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This paper examines the crucial impact of exogenous factors (e.g. geopolitical context) and the endogenous dynamic between "self" (i.e. Japanese) and "other" (i.e. Koreans) on the nexus of nationhood and citizenship in a historically specific context of distinctive regime types in Japan. The Japanese case provides a formidable opportunity to revisit several prominent theories of nationhood and citizenship, which stipulate a mostly Western, nation-state centered narrative as Japan's development differs from the conventional narrative of nationhood and citizenship. During the imperial period, an authoritarian regime conducted an inclusive policy based on cultural assimilation and broad recognition of heterogeneity. The democratized Japanese nation-state in the aftermath of WWII implemented more exclusionary citizenship. Today, such exclusive practices are called into question by the former colonies, minority groups, and supranational institutions (i.e. U.N.). Based on archival research, this paper seeks to refine some of the dominant assumptions in the literature on nationalism and citizenship. This paper pays special attention to the changing role of the Korean minority in Japan because they are the focus of these changing policies and their mobilization (or lack thereof) informed the transformation of Japanese nationhood, citizenship and immigration policy. By identifying what constraints regime-type places on the types of citizenship available to a society and what social forces create and sustain dissonant voices in debates over nationhood, my study shows how the making of nationhood and citizenship-immigration policies is contingent on exogenous geopolitical factors as well as endogenous contentious relationships between state and non-state actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continued worker?s suicides throughout 2003, especially suicides related to labor disputes, have shocked Korean society. Current explanations, however, on these deaths do not show how hostile environments against labor unions and economic hardship of workers lead to suicide. This paper attempts to explain worker?s suicides using historical approach and social structural variables focusing on the role of suicide in labor politics in Korea. It reviews historically how suicides have gained its meaning and role in labor politics and find how the role and meaning of worker?s suicides evolved to current status. This paper attempts to explain how the recent change of industrial relationship among workers, unions and companies in Korea is related to the increase of suicides in 2003. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the studies based on developed countries, femle labor market have critical impacts on fertility int the post demographic transitional era. Currently East Asians NICs have already entered the stage of low fertility. How the labor market influence the fertility in this area becomes an important issue not only for the area study, but also for the general theory of low fertility. This paper examines the relationships between female labor force participation and fertility in Taiwan and South Korea and finds that Taiwanese women have higher labor force participation rates and more children. By using the survey data collected in 1996 in these two countries, this paper suggested that the difference in bargaining power in labor market, which is shaped by the structures of economical and educational opportunities, is responsible for the difference in these two countries. This result confirms the conclusions drew by the studies based on European countries. That is, a country with a more ?women friendly? environment will have both higher female labor force participation rate and fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most striking characteristic of the Korean economy during the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 was that the whole economic system abruptly fell apart like a house of cards. In 1997-1998, about a half of the top 30 Korean business groups filed for bankruptcy. The country was virtually on the verge of collapse. This paper explains that the fundamental cause of the crisis was not just the financial defaults of the chaebol; rather it was structural in nature. The crisis was not independent of the Korean economic structure that is dominated by a very few extraordinarily powerful business groups, the chaebol. To understand the dynamics of the crisis, this paper digs deeper into the nature of Korean capitalism, a form of capitalism in which oligopolistic economic dominance of a few chaebol shapes the economy. This paper challenges the long-standing view of the Korean developmental state as rational industry shaper. This paper argues that industrial choices by the Korean state from one to another are fundamentally the reactions to, not the directions for, the chaebol. The Korean state’s role reflected the chaebol-dominated industrial structure. These characteristics of the industrial process are what created the developmental role of the Korean state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned about social responsibility of experts in the field of science and technology in the process of large-scale nature-transforming national projects. This paper took the case of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project in Korea--which has been admired internationally as a Korean-style Green New Deal on the one hand, and has caused domestic controversies especially among experts in the other hand--in order to deal with the issue of experts' social responsibility. The study questions raised in this paper include why and how experts have to take social responsibility