This book examines the political thought of Park Chung-hee, the most revered, albeit the most controversial, former president in the history of South Korea. It looks at the trends in the ideological terrain of contemporary South Korean politics, and the legacy of Park Chung-hee’s authoritarian politics.

In the past decade, ASEAN has been the primary driver of East Asian regionalism, and Korea has been an active supporter of ASEAN plus Three. Korea has explored the idea of an East Asian Community, and has been relatively open to notions of Asia–Pacific regionalism. The ROK has involved itself comparatively heavily in regional projects as both an initiator and a participant, but its notion of ‘region’ has oscillated between more and less inclusive forms of regionalism. This article examines how (...) competing conceptions of region have influenced Korea's pursuit of regional initiatives. By revisiting historical understandings of Korea's regional identity, we explore the normative bases and material interests which motivate Korean regional initiatives, and assess the impact of its proposals. (shrink)

[Author's note: although this paper is written in Korean, it is archived here in the hope of bringing it to the attention of a wider audience including scholars of pragmatics and of Korean linguistics.] Recently, Korean linguists and philosophers of language have engaged in discussions on the meaning and usage of the Korean determiner ‘uri’ as in such phrases as ‘uri manura [our wife]’ which might seem strange given the monogamous marital institution of Korea. The aim (...) of this paper is to provide a new interpretation of such expressions as ‘uri manura’. To that end, various proposals concerning the meaning and usage of the determiner ‘uri’ in those expressions will be critically examined first. Then it will be argued that ‘uri manura’ is a polite form of ‘nae manura [my wife]’ and is used when one needs, or wants, to speak in a polite tone in deference to the hearer or the wider audience. The upshot will be that the ubiquitous use of ‘uri’ in Korean is not due to the collectivist nature of the Korean society, as has often been claimed, but rather results from the linguistic embodiment of the Confucian tradition in Korea that values courteous words and behavior. (shrink)

This book explores Neo-Confucianism and its relationship to politics by examining the life and work of the two iconic figures of the Joseon dynasty Yi Hwang, (1501-1570, Toegye) and Yi I (1536-1584, Yulgok).

This book explores Neo-Confucianism and its relationship to politics by examining the life and work of the two iconic figures of the Joseon dynasty Yi Hwang, and Yi I.

Based on ethnographic research, this study investigates the meaning and impact of women’s involvement in South Korean evangelicalism. While recent works addressing the “paradox” of women’s participation in conservative religions have highlighted the significance of these religions as unexpected vehicles of gender empowerment and contestation, this study finds that the experiences and consequences of Korean evangelical women’s religiosity are highly contradictory; although crucial in women’s efforts to negotiate the injuries of the modern Confucian-patriarchal family, conversion, for many women, (...) also signifies their effective redomestication to this family/gender regime, which helps maintain current gender arrangements. To address this tension, the article explores the meaning of religious submission in the Korean context, focusing on the motivations behind women’s consent to patriarchy, which are rooted in women’s contradictory desires regarding the family system and the ambivalent subjectivities that they evoke. (shrink)

Korean civil society is often criticized because of its dual nature, that is, the paucity of social capital in everyday life and the plethora of collective political actions in the national civil society. Although liberals view such duality as the critical impediment to Korea’s authentic democratization, which would represent a fundamental, liberal-pluralist transformation of Korean society, this article rather acknowledges its cultural uniqueness and utilizes it as the basis on which to construct a Korean non-liberal democracy that (...) is culturally pertinent and politically viable. First, this article critically re-examines the recent neo-Tocquevillian praise for social capital in light of Tocqueville’s original idea on the art of association, and reveals the liberal-individualistic assumption behind them, with which Confucian-Koreans are culturally unfamiliar. It presents a Korean version of Confucian civil society to promote democratic collective self-government and common citizenship, while rejecting modern Western moral individualism. (shrink)

This article explores the scientific fraud case of the South Korean stem cell scientist Woo-Suk Hwang, which represents a struggle over political identity. The South Korean state supported Hwang’s research hoping to establish Korean scientific-technological leadership in biotechnology, but it combined this globalization strategy with an identity politics built around the Korean people. The emerging bionationalism exceeded traditional ethnic nationalism insofar as the traditional ethnicity marker of ‘‘blood’’ was displaced by biologically scientifically grounded notions such (...) as the stem cell or the oocyte. These new biological markers defined national identity and embedded the transformative potential of modern biomedicine to be put into the service of Korean bodies and the nation’s economic future. Bionationalistic mobilization became hegemonic in South Korea in 2000 and undermined the democratic process, giving rise to violations against core principles of good governance. This bionationalistic narrative was challenged by an attempt to define political identity through the ideas of political citizenship, liberal democracy, and participation. The South Korean government has terminated its bionationalistic mobilization, but the struggles over Hwang and Korean identity linger. (shrink)

