, AERI, started two affiliates, RRIA and RRIM in the early 1960s. In particular, RRIM emphasized the use of radiation within cancer research, especially the use of cobalt in treating patients. In this context, health physics initially took the form of “radiation medicine.”With the two (...) institutes returning to AERI’s fold in 1973, health physics took another turn: the second major subfield, following “radiation medicine,” invoked a broader conception of “radiation protection,” which now referred to a cluster of related interests, including the environment and the effects of industrialization.Rather than a simple transfer of American and international models after 1953, Korean health physics reflects its origins in a post-colonial research setting, one more diverse than its “official” institutional context at AERI. (shrink)

Previous studies on international reconciliation have focused on the security and economic interests of the countries involved, treating reconciliation as an end-goal rather than an ongoing process. This study divides the process of reconciliation into three stages., which refers to the mending of international relations through institutional change, is the most basic. In the phase, the perpetrator provides the victim with economic compensation for inflicting harm. The third stage,, is reached when the perpetrator acknowledges past wrongdoings and when civil and (...) cultural exchanges are carried out smoothly. (shrink)

On May 18, 2001, the Korean Bioethics Advisory Commission, sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology, published a set of recommendations for biotechnological research and application, including scientific experiments with human embryos. Four days later, the KBAC held a public hearing to finalize its recommendations. Since then, public reaction and debate over the ethical aspects of human embryo research have actively surfaced. Most leaders of religious organizations, especially Catholic churches, objected to any type of embryo research. On the other (...) hand, some leaders of the scientific community supported freer scientific research on human embryos. (shrink)

The Republic of Korea (Korea hereinafter) has been widely regarded as one of the most vigorous and analytically interesting third-wave democracies (Diamond and Shin, 2000: 1). During the first decade of democratic rule, Korea has successfully carried out a large number of electoral and other reforms to transform the institutions and procedures of military-authoritarian rule into those of a representative democracy. Unlike many of its counterparts in Latin America and elsewhere, Korea has fully restored civilian rule (...) by extricating the military from power. As is the case in established democracies of North America and Western Europe, free and competitive elections have been regularly held at all the different levels of the government. In the most recent presidential election, held in December 1997, Korea also established itself as a mature electoral democracy by elevating an opposition party to political power. In Korea today, there is general agreement that electoral politics has become the only possible political game in town. (shrink)

Why, after fifty years of fossil fuelled “brown growth” and steadfast refusal to join international agreements on carbon reduction did South Korea prioritize “green growth” as an overarching national initiative in 2008? Our principal aim is to explain Korea’s ambitious pursuit of GG since that time. We argue that Korean-style environmentalism is best understood as an extension of the long-held philosophy of developmentalism amongst the policy-making elite. We first examine the origins and specify the central tenets of this (...) new philosophy that we term developmental environmentalism. We then discuss the motivations that led the policymakers to embrace developmental environmentalism, and the means by which GG was translated into swift and sustained policy action. While the empirical focus of this article is Korea, we conclude by tentatively proposing an analytical framework that might explain why some countries are more likely than others to initiate a sustained shift towards GG. (shrink)

A large literature on South Korean economic development has presented one dominant narrative on Korean modernity, essentially that of a smooth and peaceful process of modernity brought about by the immutable logic of the market and by a gradual expansion of the middle class and civil society. This essay presents another narrative which stresses the role of social struggles in this process. Korea's transition to modernity has been marked by a high level of social conflicts and by clashes between (...) modernity and tradition and between external and national values. In this process, history and tradition did not simply give way to modernity but have been continuously rediscovered and reappropriated for new social struggles. Korea's modernity has been woven out of these political, social and cultural materials rather than simply out of the universal fabric of capitalism. (shrink)

The number of credit delinquents in Korea had been growing steadily since 1997 and had reached 3,700,000 by the end of 2003, which was about 8.4% of the population. The government initiated several support programs, but the number of credit delinquents has decreased very slowly. In order to allow for successful recovery of credit delinquents, it is imperative to reduce debts in a more comprehensive manner, to clear the impediments for easy use of personal bankruptcy mechanisms, and to provide (...) incentives to encourage debtors to make progress on their repayment plans. While there has been much change in terms of learning to live with bankruptcy as an inevitable part of a market economy, there is still much to be done. The reality of "moral hazard" in bankruptcy discharge should be uncovered. Legal restraints discriminating against bankrupts must be removed. The repayment period of individual rehabilitation and individual workouts must be shortened to three years. Personal guarantors for debtors in rehabilitation proceedings should be protected as much as the debtors are during the repayment period in rehabilitation proceedings. Debtors need to be able to keep their mortgaged residences during the proceedings. The history of insolvency has shown that society can benefit as much as or more than debtors themselves from the discharge of unpaid debts because with a fresh start the debtor has an incentive to work hard. The starting point to personal bankruptcy law reform is this belief. (shrink)