and to what extent they have to be responsible. Through exploration of the case of the Four Major Rivers Project, this paper argues that experts have to take social responsibility when national policies and projects are associated with scientific and technological elements since these events hugely impact the daily lives of the public and the environment and demand large investments of public money. It also underscores that socially responsible experts have to reveal their values and stances based on verifiable evidence and the public has to have a chance to test which set of experts are working for the public good. Experts should be allowed to contest their arguments and positions under conditions where free speech is respected so they can practice social responsibility. Whether this is allowed or not can reveal the level of democracy of a society. The Four Major Rivers Project identifies the importance of experts' social responsibility and conditions for its realization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a transnational feminist analysis of the discourse surrounding teenage homosexuality in South Korean newspapers 1990-2005. When the gender and sexual order is undone while homosexuals are gradually recognized within the imaginary of citizens, the discourse around teenage homosexuality becomes a contested terrain to show the dilemma of citizenship and recognition. While teenage homosexuality was framed as a "foreign" or "universal" phenomenon by two major competing transnational discourses, the Christian Right and liberal human rights discourse, the local history of South Korean teenagers is hidden and forgotten by the public, and these discourse and the erasure in turn influences the shaping of the teenagers' experiences. In South Korea, the cost of recognition of homosexuals and their human rights in the discourse surrounding teenage homosexuality involved re-writing the local history of same-sex desire and pleasure to accentuate suffering of homosexual teenagers. By examining competing transnational and local discourses around teenage homosexuality, this paper examines the ways in which a South Korean nation negotiates gendered ways of constituting a proper sexual citizen-subject. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This working paper examines the impact of return migration on the formation of ethnic identities in two immigrant communities, Korean Chinese (Joseonjok) and Korean Americans (jemi gyopos), within the Korean diaspora. Empirical data collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with over 60 research participants, supplemented by informal conversations and participant observation during a 16 month fieldwork period in Seoul, South Korea between August 2004 and December 2005. Questions regarding their immigration histories, reasons for returning to Korea, the formation and maintenance of immigrant communities in their home countries reveal the fluid nature of ethnic identity and how it is transformed by their experiences in South Korea. Rather than creating a larger transnational ethnic Korean community, divisions between ethnic Koreans as well as with native Koreans accentuate consciousness of hybrid identities that are distinct from each other. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the process of stereotyping which is based on simplification, exaggeration, and interpretation of cultural attributes as being natural, people's individually specific and less vivid characteristics are being removed and each individual's personality remains distorted. One of the most common stereotypes across the world is gender stereotype in which women are characterized as being passive and subject-less. As objects to be observed and chosen, women are compelled to prioritize their appearances over other merits and to follow beauty stereotypes. Korea's stereotyped beauty has been formed and strengthened under the mixed influence of traditional Neo-Confucianist conformity and the modern age's commodification of women's bodies. More problematic than the oversimplification of stereotyping itself in Korean stereotyped beauty is its strictly uniform and westernized beauty standard which is difficult for Korean women to reach without the aid of plastic surgery. This paper explores how Korean mass media represent Korean beauty stereotype and how they intensify this uniform stereotype both directly and indirectly. A way to overcome this beauty stereotype is also discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I define welfare state culture as a set of ideational framework used to define welfare and the relationships between the state and the citizens in achieving individual and societal welfare. Because ideas are contested and institutionally embedded, the ideational framework underpinning welfare state is also subject to change. I use the cases of social policy changes in Japan and South Korea during the 1990s to illustrate how changes in ideational frameworks can affect policy transformations. In both countries, the ideational frameworks underpinning social policies shifted from that which saw social welfare as a subsidiary aspect of the developmental state to a new source of labour market activation and demographic rejuvenation under post-industrial society. The outcomes show unexpected expansion of women-friendly family and care policies in since 1990. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, major capitalist economies in East Asia witnessed social policy coming out of the shadows of the almost single-minded developmental drive of the earlier period. As a consequence of improved standards of living, democratization, and post-industrial changes in demography and employment relations, social policy is brought more and more to the foreground of public debate. This tendency is particularly salient in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Various attempts were made to bring these nations together under a single regional category: the Confucian welfare states focusing on the conservative familial ideology; the productive welfare states as an extension of the developmental state logic; a hybrid of the conservative and the liberal regime based on the welfare regime typology. Suspicions are also raised about the East Asian welfare states as something more than a simple regional aggregation, and new approaches distinct from the western theories are called for. This paper emphasizes two important yet oft-overlooked aspects in the debate. First, the colonial legacy, which differentiates Japan-Korea-Taiwan from Hong Kong-Singapore. Second, it is the political economy, more specifically, the developmental strategy of the state and its social ramifications that deeply affect social policy. As a first step to devise a more fine-tuned model(s) of the East Asian welfare states, the cases of Japan and Korea will be taken into a closer look. These two countries have a dense historical relationship reaches well beyond the colonial period into the postwar era of nation-building and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper integrates literatures on social movements and globalization to present a theory on global dimensions of contemporary social movements and examines a case to understand how much global factors impact local social movements. We use the case of social movements by Korean residents in Japan to investigate how international instruments, networks and ideas on ethnic minority rights have combined with local political mobilization to produce political changes in the form of new legislation and court decisions. We study four different fields of rights, social/economic, civil, political and cultural rights, to explore whether some rights are easier to obtain than others, how the strength of international norms on certain types of rights might affect the political outcomes, and how local political climate and tradition circumscribe policy changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While growing anti-colonial resistance was a historical tendency in Western colonialism in the early twentieth century, why has initially strong liberal nationalists in colonial Korea become the ?pro-Japanese faction?? Placing the ideological colonial relationship as a central sociological category, and grasping it in colonial Korea as triadic, with relationships between the colonizer, the colonized, and the West, this study examines the process by which initial anti-colonial resistance turned into collaboration, which in turn was labeled as ?pro-Japanese? behavior. My argument is that the liberal nationalist projects in colonial Korea were destined to fail, because they were located in the quite different relational setting from that in Western colonies. More specifically, this paper has two key arguments. First, it was quite risky to pursue the liberal nationalist program against the strongly assimilationist colonial state. The liberal nationalists? separatist projects modeled on the West or Western colonies were co-opted by the strongly assimilationist colonial state, which ended in their active collaboration in the last period of colonial rule. Second, in order for collaboration to be ?pro-Japanese? or anti-national behavior, as agents of naming, the existence of consistently resistant socialists was crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

this paper examines the effect of son preference on the hazards of having a second and a third birth. With data from South Korea?s 2000 National Fertility Rate and Family Health Survey by the KIHSA (the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs), the hazards of having a second birth among 5,670 married women who have a first birth, and the hazard of having a third birth among 4,325 married women who had two births were examined. These two hazards were analyzed by estimating Cox proportional hazard model. The major covariate in the first analysis is whether or not the first-born was a daughter. In the second analysis the main covariate is whether both of the first two children were girls. In both models five covariates known to have independent effects on the transition to a second (or third) birth are controlled for, namely, her age at the birth of the first (or second) child, whether she lives in urban area, and three dummy variables reflecting her level of education. The results show the important influence of son preference and the family pressure on it on the hazard of having a second baby. Comparing South Korea?s results with those of China, China hazards models were more perfect than those of South Korea, and the association between son preference and fertility of China was stronger than that of South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Korea was hit severly by the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98. The financial crisis, which was brought on initially by a currency crisis in Southeast Asia, became a full-blown economic crisis by the end of 1997. Was the developmental state of South Korea able to withstand the enormous pressures for structural reform mandated by the IMF for the structural adjustment loan of $58 billion? This paper takes stock of the IMF position, examines its reform package, and finally examines how South Korea was able to retain its developmental state, albeit somewhat reformed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Northeast Asian region has yet to see a reduction in the tension that characterized the Western security situation