This study examines the dynamics of cultural politics in reality television shows featuring North Korean resettlers in South Korea. As existing studies focus on the role of media representation reproducing a dominant ideology for the resettlers, this paper focuses on the specific media rituals of NKR2 programs, which can be seen as a product of the neoliberalist localization process of the global media industry. In doing so, this paper demonstrates how NKR2 programs interrupt the current dynamics of emotions (...) in regard to North Korean resettlers in South Korea. We argue that in shaping civic identity as an effect of the NKR2 show, cultural politics of citizenship in South Korea on North Korean resettlers serve the formation of relatively conservative and sexist civic identity. (shrink)

During the Asian and Pacific War, the Japanese government mobilized approximately 200,000 Asian women to military brothels to sexually serve Japanese soldiers. The majority of these victims were unmarried young women from Korea, Japan’s colony at that time. In the early 1990s, Korean feminist leaders helped more than 200 Korean survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery to come forward to tell the truth, which has further accelerated the redress movement for the women. One major issue in the redress (...) movement and research relating to the so-called “comfort women” issue is whether Japan’s colonization of Korea or gender hierarchy was a more fundamental cause of the Korean women’s suffering. Using an intersectional perspective, this article analyzes how colonial power, gender hierarchy, and class were inseparably tied together to make the victims’ lives miserable. By doing so, it shows that a one-sided emphasis on colonization or gender hierarchy will misrepresent the feminist political issue and misinterpret the “comfort women’s” experiences. (shrink)

Die Beiträge in diesem Buch sind in transkultureller Perspektive Problemen der Epistemologie, der Anthropologie, der Ethik und der politischen Philosophie gewidmet. Unter dem Titel Menschsein - On Being Human diskutieren koreanische und deutsche Philosophen Themen der einen Welt: Universale und lokale Diskurse über Kultur und Transkulturalität im Zeitalter der Globalisierung, die Rolle der Religionen, öffentliche Rationalität, transkulturelle Gerechtigkeit und Universalität von Menschenrechten. The contributions in this book are from a transcultural perspective and devoted to problems in epistemology, anthropology, ethics and (...) political philosophy. Under the title Menschsein - On Being Human, Korean and German philosophers discuss topics to do with one world: universal and local discourses about culture and transculturality in the age of globalization, the role of religion, public rationality, transcultural justice, and the universality of human rights. (shrink)

Luther’s beliefs provide three avenues of change for the Korean church and Korean society at large. First, Luther’s argument about two different kingdoms can help the Korean church set itself free from the deeply rooted political attachment stemming from the ideological conflict with North Korea over the past six decades. Second, Luther’s understanding of the individual’s inner mind as the locus of revelation of the divine truth is expected to enhance an autonomous self-determination that is independent of (...) the collective mindset of the multitude, which leads to the naissance of being truly individual. Lastly, Luther’s ethics of love will hopefully improve the public awareness concerning human rights of criminals and, through his vocation theory, give the vision of a unified organic society that Rises above the possessive individualism that spread widely during Korea’s rapid economic growth. (shrink)

Hyangjin Lee _Contemporary Korean Cinema: Identity, Culture, Politics_ Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2000 ISBN: 0719060087 viii + 244 pp.

In 2017, Korean crisis escalated as Donald Trump began “war of words” with DPRK’s chairman Kim Jong-un. Each threat both leaders made might eventually be understood by the other party as a declaration of war. Donald Trump wanted to “clean up the mess” left by previous US administrations and solve the problem of North Korean nuclear program. However, his actions were inconsistent: he threatened in a very North Korean way “total destruction” only to emphasize later that it (...) was not a “preferred option.” This article explores how “war of words” was a significant cause of the escalation of the Korean crisis. (shrink)

Ideological and political tensions have impeded paying attention to human rights violations against North Koreans. By describing the substantial connection between human rights and nuclear weapons issues in North Korea, this book urges a wide audience, including human rights activists, scholars, and educators, to show leadership in helping North Korean defectors seek freedom.

