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Between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, the Korean developmental state implemented a series of drastic egalitarian educational policies that were primarily geared toward social integration. While promoting social mobility and educational expansion, they provided the basis of the egalitarian social contract in Korea's educational policymaking for decades. Since the 1990s, however, the Korean state has implemented neoliberal education reforms that led to the rapid dismantling of the egalitarian framework for the country's educational policymaking. These neoliberal reforms were strongly supported by the affluent middle class that prefer elitist education and can afford expensive private education. The general direction of change in Korea's educational policymaking suggests both significant change and continuity in the character of the Korean state and its relations to society since the 1990s. The contemporary Korean state still maintains a highly strategic and activist orientation in adopting and implementing policies although its policies are increasingly neoliberal in content. In doing so, the Korean state is gradually abandoning its broad social base and mobilizational capacity, while increasingly connecting with the upper segments of the middle class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the sweeping changes in industrial relations in South Korea that have taken place since democratisation in 1987, which gave workers the right to organise themselves, and critically reviews the development of social dialogue since the financial crisis of 1997. A number of international labour specialists have maintained that social dialogue plays an important role in enhancing economic restructuring and the stability of industrial relations in order to compete in a global economy. Contrary to the positive assessment of social dialogue, the paper argues that the Korean Tripartite Commission has not reduced the antagonism between unions and employer organisations due to the influence of embedded, state-led economic development. The financial crisis of 1997 merely provided a catalyst to propel the 'historic compromise' of February 1998, without creating effective institutional arrangements to maintain social dialogue. It is worth noting that the uncertainty of social dialogue results from the inability of the Korean Tripartite Commission to encourage employers and workers to trade off wage restraint for job security in the context of a lack of social welfare protections. The paralysed Korean Tripartite Commission provides fertile ground for reflecting on the complex relationship between social dialogue and institutional arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the reasons for women's migration from Korea to the UK. It is difficult to explain away this migration with the common rationales, such as a gendered international division of labour or a strong political/colonial relationship between two countries. This study proposes a gendered desire approach to understand young women's migration: rather than a single motivating factor such as an economic purpose, the desire for new way of life--including the expectation of better social circumstances as well as realistic needs for future careers--triggers women's migration. I will look at individual migrant women's life stories, applying the biographical approach within the framework of gendered desire. Their memories of family, school life, and work show how the Korean social atmosphere emphasises becoming a "global citizen" influences these women's migration in a gendered way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the experiences of single South Korean women in their late twenties to late thirties in their pursuit of an independent living space. Looking at the struggles of these women to acquire 'a room of one's own', I first argue that the process of their spatial independence reveals the problematic inherent in South Korea's heterosexually marriage-centered housing and loan-lending structure. Further, rather than simply portraying these women as victims of the structure, I argue that the dominant interpretation of spatial independence of single women inadvertently buttresses the ideal selfhood of the neoliberal labor market. Applying Foucault's theorization of the technologies of the self that are instrumental to liberal governmentality, and Marxist theories of labor and finance capital in late capitalism, this ethnographic study engages in a broad discussion of changes in subjectivity and structure that take place under conditions of neoliberalism. In contributing to discussions of neoliberalism, I show that a progressive liberal ethos is not innocent of the development of neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the demographic and discursive challenges taking place against Koreans' long-held ethno-nationalism. While Koreans have formed their national identity based on the notion of ethnic homogeneity, an increasing influx of migrant workers and foreign brides is dramatically transforming the demographic landscape of South Korean society. This article presents the empirical realities of recent demographic changes within the South Korean population and identifies three mechanisms that have raised critical voices against the essentialist and exclusivist tendency found within Korean nationalism: protests by migrant workers, advocacy and support from social movement organizations, and discursive criticisms from academia and mass media. All these have contributed to the loosening of Korean ethnocentrism — a trend evident in recent survey data on Koreans' national identity. This article underscores that the real contradiction lies between Koreans' attachment to the nationalist identity that undergirded their political survival and economic success during the nation's turbulent modern decades and the present realities of a multi-ethnicizing population that demands pluralist and fluid understandings of social membership and collective identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The AsiaBarometer survey of 1,023 respondents shows Life in Korea is highly modernized and digitalized without being much globalized. Despite the modernization and digitalization of their lifestyles, ordinary citizens still prioritize materialistic values more than post-materialistic values, and they remain least satisfied in the material life sphere. A multivariate analysis of the Korean survey reveals that their positive assessments of their standard of living and marriage are the most powerful influences on the quality of life they experience. Remarkable improvements in the objective conditions of life for the past three decades have failed to transform Korea into a nation of well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synopsis: Much postcolonial Third World feminism literature has emphasized the gendered nature of nationalism and its negative effects on feminism. Thus, to secure feminism in postcolonial Third World feminist literature contends that gender takes precedence over nation and feminist discourse abandons nationalism. This article challenges the general understanding of gendered nationalism, which in particular prevails in postcolonial Third World feminism scholarship. Focusing on the history of the South Korean women's movement, I propose to show not only that the Korean feminist struggle is compatible with nationalist activities but also that Korean feminism and Korean nationalism reinforce each other in a constructive way. I am primarily concerned with three cases of the South Korean women's nationalist movement since the 1980s—minjung feminism, the comfort-women issue, and the abolishment of the family-head system. In this regard, the South Korean women's movement might be properly called feminist nationalism. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Despite the potential utility of the Internet as a health promotion medium, relatively few studies have been devoted to online health promotion strategies and appeals in cross-cultural settings. This study explores how theory-based health promotion strategies and appeals are used differently in US and South Korean weight-loss websites. The findings of this study indicate that collectivistic culture-bound health promotion strategies are more prevalent in South Korean weight-loss websites than in their US counterparts. Furthermore, testimonials were the most dominant appeals shared by the two countries' websites while the use of advertising appeals (i.e., comparison, caricature/animation, demonstration, threat, and sex appeals) is significantly different between the two countries. Practical implications for both health communication and international advertising are discussed in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores South Korean women's postcolonial and ethnic identities. In particular, it investigates their postcolonial consciousness by examining their perspectives of, and relations to, Japan. The discussion expands to include the women's ethnic identity with respect to North Korea in order to interrogate the intersection of their postcolonial and ethnic identities. The research data have been collected from two phases of interviews: seven focus group interviews during the 2004 Athens Olympics and ten follow-up individual interviews during the final qualifying stage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The research findings revealed that sport was a site in which the women's postcolonial consciousness was demonstrated most powerfully and intensely, compared to other fields such as film, music or fashions and that their ethnicity-bound identification with North Korea became foregrounded with great zeal when North Korea's opponent was Japan, thus constructing or reinforcing their pan-Korean identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heinz Insu Fenkl's Memories of My Ghost Brother is an Amerasian rewriting of Rudyard Kipling's Kim. Fenkl transforms the adventures of a white boy in colonial India into those of an Amerasian boy in post-/neocolonial Korea and changes the Russo-British rivalry of the nineteenth-century Great Game into the Russo-/Communist-American competition of the twentieth-century Cold War. He resurrects the native voice silenced by colonial discourse and highlights the dilemma of Asian women and their biracial children. He ultimately denounces the troubling legacy of the US military presence in Korea and critiques the centuries-old Western imperialist project in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. We estimated out-of-pocket health care spending and out-of-pocket spending burden ratio employing household equivalent income in the Republic of Korea. We examined variations in out-of-pocket spending, estimated out-of-pocket spending burden ratio employing household equivalent income, and identified factors associated with out-of-pocket spending. Methods. We used the 1998 Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey, a nationally representative survey of 39060 individuals. Our analyses examined out-of-pocket spending, out-of-pocket spending burden ratio, and health care use by socioeconomic status, insurance type, health care facility type, and chronic condition after we controlled for sociodemographic variables. Results. The lowest income quintile spent 12.5% of their total income out-of-pocket on medical expenditures, which was 6 times that of the highest income quintile (2%). Among those with 3 or more chronic conditions, low-income Koreans had the highest out-of-pocket spending burden ratio (20%), which was 5 times the spending burden among high-income Koreans (4%). In multivariate analyses, the number of chronic conditions, insurance type, health care use, and health care facility type were associated with out-of-pocket spending. Conclusions. Out-of-pocket spending in Korea is regressive, because lower-income groups pay disproportionately more of their income compared with higher-income groups. Low-income individuals with multiple chronic conditions are particularly vulnerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In May 1980, the Korean military committed a coup d'etat and massacred Kwangju citizens. South Korea's democratic transition exposed a variety of human rights abuses and raised several issues for the new government. The first issue was how to deal with the Kwangju Incident. Key figures, including two former Presidents, were found guilty of treason and massacre. However, lawyers faced a series of difficult legal questions: How could members of a victorious coup be punished? Would a trial seek retroactive punishment? Who should be held accountable for the massacre? In the struggle for truth and justice, Koreans declared and implemented basic principles for resolving the pain brought on by the Kwangju massacre: truth, justice, compensation, honor-restoration, and commemoration. Now, such principles set a standard for solving other military atrocities that may be committed under an authoritarian regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although private policing has existed since the dawn of society, the widespread availability of private policing is a relatively new phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to explore the contributing factors in the rapid growth of private policing by examining the Korean case. This study also attempted to explore the nature and implications of private policing within large context of political, economic, legal, and cultural systems. Several factors contributed to the popularization of private policing in recent years. The decentralization of policing authority provided a political ground for the growth of private policing. The economic affluence in the late 1980s also paved the way for the wide availability of private policing and its specialization in Korea. The findings of this study revealed that the changing nature of legal culture, from mediation and reconciliation to litigation, contributed to the rapid growth of private policing in Korea. In addition, fear of crime and some historical events such as the Olympic Games were closely related to the expansion of private policing in Korea. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article offers information about yahak or night school movement in South Korea from 1960s to the 1980s. It is stated that young intellectuals and Christians started the yahak practice to help workers to access education. The aim of the movement is to develop social change to break the passive and negative images of the oppressed individuals, particularly poor and disadvantaged. In 1980s, the movement reached its peak and raised matters related to labor issues and laws. Currently, yahaks have both generations of old and present teachers which sometimes clash due to different goals and understanding.