during the Cold War. In contrast to the cooperative relations between the Western democratic nations and the former Soviet states, the nuclear threat from North Korea towards its regional neighbors, especially South Korea and Japan, has escalated in recent months. Despite the regional and societal contexts of national security, South Korea and Japan are experiencing a mission shift towards peacekeeping and are accepting peacekeeping as a normative obligation. Peacekeeping has been adopted as a typical military mission among Western nation, particularly the United States, after the demise of the bipolar military order in Europe. Focusing on four social factors that affect the social construction of peacekeeping, this paper examines how the social definition of peacekeeping is structured in South Korea and Japan, and how increasing peacekeeping participation has affected the social role of the military of these American allies. Among Western nations, the adoption of the peacekeeping mission is largely a consequence of the transition to a small-professional military oriented toward sub-national and peace support missions ("postmodern" military) in the post-Cold War period. In contrast, in South Korea and Japan, peacekeeping is a vehicle of meeting national interests and fulfilling demands for burden sharing in international security. The nonviolent nature of peacekeeping missions promotes penetrability between civilian society and the military in South Korea and Japan, which leads to changes in the social definition of the military institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we conduct a historical comparative analysis of the changing notion of female sexuality through the key concept of "New Woman" (atarashii onna in Japanese, and shin yosong in Korean), a new type of female image that appeared in three different societal context: in America during the latter half of the nineteenth century, in Japan during the first half of the 1910s, and in Korea in the first half of the 1920s. The "New Women" broke free from conventional constraints, and voiced women's rights, progressive marriage system and sexuality in all three societies; they played a role in raising a new concept of sexuality. Interestingly, however, the paths of their movements in each society diverged. What was criticized, scandalized, and considered "new" in their actions and statements differed depending on the existing norms and historical conditions. In fact, it was exactly these conditions that caused the rise of "New Women." The phenomenon of "New Women" was a manifestation of anxiety that accompanied the fluctuations in life and society in early modern period. Sexuality became the symbol of those fluctuations and young women called "New Women" were at its core. In short, this article compares Japanese and Korean "New Women," using America as a reference case. At the same time, it aims to evaluate the formation of, and seeks a deeper understanding of, modern sexuality in general, utilizing these two Asian cases, which in turn will help decipher contemporary sexuality and its changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, countries in East Asia have begun to grapple with multiculturality and multiculturalism as they became regional immigrant-receiving countries. Countries such as Japan and South Korea have had a long history of strong national identity rooted in the beliefs in one homogeneous culture. Unlike the cases of some of the European and North American countries, this ideology of homogeneity had rarely been contested internally in these two countries. This paper draws upon existing studies on the burgeoning multiculturalism discussions in Japan and Korea in order to analytically compare recent multicultural policies and related citizenship laws in these two countries. The analysis highlights how the two countries, for whom cultural homogeneity has been so critical to the imagined nationhood, grapple with the visions of multicultural society in the increasingly globalizing regional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the work-family interface for married men and women in Korea. Using data from 363 Korean civil servants, the study explores the mechanism of family-to-work facilitation---how resources from family moderate the job stress-job satisfaction relationship at the workplace. Although the individualistic Western work-family literature predicts that resources transferred from the family role, both instrumental and affective, will facilitate the work role by mitigating the negative job stress-job satisfaction relationship, regression analyses with the data from the collectivistic Korean society show an opposite effect---an accentuating, not a mitigating moderating effect. That is, the negative job stress-job satisfaction relationship is stronger, not weaker, when family resource transfer is high than when family resource transfer is low. This finding indicates that family resource transfer---especially affective transfer---may function as an additional work stressor rather than a facilitator at the workplace under collectivists' weak role identity separation between work and family roles. The study thus reveals the cultural biases in the extant Western work-family literature by showing that the cultural variance in role identity separation/integration may underlie the mechanism of family-to-work facilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I discuss 'Koreanness' in terms of ethnicity, nation and nationalism. First, I examine the historical trajectories of the changing boundaries of ethnicity and nation since colonial period. Colonial rule, division of Korea, Korean War and migration historically conditioned the conception of 'Koreanness'. Secondly, I