This study examines a deep-seated anti-missionary sentiment of Korean theologians and church historians. Chai-Choon Kim and Jong-Sung Rhee were arguably most responsible for popularizing anti-missionary sentiment among Korean Christians. The main reason for the criticisms of both Kim and Rhee against the American Presbyterian Korea missionaries was the supposedly fundamentalist schisms of the Presbyterian Church of Korea in the 1950s, which both Kim and Rhee reasoned to have been originated from their Old Princeton theology. The theological rationale of (...) both Kim and Rhee was the Barthian triumph frame that the Reformed Orthodoxy including the Old Princeton theology, which had been suspected of having a fundamentalist tendency, was overcome by Karl Barth’s Neo-Orthodoxy. These theological anti-missionary criticisms facilitated some younger Korean church historians, especially both Kyung-Bae Min and Man-Yul Lee, to view Korean church history from an anti-missionary, Korean ethnic nationalist perspective. Min emphasizes some seemingly good but anecdotal works of individual Korean native Christians, hence resulting in depreciation of the works of the missionaries and their Korean coworkers. Following Min, Lee goes even further, praising what some individual Korean Christians did for socio-political (anti-establishment) purposes and ignoring what the missionaries and their Korean coworkers did cooperatively for their Korean churches. Those Korean theologians and church historians with quite a strong anti-missionary sentiment might have succeeded in arousing Korean Christians’ ethnic nationalism, but in so doing, they have quite surely deprived Korean Christians of their critically significant and rich ecclesiastical and theological elements which have been originated from the missionaries. (shrink)

Aesthetics is not a subject usually associated with North Korea in Western scholarship, the usual tropes being autocracy, counterfeiting, drugs, human-rights abuse, famine, nuclear weapons, party-military dictatorship, Stalinism, and totalitarianism. Where the arts are concerned, they are typically seen as crude political propaganda. One British museum specialist writes that North Korean visual art is an "art under control," and one Russian historian insists that North Korean literature is devoid of the "beauty of language."1 As the short turns of (...) phrase and value judgments indicate, there has been no real attempt in English to engage the North Korean aesthetic on descriptive terms.North Korea is not a liberal .. (shrink)

With the introduction of zoom and cell group Bible study and fellowship gathering with church members from 6 to 10, congregation members of each Korean church have come to appreciate the diversity within each consistory encompassing multigenerational American born Koreans, foreign expats, diplomats, immigrants from middle class and up from the greater Seoul, South Korea area, political refugees and migrant workers who categorically entered this country with Republic of Korea visa but who originally were able to date back their (...) earlier life from Communist Regimes such as Siberia, China, Vietnam and North Korea (Ibuk chulsin) and other Asian of color looking foreigners and mix-breeds with Korean heritage and other combinations. The focus of their Christian practice has been more passive concept of God’s grace grounded on John Wesley tradition rather than their yoking and making progress in lineal fashion into the future with and by believers out of Christian love. A premium is placed in smooth transitioning from static Confucianism and Christianity embracing education, meritocracy, social harmony and order. (shrink)

This essay attempts a philosophical reflection of the Confucian ideal of “scholar-official” in Joseon Korea’s neo-Confucian context. It explores why this noble ideal of a Confucian public being had to suffer many moral-political problems in reality. It argues first that because the institution of Confucian scholar-official was actually a modus-operandi compromise between Confucianism and Legalism, the Confucian scholar-officials were torn between their ethical commitment to Confucianism and their political commitment to the state; and second, that because the Cheng-Zhu neo-Confucianism vigorously (...) imported and indigenized by Joseon Koreans exalted the family over the state, Joseon neo-Confucian scholar-officials were torn between two competing moral obligations, filiality and loyalty. The essay concludes by discussing whether, given the problems with which the ideal of the Confucian scholar-official was frequently entangled, liberal individualism should be pursued as its normative alternative. (shrink)

Pirie's new book attempts a long-awaited Marxist analysis of the contemporary Korean state. It seeks to go beyond the binary opposition between neoliberal market-fundamentalism and Keynesian statism by persuasively demonstrating the indispensability of the state's role in the establishment of neoliberalism in Korea. It also provides an original and insightful analysis of the neoliberal regulation of finance in Korea. However, Pirie's central argument that the stable neoliberal régime of accumulation was established in Korea after the 1997 crisis can be (...) questioned in view of the trend in profitability, the same empirical evidence on which his argument rests. Pirie also needs to provide a more consistent Marxist class-analysis of capitalism in Korea. (shrink)

The study reveals the political and ideological journey of Beom-do Hong, a Korean independence fighter and general as reflected in the historical novel of Soviet Korean writer Kim Se-il. Due to to the lack of historical records on Beom-do Hong, stories on his deeds before and after the Japan's annexation of Korea remained at the level of legends. In Korean society, his figure is seen within opposing positions and discourses; to some he is a national hero; to (...) others a communist collaborator. This investigation of the historical novel as a medium for the transmission of shared memories based on the protagonist's battle diary and the recollections of his comrades will fill the gap in the historical memory and contribute to alleviating social political conflicts. Memorial heritage is closely linked to the intangible aspects of heritage, which is an essential driver of development. (shrink)