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Reports the development of the social welfare policy of the administration of President Kim Dae-Jung in South Korea. Expansion of social safety nets; Parallel development of democracy and a market economy; Relationship between the State and the Market in Welfare Provision.

Analyzes the effects of modernization on the concept of gender equality, particularly the rights of women, and the eradication of superstition in religion in South Korean society. Limitations of the discourse on gender equality and eradication of superstition; Dual nature of modernization.

Analyzes the impact of globalization on the welfare state based on the success of the social welfare system of South Korea in 1997 to 1999 despite liberalized financial markets and lower trade barriers. Neo-liberal view on the advantages and limitation of globalization on the welfare state; Rise of the Korean welfare state; Commitment of the government to social welfare.

Focuses on the anticorruption movement in South Korea. Cause of the financial crisis in 1997; Perception of the international community of corruption; Structural causes of corruption; History and reality of anticorruption movements; Background on revitalized movements.

Compares the demographic situations in Canada and South Korea. Fertility rates in the two countries; Mean age at marriage of men and women; Divorce rates in the two countries; Extra-marital births; Distribution of women aged 25 and over by level of education from 1950s to 1990s; Economic growth rate.

Examines the case of women's political representation in South Korea. Analysis of women's political participation as a political elite; Explication on controversies and contrary views on underrepresentation of women; Evaluation of the merits and demerits of these views; Investigation on which are relevant to the case of South Korea.

Compares the ideology, leadership and organization of two movements in South Korea against militarized sexual labor. Background on the Chongsindae and Kijich'on movements; Differences in ideology, leadership and organization; Contemporary developments in civil society; Conclusion.

Discusses various aspects of the January 1997 general strike in South Korea. Reasons for the labor unrest; Factors that brought about the strike; Efforts of the government of South Korean President Kim Young Sam to define guidelines for renewal of labor-management relations in the country; Labor's dissatisfaction with the government's response; Escalation of the strike.

Examines how Koreans felt about past government performance and how they evaluate the current situation in South Korea, using the 1992 public opinion survey conducted by the Korea Institute of Social Studies. Orientational differences between supporters of the pro-government party and anti-government parties; Feelings toward past presidents; Perceptions of outstanding issues.

Discusses political and socioeconomic events that happened in South Korea in 1994. Reforms pushed by President Kim Young Sam; Slowdown of cleansing campaign; Impact of scandals on South Korean society; Assessment of relationship with North Korea; Trade and foreign relations with China and Russia; Evaluation of Kim Young Sam's leadership ability.

Contends that a reward commensurate with South Korean women's contribution to the export-led economic growth of their country has not followed. Frameworks on women and development; Women's role in South Korean economic development; Status of South Korean women in the economic, social, political arenas; Factors that contributed to the marginal status of South Korean women.

Discusses that the functions and roles of the nonprofit/nongovernmental sector and its historical development in Korea should be viewed in relation to the state and market sectors. Existing studies on the nonprofit/nongovernmental sector; Features of the Korean sector; Definition of affective linkage groups (ALG) in Korea; Role of ALG in social development.

Discusses that the unresolved social problems during Korea's economic growth became urgent issues requiring immediate solutions. Economic and unemployment statistics; Societal effects of unemployment; Need for the creation of socioeconomic solutions; Suggested reduction of authority, budget and government size and liberalization of the market economy from government intervention.

Affirms that the physical risks common in under-developed and developed societies and the physical risks unique in South Korea characterize the country as a `complex risk society'. Physical accidents at the height of Korean industrialization in the 1990s; Risk consequences of the country's State-Business-Expert Developmental Alliance; Predicaments of depending on Western ideas; Grassroots options.

Discusses the scenarios of South Korea's future on modernity and national reunification. Emergence of a dissident minjung community; Visions of the minjung; Cultural and political praxis of minjung resistance.

Analyzes the role of law in the development in Korea. Importance of Korean legal and political tradition; Law in the Confucian and Sino-Korean traditions; Introduction of Western legal concepts and institutions; Attitudes toward law in Korea; Classes of people in Korean society; Role of legal education in shaping the Korean legal attitudes.