discuss the meaning of 'Koreanness' in contemporary Korea. According to survey results, ethnicity and nationality are both regarded important for defining 'Korean'. Nationalism of Korea is an ideological frame which is used to exclude ethnic non-Koreans as well as ethnic Koreans without Korean nationality. Thirdly, I analyze social categorization of Chosun-jok who are regarded as partly- or non-Korean. Chosun-jok refers to the ethnic Koreans who emigrated to China in the early 20th century. They are categorized by native Koreans sometimes as Dongpo (which originally means brothers and sisters) and sometimes as foreigners (non-Koreans) depending on different contexts of power relations. In sum, I argue that the boundary of 'Korean' is not fixed but flexible and changeable. I also argue that although nationality is regarded more important than ethnicity, ethnic nationalism is still influential. Ethnic Koreans with foreign nationality as well as ethnic non-Koreans are excluded because Koreanness is defined more narrowly than before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine what factors affect the foundings of environmental movement organizations (EMO's) in Korea. As civil society grows up and social movements become more institutionalized, social movement organizations play more crucial roles in Korea. Environmental movements in Korea have also been institutionalized over the past 40 years. Since the first EMO, the Korean Association for Conservation of Nature was founded in 1963, the number of EMOs has increased exponentially. Between 20 and 30 EMOs has been founded every year since the 1990s. The foci of the environmental movements have become more specific as the field has developed. However, the strategies and tactics of the movements have been fairly general and unchanging over time. I employ resource mobilization theory and institutional theory to test the founding dynamics of the EMO considering various factors including political opportunities, resource availability, the expansion of environmental discourse, and participation in environmental activities in world society. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The images of gender roles within family in Korean television commercials from 1985 to 2005 are analyzed in this study. The research looked at the gender role changes in the areas of housework and parenting. The analysis showed that the pattern and timeline of the transitions were almost identical for both housework and parenting. In pattern, the analysis showed that the commercials trace a gender role transformation from traditional stage where women are mainly responsible for both housework and parenting to postmodern stage where men who can perform these traditionally female gender roles are presented after undergoing a decade of transitional period. The 1988 Olympic Games and the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, the two defining events in recent Korean history, are offered as possible explanation for triggering the two transitions in the tree-stage transformation. In timeline, the analysis of the transitions showed consistent latency after the two major events, indicating cultural lag at work. The concepts of cultural lag and critical mass are offered as explanations for the time lag. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, international marriages have increased rapidly in Korea. Between 2001 and 2004, the number of occurrences more than doubled and their percentage in the total marriages increased from 4.8 percent to 11.4 percent. The majority of the foreign spouses are Chinese and their percentage is still increasing. South East Asians-mostly from Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand-comprise a much smaller proportion of the foreign spouses but the proportion has increased rapidly, from about 5 percent in 2001 to 11 percent in 2004. Small surveys have reported that various social problems, such as poverty, domestic violence, and social discrimination, impair international marriages in Korea. We use a recent national survey, which includes 945 foreign wives and some of their husbands. This study discusses social backgrounds of international marriages and explores a few indicators of social positions of foreign wives. The focus is on the influence of women's nationality versus ethnicity, highlighting comparisons between Southeast Asian and Chinese Korean spouses. The laws in Korea do not make explicit distinctions between migrants of different nationalities, but many Chinese migrants are ethnic Koreans and speak Korean. Compared to Southeast Asian migrants, Chinese migrants seem to have a lot more control over their living circumstances-in the process of mate selection and marriage, in their relationships with their Korean spouses and in-laws, and in their social status in general, including their access to labor markets. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the democratic transition in South Korea, strong sense of ethnic nationalism and regional antagonism co-existed and interacted. I explain the unusual interaction between the two. I argue that strong sense of ethnic nationalism in Korea shaped the form of Korean regionalist struggle during the democratic transition. Through empirical examination of historical data and interviews during the Kwangju Uprising in 1980, I show (1) there were efforts of regional exclusion by state and ruling elite after the Uprising (2) movement activists from the disadvantageous regions were reluctant (or ambivalent) to make regional claims fearing the exclusion from the national community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the fifteenth of every month at 2 O?clock An announcement from the headquarter of community