This article reports the findings of a cross-cultural study that explored the relationship between nationality, cultural orientation, and attitudes toward different ways in which an employee might blow the whistle. The study investigated two questions – are there any significant differences in the attitudes of university students from South Korea, Turkey and the U.K. toward various ways by which an employee blows the whistle in an organization?, and what effect, if any, does cultural orientation have on these attitudes? In (...) order to answer these questions, the study identified six dimensions of whistleblowing and four types of cultural orientation. The survey was conducted among 759 university students, who voluntarily participated; 284 South Korean, 230 Turkish, and 245 U.K. Although all three samples showed a preference for formal, anonymous and internal modes of whistleblowing, there were significant variations related to nationality and cultural orientation. The findings have some key implications for organizational practice and offer directions for future research. (shrink)

This article investigates how South Korea was able to make relatively smooth democratic transition and deepening by relying on recent scholarship on democratization. It argues that this may be attributed in part to Korea’s regionalist politics. Its detrimental implications for democracy in general nonetheless. Despite its regionalism in Korea served democratization in two ways: first, by helping Korea’s politics move from the principled confrontation between the democratic forces and the authoritarian forces to the more pragmatic contestation (...) between regionalist political actors; second, by guaranteeing major political actors some minimum political power and thus providing them with motivations to adhere to Korea’s fledgling democratic game. (shrink)

It was only after the liberation in 1945 that we started to reflect and revive again our traditional philosophy. But for a long time it was neglected. Many of our universities did not teach oriental philosophy or Korean philosophy at all. We learned Heiddegger, Nietzsche, Hegel, Kant.

This study has two objectives – to provide a Korean form of the workaholism analysis questionnaire, and to analyze workaholic tendencies in South Korea by using a nationally representative data. Using 4,242 samples (2,497 men and 1,745 women), exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to develop a Korean form (K-WAQ). The four-factor structure of K-WAQ in this study seemed to adequately represent the underlying dimensions of work addiction in Korea. The study also analyzed the prevalence of workaholism (...) among Koreans and its differences according to socio-demographic variables. Both mean difference analyses and logistic regressions were conducted. The overall result indicated that the prevalence of workaholism in Korea can be estimated to be 39.7% of the employees. The workaholic tendencies in Korea differ significantly according to gender, age, work hours, and voluntariness of choosing employment type. Practical as well as theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed. (shrink)

STS research has devoted relatively little attention to the promotion and reception of science and technology by non-scientific actors and institutions. One consequence is that the relationship of science and technology to political power has tended to remain undertheorized. This article aims to fill that gap by introducing the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries. Through a comparative examination of the development and regulation of nuclear power in the US and South Korea, the article demonstrates the analytic potential of the imaginaries (...) concept. Although nuclear power and nationhood have long been imagined together in both countries, the nature of those imaginations has remained strikingly different. In the US, the state’s central move was to present itself as a responsible regulator of a potentially runaway technology that demands effective containment. In South Korea, the dominant imaginary was of atoms for development which the state not only imported but incorporated into its scientific, technological and political practices. In turn, these disparate imaginaries have underwritten very different responses to a variety of nuclear shocks and challenges, such as Three Mile Island (TMI), Chernobyl, and the spread of the anti-nuclear movement. (shrink)

The recent resurgence of knitting is an ambiguous social phenomenon because it has pre-industrial connotations in late modern society. Knitting is inherently an ambiguous practice which blurs the boundary between production and consumption, the material and the mental and subject and object. This paper explores Korean knitting practice from the angle of social practice. An examination of knitting practice in Korea revealed that the inherent heterogeneity is intricately intertwined with the complex landscape of knitting practice, which is dispersed in (...) a range of different forms of subgroups. Also, the multifaceted aspect of these subgroups which combines consumption, production, education and socialization, refers to the complicated and contrasting aspects of contemporary consumption and consumers. This paper particularly pays attention to the role of practical understanding as a form of skill, know-how and knowledge in the formulation and transformation of knitting practice. It also examines the emotional landscape of knitting practice, which is constructed and mediated in close interconnection with the material dimensions of the practice. (shrink)