This volume is the first comprehensive and in-depth discussion written in English of the Confucian tradition in the context of the intellectual history of Korea. It deals with the historical, social, political, philosophical and spiritual dimensions of Korean Confucianism, arguably the most influential intellectual tradition, ethical and religious practice, and political-ideological system in Korea. This volume analyzes the unique aspects of the Korean development of the Confucian tradition by examining the role of Confucianism as the ruling ideology of (...) the Choson Dynasty. It investigates Confucianism’s social and cultural construction, and intellectual foundation in highlighting the Korean achievement of the Neo-Confucian discussion on "human nature and its principle" in light of the Chinese Neo-Confucian development. The volume also surveys the most influential Korean Confucian scholars discussing their philosophical significance in relation to one of the most fundamental Neo-Confucian discourses, namely the li and qi debates, to elucidate how metaphysical theories shaped the socio-political factions of the Choson Dynasty. Furthermore, issues concerning the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism and other native traditional belief systems are also included in this volume. The volume explores the Confucian confrontation with modernity, encounter with the "Western Learning" including Western science and Catholicism, and the Confucian struggle with modernity in dealing with issues such as democracy, human rights, and gender in modern Korea. Individual contributors of this volume are either well established senior scholars or promising young scholars in the field. (shrink)

Korean civil society is often criticized because of its dual nature, that is, the paucity of social capital in everyday life and the plethora of collective political actions in the national civil society. Although liberals view such duality as the critical impediment to Korea’s authentic democratization, which would represent a fundamental, liberal-pluralist transformation of Korean society, this article rather acknowledges its cultural uniqueness and utilizes it as the basis on which to construct a Korean non-liberal democracy that (...) is culturally pertinent and politically viable. First, this article critically re-examines the recent neo-Tocquevillian praise for social capital in light of Tocqueville’s original idea on the art of association, and reveals the liberal-individualistic assumption behind them, with which Confucian-Koreans are culturally unfamiliar. It presents a Korean version of Confucian civil society to promote democratic collective self-government and common citizenship, while rejecting modern Western moral individualism. (shrink)

Korean civil society is often criticized because of its dual nature, that is, the paucity of social capital in everyday life and the plethora of collective political actions in the national civil society. Although liberals view such duality as the critical impediment to Korea’s authentic democratization, which would represent a fundamental, liberal-pluralist transformation of Korean society, this article rather acknowledges its cultural uniqueness and utilizes it as the basis on which to construct a Korean non-liberal democracy that (...) is culturally pertinent and politically viable. First, this article critically re-examines the recent neo-Tocquevillian praise for social capital in light of Tocqueville’s original idea on the art of association, and reveals the liberal-individualistic assumption behind them, with which Confucian-Koreans are culturally unfamiliar. It presents a Korean version of Confucian civil society to promote democratic collective self-government and common citizenship, while rejecting modern Western moral individualism. (shrink)

A series of Six-Party Talks involving the United States, China, Japan, South and North Korea, and Russia resulted in the emergence of a narrative of a . Given the prevalence of nuclear weapons amidst Sino-American rivalry, the area is hardly . Instead, the phrase has evolved into a common signifier for the US and China, suggesting that, despite their rivalries, the North Korean nuclear issue can be detrimental for both nuclear-free’ seriously, recasting the phrase as borne of both mutual (...) scepticism, as well as convergent interests, over the Korean Peninsula. (shrink)

This article addresses the 2nd Korean consensus conference on cloning that was held by the Korean National commission for UNESCO in 1999. It notes that the citizens participated directly and handled the important social agenda through deliberative process. The consensus conference is another democratic form derived from preference aggregative democracy in the sense that it basically depends on public judgment of the citizens.Compared to other models (elitist or preference aggregative), it has some advantages: 1. It can solve the (...) problem of political legitimacy. 2. It can check the partiality of expert groups in biotechnology and ethics. 3. It enables us to make informed, responsible decisions. 4. It results in education of citizens’ preference.However, we need to expand the deliberative model. First, we need institutional efforts on behalf of future generations because cloning relates to them. Second, we should not confine deliberation to logical argument, but expand deliberation to include the value of life which cannot be expressed in the form of argument or discourse. (shrink)