self-defense transforms the teacher into a uniformed guard Sneak your head underneath the desk Don?t talk Don?t laugh Imagine the north invading now [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like Ethiopia in the 1980s, North Korea is a country in desperate need of help. Between one million and three million people starved to death in the mid 1990s alone and economic turmoil has left the country devastated. Coverage of this tragedy is almost non-existent. What prevents the world from noticing the massive loss of human life, what can be done and why has North Korea?s isolationist policy successfully stymied international attempts at development and aid? Using a World System’s perspective to look at North Korea’s volatile past, including Soviet development policy will help us not only understand the present, but what tactics won’t work in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combined findings from various sources of data suggest that that the recent concern on divorce surge in Korea may not be well grounded. The ratio of the numbers of divorces to married couples indicates that Korea ranks far below most European, North American and Oceanic countries compared. The causes of divorce, however, are similar to those found in the US. Becker?s economic theory of divorce that incorporates uncertainty into the utility maximization well explains divorce in Korea, as it does in the US. The only noticeable finding in Korea is that conditional divorce rates are higher in middle duration, not in early duration as predicted by Becker?s theory. This may reflect structural problems of the Korean society, unemployment and health deterioration of middle-age men, or transitional problems of the cohorts of current middle ages. Either way, if the decreasing trend of divorce in early marital duration reflects a reality, up-surge of divorce rates may slow down in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the unionization process during the democratic transition in Korea. Using event-count and event history analysis with the data on union-foudning events at company-level in Chemical industry, this study examines how political, institutional, and organizational factors affect the unionization at company level during the demorcratic transition period from 1987 to 1992. Results clearly point to the importance of historical and institutional contexts in unionization process. The historical and institutional changes not only directly affect the level of union-organizing activities, but also shape the effects of organizational characteristics and conditions on unionization. These findings suggests that we may need to compare the unionization process across more diverse historical and institutional settings in order to further our understanding of unionization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the contemporary health status of Metropolitan Seoul adult residents, employing activity limitations and chronic disease status. To take into account the recent and unprecedented pattern of population redistribution by socioeconomic status in Metropolitan Seoul, we consider individual- and area-level risk factors both discretely and simultaneously, utilizing multilevel analysis techniques. Findings suggest a significant degree of uneven spatial distribution of adverse health across small areas in Metropolitan Seoul. While most individual factors are associated with the risk of adverse health outcomes, in a pattern generally similar to that observed in Western societies, none of the area-level risk factors is associated with adverse health in this population. Of particular interest is that individuals of very low educational attainment are at substantially higher risk of activity limitations and life-threatening chronic diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marital conflict associated with low marital quality in the postpartum period is a significant risk factor for mothers' distress. This research examines the variations in the effect of marital conflict and social support on postpartum psychological distress among Korean mothers using the Panel Study on Korean Children (PSKC). Coherent to the literature, martial conflict increases Korean mothers' postpartum psychological distress and social support reduces it. There are two main findings in this research. First, the stress-buffering effect of social support is contingent on levels of marital conflict. Social support only buffers the stress of those with higher levels of marital conflict. Second, different types of social support have different main effects on Korean mothers' postpartum psychological distress. Both emotional and instrumental support benefit mental health, while informational support is insignificant. The findings highlight that stress-buffering effect varies by individual context and providing case-specific support by characteristics of stressor matters to those who are distressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses a representative sample of 1290 Korean organizations to examine the adoption and decoupling of a number of work-family policies. The first aim is to compare the dynamics for the adoption of policies and the decoupling of policies, drawing on hypotheses from neo-institutional and human-resources management explanations. The second aim is to compare the traits associated with adoption and decoupling of mandated work-family policies and optional work-family policies. The third aim is to compare the traits associated with adoption and decoupling of work-family policies that restrict women's (especially pregnant women's and mothers') employment and policies that promote or facilitate women's employment by allowing family leaves or setting up child care