ArgumentAfter World War II, blood groups became a symbol of anti-racial science. This paper aims to shed new light on the post-WWII history of blood groups and race, illuminating the postcolonial revitalization of racial serology in South Korea. In the prewar period, Japanese serologists developed a serological anthropology of Koreans in tandem with Japanese colonialism. The pioneering Korean hematologist Yi Samyŏl (1926–2015), inspired by decolonization movements during the 1960s, excavated and appropriated colonial serological anthropology to prove Koreans as biologically (...) independent from the Japanese. However, his racial serology of Koreans shared colonial racism with Japanese anthropology, despite his anti-colonial nationalism. (shrink)

As a result of the pressures of modernization and those of overcoming a national security crisis, moral education has been instituted as a regular course in the Korean school system.Moral education in Korea aims to reinforce desirable aspects of the Korean value system, such as: self-control, sincerity, freedom, acceptance of responsibility, development of traditional culture, commitment to national development, respect for humanity,contribution to world peace, anti-communism, etc.Adoption of moral education as a regular course of study in Korean schools has (...) resulted in a renewal of discussions regarding the matter. It is generally felt that moral education is a life-long process which should not be restricted to schools. Furthermore, an improvement in educational methods as well as evaluative techniques are necessary in order to improve the teaching of moral education in Korea. Moral education, as practised in Korea, should bring about the exploration of alternative methods leading to better methodology. (shrink)

Like many other countries, South Korea has recognized the importance of biobanks as a tool for medical research and has engaged in two very important tasks to foster biobanking infrastructure: funding biobanks and setting up rules to protect the integrity of biobanks that share potentially sensitive personal information.

Religions and philosophies in East Asia: pathways for self-transformation -- Adaptations and interactions: Chinese traditions and Korean ways -- From Buddhism to neo-Confucianism: metaphysics and hegemony -- Sagehood meets western learning: from principle to the Lord of heaven -- Eastern learning and Protestant Christianity: new religions and a Korean God -- Korea(s) complex modernity: Buddhist renewals, post-Christianities, Juche and Shamanism.

Building a coherent discourse on professionalism is a challenge for corporate social responsibility practitioners, as there is not yet an established knowledge basis for CSR, and CSR is a contested notion that covers a wide variety of issues and moral foundations. Relying on insights from the literature on micro-CSR, new professionalism, and Boltanski and Thévenot’s economies of worth framework, we examine the discourses of 56 CSR practitioners in South Korea on their claimed professionalism. Our analysis delineates four distinct discourses (...) of CSR professionalism—strategic corporate giving, social innovation, risk management, and sustainability transition—that are derived from a plurality of more or less compatible moral foundations whose partial overlaps and tensions we document in a systematic manner. Our results portray these practitioners as compromise makers who selectively combine morally distant justifications to build their own specific professionalism discourse, with the aim to advance CSR within and across organizations. By uncovering the moral relationality connecting these discourses, our findings show that moral pluralism is a double-edged sword that can not only bolster the justification of CSR professionalism but also threaten collective professionalism at the field level. Overall, our study suggests paying more attention to the moral relationality and tensions that underlie professional fields. (shrink)

This paper aims to introduce the historical traditions of Korean aesthetics, focusing on the views of prominent thinkers, and further examine the contemporary tasks of Korean aesthetics. Thanks to 'chinoiserie' and 'japonism', Chinese and Japanese aesthetics were introduced to Europe relatively early, but Korean aesthetics has received little attention until recently. Korea has developed a great art culture with a long historical tradition and unique language in East Asian culture, and has accomplished its own specific achievements in aesthetics.

This paper aims to introduce the historical traditions of Korean aesthetics, focusing on the views of prominent thinkers, and further examine the contemporary tasks of Korean aesthetics. Thanks to 'chinoiserie' and 'japonism', Chinese and Japanese aesthetics were introduced to Europe relatively early, but Korean aesthetics has received little attention until recently. Korea has developed a great art culture with a long historical tradition and unique language in East Asian culture, and has accomplished its own specific achievements in aesthetics.