Forecasts predicting the reunification of the Korean Peninsula were common throughout the 1990s. Since then, enthusiasm for such predictions has dampened, and though the fundamental assumption of reunification remains, predictions of when and how this will happen have been more restrained. Reunification leaves two unresolved yet interdependent issues: reunification itself, which is the urgent challenge; and the strategic issues that emerge from reunification, which have the potential to fundamentally transform strategic relations in the region of Northeast Asia. Within this (...) context, this paper examines the prospects of Korean reunification against the background of the interstate relations. Initially, it will establish the framework from which such scenarios will emerge: the historical background of the division, the extreme differences between the two states, the role played by the North Korean nuclear threats and the impact of the September 11, 2001 on the interstate relations, and finally general situation and relations in the East Asian region. Then, three possible scenarios of the unification will be developed: through peaceful integration, through the fall of North Korea or through a war. Summing up, even the death of Kim Jong Il will not bring change in the domestic and foreign policy of North Korea which is going to continue an aggressive approach toward the South. In the short-term reunification is definitely not in the interest of the current ROK administration, and the South has no intention of encouraging it. None of the considered scenarios envisions early reunification, and it seems that for the future, the status quo on the Korean Peninsula will remain. (shrink)

There is ongoing debate on whether Juche (주체/主體), the North Korean state ideology, is indigenous, Marxist-Leninist, or Confucian—or if it’s a real philosophy at all. In this article, I introduce Juche and show how characteristics that philosophers identify to be unique or pronounced in premodern Korean philosophy can be found in Juche as well. Intellectual adaptation, pragmaticism, and an emphasis on continual improvement are prominent in both premodern Korean thought and Juche. Juche should be understood as a (...) politically inflected outgrowth that is embedded within the larger context of Korean philosophy. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to examine the mission and education of the Korean Orthodox Church in the process of migration and settlement of Koreans in the Primorsky Krai from the 1860s to the 1910s and to discuss the historical background and sociocultural significance of it. This study summarizes the history of Korean maritime migrants in chronological order in the late 19th century. In this study, Russian, Russian-Korean bilingual and Korean translation used by the Russian (...) Orthodox Church were discussed. At the time of the 19th century, the Russian Orthodox Church was the ideological background of the ruling Russian emigration. The Russian orthodox education that Koreans received was the first Western-style education acceptance of Koreans. The Orthodox Church conducted missions and education for Koreans through Russian language education, Korean-Russian bilingual education, and Korean-speaking Korean missions. Koreans accepted sophistication for survival and adjustment in Russia, or spiritual influence, and expressed enthusiasm for education. Russian Orthodox was bilingual, reflecting the dialect used by Koreans in Russia, and standard Korean of Seoul area. Although the educational environment was poor and the political situation was always changing rapidly, the role of the Orthodox Church was great in that it provided opportunities for Koreans to play an active role in the Primorsky Krai by finding out the talents of Koreans through education and by knowing their potentials themselves. (shrink)

This essay sheds new light on Korean democracy after democratization. It examines how the notion of ‘transcendental collectivism’, associated with familial bonds and the concept of chŏng, led to an emphasis on citizen‐empowerment. This participatory perspective replaced the militant elite‐led activism of the transitional period, which was underpinned by a Confucian ‘transcendental individualism’ predicated on the concept of ren. The argument is based on a detailed case study of a recent episode of citizen action. The article shows how the (...) search for a new democratic citizenship that was capable of overcoming the parochial regionalism that has bedeviled Korean politics for decades, led ordinary (especially young) Korean citizens to come up with a new national democratic civic ethos that corresponded to the changed political environment. This new ethos was uri‐responsibility, a uniquely Korean view of collective moral responsibility. After examining uri‐responsibility and comparing it with Kantian‐liberal accounts of responsibility, its strong democratic implications for Korea are explored. (shrink)

In 2010–12, Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated without the Yasukuni Shrine or Chinese human rights violations in the forefront. To improve relations, attention should turn to what I label the ideological, sectoral, and horizontal dimensions of a national identity gap between these countries. They have each figured in the decline and offer more promise than the temporal dimension, with its symbols of wartime memories, and the vertical dimension, where sensitive Chinese internal affairs are at stake. The sectoral dimension comprises political, economic, and (...) also cultural national identity, each of which has grown more intense in China, while cultural identity is still a force in Japan. Establishing an East Asian community is now the centerpiece in the hope that the horizontal dimension will be an impetus for mutual understanding, yet the notion of community is repeated with no sign of a shared vision of the outside world, whether the US role or the international arena and regionalism. With South Korea, their partner in trilateralism and North Korea's transformation at the crux of all three of these dimensions, this paper emphasizes the way divergent views of the peninsula keep growing in importance for bilateral relations. It suggests ways to reframe relations through cooperation over Korea. As difficult as Korean relations are for both states, it is a test case for their identity gap. (shrink)