benefits. The findings suggest that the adoption of work-family policies is influenced by both the characteristics of the workforce (a human-resources management explanation) and the organization's responsiveness to the external environment (an institutional explanation). Also, several conditions associated with the adoption of more work-family policies are associated with less decoupling of those work-family policies. Finally, there are important differences in the adoption and implementation of required and optional work-family policies, but few differences in the traits associated with adopting or implementing more restrictive or facilitating work-family policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates socioeconomic factors which relate women's distress, and compare relating factors between Japan and Korea. There are many observations of significant relationship between socioeconomic status and health in industrial societies. 　This study stands at comparative perspective of this relationship. It explores which aspects of socioeconomic status are related to women's mental health, and if there are any differences in this relationship between Japan and Korea.Women's socioeconomic status are measured not only by husband's or family socioeconomic status, but also women's own status and combination of women's and husbands' status. From this perspective, 3 models concerning women's socioeconomic status are examined, namely, independent model, status-borrowing model, and status-sharing model.Data used in this study are NFRJ03 for Japanese women and KFS03 for Korean women. Both are large-scaled, nationally represented sample. Samples used in analysis were married women aged 28-60. Series of results of Generalized Linier Model shows that 1) more socioeconomic factors were related to women's distress in Korea than in Japan, 2) relationship between SES of husband, father/ mother and women's distress is stronger in Korea than in Japan, 3) characteristics of factors which relate to women's distress in Japan and Korea can be determined "Japan as income, Korea as education." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in organizational and political sociology emphasizes the importance of key formal positions and identifies institutions, factionalism and clientelism as key factors affecting how organizations fill these positions. Yet, current research tends to focus on each mechanism in formal position occupancy and does not provide an adequate understanding how these mechanisms interact or work differently in various situations. To fill this research gap, we construct a theoretical framework specifying conditions under which institutions, factionalism and clientelism determine key position occupancy, and test it against a population of political parties during the transition and consolidation phases of Korean democratization. We find that key party positions are distributed according to established practices in a highly rationalized political environment. However, under conditions of greater uncertainty, informal social structure--ties to a leader and/or core faction--becomes more important. Larger theoretical and empirical implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the spatial analysis of Tower Palace as a case study of rapidly growing high-end residential complexes in Korean society. Since its construction in 2002, the 'Tower Palace' has created a lot of controversies, and become a symbol of new, affluent, modern Seoul. Tower Palace complex can be seen as a symbol of residential place of the new super-rich. We found unique distinctiveness that sharply contrasts with another average apartment complex and traditional wealthy residence in the past. One of the interesting features is the dual properties of both 'openness' and 'closure' here. The new Tower Palace apparently looks to be an open place, but at the same time, also a closed place that clearly distinguishes 'us', the residents, from 'them', the outsiders. Unlike the old way of exclusion in traditional wealthy district, Tower palace complex show more nuanced, subtle, and obscured exclusion. These characteristics affect not only distinctive life-style but also unique identities to the residents of Tower Palace. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores how maternity benefits policies are adopted in Korean firms. Hypotheses are developed from human resources management and neo institutional perspectives. The former focuses on managing internal labor market in the firms, and the latter stresses the social context in which organizations are embedded to explain the adoption of maternity benefits policies in Korean firms. We use cross-sectional data on 1093 Korean firms to analyze the expansion of maternal benefits policies and negative-binomial regression models were employed to test the hypotheses. The findings suggest that organizations adopt policies related with motherhood not only to protect human resources, but also to gain social legitimacy. We discuss implications for further research on institutional processes and organizational practices in Korean firms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current educational situation in Korea, while boasting consistently high international test scores, faces many serious problems. One problem is the amount of money spent by families to provide children an equal chance to receive a quality education. As a result of this 'education fever', the Korean government has looked to online public classes and tutoring to relieve the burden and create more equality. Because of Korea's sophisticated IT infrastructure developed over the past 10-15 years, e-learning is being heralded as a potential solution to the educational problem in