This study investigated how Korean students apply principles of human rights to social issues in Korean and international contexts and how they differentiate between human rights and other values. Open-ended, task-based interviews were conducted with 22 high school students in Korea. Korean students were aware of human rights violations involved in any given social issues, but their explanations focused only on the principle of political and economic equality. However, Korean students showed contradictory reasoning when they pointed (...) to human rights issues in international or Korean settings; whereas they pointed to structural oppression as the cause of human rights violations and applied universal principles of human rights in the international context, they considered individual choices and traditional values in the Korean context. This study indicates that Korean students’ understanding of human rights is influenced by a variety of contextual factors in and out of school, and it suggests that social studies educators must challenge students’ prior experiences with and ideas about human rights issues in settings outside of school. (shrink)

This paper is about a Korean Millenarian group called Sion-san cheguk. Contrary to anthropological studies of “millenarian” movements in non-European societies, the study here shows that this Korean millenarian group is neither post-millennial in outlook, nor was it anti-European although it was anti-colonial. More importantly, this paper indicates that it is fundamentally wrong to assume that “millenarian” movements are principally movements of political protest, and not inspired fundamentally by religious beliefs.

This study analyses the affectivity of social disgust behind the oppressive exclusion of social minorities, such as the forced institutionalisation of vagrants in modern Korean society. This social exclusion of vagrants is divided into two forms: the forced institutionalisation of ‘infected vagrants’ during the Japanese occupation and the forced institutionalisation of ‘vagrants themselves’ during the developmental state. In both cases, the visible power apparatus of exclusion of minorities was socially legitimised by the effective use of disgust politics of (...) purification and isolation. Through this analysis, this study joins the discourse on affective communities as a critical alternative to deinstitutionalisation by revealing the dynamics of the social disgust that threatens the community’s existence. (shrink)

This article addresses the 2nd Korean consensus conference on cloning that was held by the Korean National commission for UNESCO in 1999. It notes that the citizens participated directly and handled the important social agenda through deliberative process. The consensus conference is another democratic form derived from preference aggregative democracy in the sense that it basically depends on public judgment of the citizens.Compared to other models , it has some advantages: 1. It can solve the problem of political (...) legitimacy. 2. It can check the partiality of expert groups in biotechnology and ethics. 3. It enables us to make informed, responsible decisions. 4. It results in education of citizens’ preference.However, we need to expand the deliberative model. First, we need institutional efforts on behalf of future generations because cloning relates to them. Second, we should not confine deliberation to logical argument, but expand deliberation to include the value of life which cannot be expressed in the form of argument or discourse. (shrink)

The expansion of the higher education system and the rationalization of universities in South Korea, while broadly following the global patterns, reflect the characteristics of the national political system. We show the rapid growth of universities and document core organizational changes among universities: the elaboration of faculty performance evaluation rules, the expansion and differentiation of central administrations, and the emergence of engagement in vision statements. These changes, constructing universities as organizational actors, parallel the changes in higher education systems elsewhere. However, (...) the uniqueness of the Korean experience lies with the role of the state as a catalyst guiding the overall direction and the structure and strategy of universities. We discuss the implications of our research for the rationalization of universities in a highly centralized system. (shrink)

This paper examines the Fair Trade practices of Dure, a Korean consumer cooperative, through the extended cooperative enterprise citizenship framework. Extended cooperative citizenship means that cooperatives should replace citizenship and fill the gaps in the weakening public service sector. As dual-purpose business organizations, cooperatives have already played essential roles as extended corporate citizens. However, previous literature regarding CSR or cooperatives has not sufficiently explored the social responsibility of cooperatives. Furthermore, corporate citizenship is generally regarded as a singular and static (...) concept. Therefore, this paper analyses Dure’s Fair Trade practices through the newly developed framework. Significantly, this article clarifies how Dure collaborates with key stakeholders and upholds their civil, political, and social rights through Fair Trade. This paper also explains how cooperative enterprise citizenship has changed as Fair Trade practices have shifted. Two implications of this research are revealed. First, the paper develops a new analytical model to explain the dynamics of corporate citizenship and Fair Trade practices. Second, the research provides details about the social responsibility of Korean consumer cooperatives based on Fair Trade that will have practical applications for practitioners in the business sector. (shrink)

This paper examines an aspect of the grammar-interaction interface with respect to how participants orient to intra-turn phrasal unit boundaries as a locus that has interactional import for turn and sequence organization in Korean conversation. Phrasal unit boundaries in Korean serve as a space within a turn in which the speaker of the turn in-progress invites the recipient to acknowledge the speaker's point expressed up-to-that-point and collaboratively display his/her understanding thereof. In a sequentially and topically 'ripe' context, such (...) unit boundaries often constitute places where more active participation on the part of the recipient is invited in the form of collaborative completion in which the recipient co-constructs the primary speaker's on-going turn. Phrasal unit boundaries also provide interactional resources which the speaker may exploit to sequentially delete out a problem in talk, e.g., by a sort of tying operation in which a subsequently added phrasal unit ties back to the speaker's previous utterance to the effect that the intervening talk containing a problem is canceled out by way of being shown to have been an interruption of the speaker's turn in-progress. This practice points to an aspect of the way in which the 'agglutinative' grammatical process involving the use of phrasal units shapes interactional patterns as observed in the course of organizing turns/sequences and managing problems in talk. (shrink)

This paper deals with the sudden change in the mood, themes and style of Korean literature in the 1990s, which was brought on by the inauguration of the first civilian government in three decades and the lifting of the oppressive shadow of military dictatorship. Under military dictatorship, serious Korean writers all felt obligated to be the conscience of the nation, so the emphasis of their works tended to be on social and political injustice and the lives of the (...) exploited workers or helpless and powerless citizens. Their tone, therefore, was that of harsh protest. However, with the demise of military dictatorship, Korean writers felt free to focus on personal relationships and the inner psyche. Shin Kyoung-suuk and Choi Yoon are just two among the many new talents who emerged in the Korean literary scene since the end of the 1980s. They awakened the deep-seated repression of the Korean psyche and fueled the exuberance of psychic liberation. (shrink)

This article summarizes the findings of this special issue focusing on five questions: (1) who studies Japanese politics and international relations in China, Japan and the Republic of Korea?; (2) what is being studied in each of these countries?; 3) how are Japanese politics studied in each of these countries?; (3) what determines the nature of the study of Japanese politics and international relations?; and 4) what is the impact of the study of Japanese politics in (...) each of these three countries? The findings on the first questions are that most scholars in each of these countries are concentrated in their forties and fifties, but their educational backgrounds are considerably varied. On the second question, the topics of study are becoming more wide-ranging in recent years, although in China, government policy still puts a constraint on the range of topics studied. Regarding the third question, the approaches that are used are becoming more varied, especially in Japan and South Korea. Concerning the fourth question, domestic politics in each of these countries matter, and financial constraints are a problem in China. Finally, it seems that Korean scholars in this area may have greater impact on the government than in the other two countries. (shrink)

This paper examines the internal dynamics of Korean political parties to understand why the minority coalition government of Kim Dae-jung suffered from political stalemate or deadlocks in the legislature. It shows that a focus on the size of the government in terms of a majority status in the legislature does not offer a convincing explanation of why the Kim Dae-jung administration slid towards ungovernability. Instead better insights come from an analysis of party organization, an aspect of party politics (...) rarely examined through in-depth analysis. The paper shows that in terms of the key dimensions of organization (leadership type, factionalism, funding, linkage role) Korean political parties fail to connect citizens to the political system. (shrink)

본 논문은 다산 정약용에 대한 북한 학술의 연구 동향과 담론 가능성을 살펴본 것이다. 다산 정약용의 철학과 사상은 남한과 북한의 학술에서 중요한 역할을 하고 있다. 일제강점기 조선학운동의 전개에 따라 발굴된 정약용이란 인물과 그의 저술은 이른바 실학과 근대를 설명하는 데에 적합하였고, 특히 분단 이후 그의 철학, 사회정치사상, 실학파문학은 북한 학술의 핵심이었다고 해도 과언이 아니다. 여기에서 중요한 인물은 면우 곽종석의 제자였던 창해 최익한이다. 정약용이란 인물과 그의 저술에 대한 최익한의 이해가 남한은 물론, 북한에도 상당한 영향력을 행사하고 있기 때문이다. 본 논문에서는 정약용에 대한 북한 학술의 (...) 연구동향을 첫째 마르크스주의와 주체사상, 정약용의 철학과 사회정치사상, 정약용의 문학과 실학파문학으로 구분하여 살펴보았다. 북한 학술은 마르크스주의에 대한 주체적 재해석을 통해 진행되었고, 주석제 신설에 따라 김일성 교시라고 할 수 있는 주체철학에 따른 저술들이 간행되었다. 그 저술 내용 가운데 핵심적인 것이 바로 정약용의 철학과 사회정치사상이다. 그의 실학파문학 또한 정약용의 철학과 사회정치사상 범주에서 인식되었다. 사회의 개혁과 인민의 현실을 사실주의적으로 접근하고 있기 때문이다. 남북 학술의 담론 가능성도 이러한 이해를 전제로 논의될 수 있으며, 이른바 통일 시대를 희망하는 남북 학계는 공동연구를 통해 이른바 ‘한반도학술사’를 정리해낼 수 있을 것이다. (shrink)