Korea. With internet usage rates over 70% and a culture of early adoption of electronic devices, the government legitimately believes Korea to ready use e-learning. The government funded online tutorials (launched in 2004) is an example of an attempt to solve the domestic problems of high cost tutors and educational inequality through the development of Korea's IT infrastructure and their global leading use of broadband. To date over a million Koreans are registered to use this option and initial projections seem positive. However, while the Korean government is claiming a successful e-learning debut, the demographic groups most in need of public e-learning are either not using the internet yet, or using it for reasons other than education. E-learning appears to be an initiative designed for the rural, less-educated or poor, but packaged in a manner only the educated, urban or wealthy might recognize or utilize effectively. A more rigorous assessment of the success of the government's programs must be conducted to consider these complex factors involved in using technology as an answer to social problems. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The investigation of how different countries follow divergent pathways into the modern world has been one of the most prominent issues for historical sociologists. In this article, I extend eventful analysis onto a macro historical level to examine the political transformations of Japan and Korea in the post-World War II period. I accomplish this by focusing on the role of a pivotal historical event--the Korean War--in the specific geopolitical conjuncture of the Cold War. Typically, eventful analysis is used to assess micro level phenomena. By exploring the crucial role of the Korean War in rearranging international relationships in East Asia, I demonstrate that the outbreak of the war and subsequent geopolitical relations significantly enhanced state power in both Japan and Korea. Each state in turn responded to social demands with different strategies, thereby following different political pathways: a conservative democracy in Japan and a military dictatorship in Korea. Based on this analysis, I argue that by broadening the use of eventful analysis on the macro-historical level, it is possible to achieve a more historically contextualized explanation of historical changes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars tend to focus on how similar structural conditions and types of social relationships create the process of homogenization, i.e., isomorphism within an organizational field. However, under the same institutional environments of one society, it is possible that several organizational fields share the same isomorphic characteristics. I address, then, the questions of isomorphism at the level of inter-organizational fields and of how isomorphism across different organizational fields is possible. Using the data from two organizational fields in Korea-industrial sector and non-governmental organization sector, I examine the possible cause of homogenization process in industrial sector and non-governmental organization sector and show how different organizational fields share the same structural pattern in spite of their diversified collective interests. I conclude that 1) the role of the strong state as a provider of legal and institutional framework suggests the emergence of new organizational fields; 2) two organizational fields share the isomorphic characteristic of diversification and strong social network ties; 3) the same institutional factor which has brought isomorphism at the level of organizational field also has a greater influence on isomorphism at the level of inter-organizational field. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the research on chaebol thus far has been centered on their role in the economic development of Korea, where the state and the business had been seen as running a three-legged race with the business playing the second fiddle and the state leading the charge. The balance in the business-government relations, however, has been shifting steadily, as shown in chaebol's continued growth and increased autonomy from the explicit and direct state control. Among the most important factors affecting the relative political influence of business is the extent to which they are mobilized and unified. The key questions to ask then are: Are they unified? And what are the bases of that unity? I assess the cohesion among the business elites in Korea by examining one of its organizational bases - i.e., the intermarriage network among chaebol families. The results, the cluster-and-bridge structure in particular, show their potential for collective action, which warrants a close attention. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although health-related studies has been successful to reveal and confirm the effects of social trust on health, especially at community level based on ecological approach, they failed to elaborate the game-theoretic property of social trust. The benefit of social trust is dependent on other people‟s behavior and thus, sometimes people with low trust could get better-off. This can help us to explain a counter-intuitive negative relationship between social trust and health (or mortality rates) in Korea. Korea seems like to have an equilibrium of short-range trust as Fukuyama described as low-trust society while US has an equilibrium of long-range trust. Ecological approach is very useful and even essential to detect effects beyond individual-level, but when we need to explain detected phenomenon, we have to go down to individual-level to be equipped with individual incentives and behaviors. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]