공적 영역에 나갈 수 없는 존재들은 어떤 방식으로 삶을 구가(求暇/歐歌)할 수 있을까? 공적 영역에 나갈 수 없다는 것은 어떤 의미이며, 그러한 배제와 추방의 상황에서도 자신을 비롯한 쫓겨난 존재들의 삶을 드러내는 일은 어떻게 이루어지는 걸까? 이 논문은 한나 아렌트(Hannah Arendt)의 정치 개념을 그 자신의 ‘파리아(pariah)’ 논의를 분석함으로써 ‘파리아의 정치’로 다시 해석하는 일을 통해 이와 같은 물음에 답하고자 한다. 먼저 공적영역에서 ‘보이지 않는’ 일의 의미를 ‘차별(discrimination)’의 구조를 중심으로 밝힌다. 그것은 구체적으로 유대인 파리아와 파브뉴 개념 분석을 통해 다루어질 텐데, 이 두 개념은 오늘날까지 (...) 이어지는 오래된 사회적 차별의 표지로 재해석된다. 다음으로 파리아로서의 유대인: 숨겨진 전통 에서 다루어지는 네 가지 파리아 형상을 차별에 저항하는 네 방식으로 해석한다. 이들 형상은 역사 속에서 삭제되거나 제대로 다루어지지 못한 유대인 파리아의 정치적 경험을 드러낸다. 마지막으로 아렌트 정치 개념을, ‘드러남’과 ‘시작’이라는 그의 행위 개념에 대한 설명에 근거하여, ‘보이지 않는 자들의 존재 현시’와 ‘역사 없는 자들의 역사 생성’이라는 의미를 담은 ‘파리아의 정치’로 다시 쓴다. (shrink)

처용설화의 무속적 민속학적 해석은 저자인 일연스님의 편집 의도를 무시한다. 처용사건은 특히 신라말기의 경문왕계, 특히 헌강왕 후손들의 왕권계승과 신라의 멸망 사실과 관련이 있다. 그러므로 처용사건은 신라 당대의 역사적 관심 속에서 전복적 해석학과 정치신학의 방법론을 바탕으로 접근해야 한다. 필자는 처용사건의 맥락사를 국인추대, 골품제, 색공제로 구성하고, 이를 ‘법 정초적 위력’, ‘법 보존적 위력’, ‘법 파괴적 위력’이라는 정치신학적 요소들로 파악하고자 한다.BR 신국의 출현과 더불어 화백회의는 최고주권자를 추대하는 정치적 기능을 수행해왔으며, 박씨와 석씨를 막론하고 가장 훌륭한 연장자를 왕으로 세우라는 ‘잇금의 원칙’을 수립하였으나, 무열왕계, 원성왕계, 경문왕계의 태자제도 (...) 확대로 인하여 크게 훼손되었고 권력실세의 의중에 따르는 지경으로 추락하였다. 신성한 왕통을 유지하려는 골품제 역시 족강(族降)과 득난(得難)처럼 당대 왕을 중심으로 재편하여 왕위계승 집단을 축소함으로써 정치적 소요와 반란의 빌미가 되었다. 신라왕실은 골품제의 유지 존속에 필요한 법 보존적 위력 수단으로 왕비족과 색공제를 시행했으나, 진지왕의 경우처럼 색공제는 법 보존적 위력을 넘어서서 법 파괴적 위력으로 작동되기도 하였다.BR 처용사건은 헌강왕과 그의 가족들이 왕권을 계승해나가는 역사적 사실과 직접적인 관련이 있다. 특히 헌강왕이 어색(漁色)으로 얻은 아들 요(嶢)가 진성여왕의 태자가 되어 효공왕으로 등극하는 과정, 국인추대를 통한 박씨왕가의 재등장과 그 몰락, 후백제의 견훤이 세운 경순왕이 왕건에게 색공과 함께 신라를 바친 사실 모두가 처용사건의 맥락사를 이루고 있다. 이로써 신라는 멸망하지만, 그 후예들은 자손 대대로 색공의 은택을 누려왔다. 처용사건은 고대 신라왕실에서 일회적으로 발생한 것이 아니라 천년 동안 반복적으로 일어났던 것이다. (shrink)