• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.121-142
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• 2018

Area studies are sometimes framed as focused on specific localities, rooted in deep linguistic, cultural and historical knowledge, and hence empirically rich but, as a result, as yielding non-transferable/non-translatable findings and hence as theoretically poor. In Europe and North America some social science disciplines like sociology, economics and political science routinely dismiss any reference to local specifics as parochial "noise" interfering with their universalizing pretensions which in reality obscure their own Euro-American parochialism. For more qualitatively oriented disciplines like history, anthropology and cultural studies the inherent non-universality of (geographically constricted) area studies presents a predicament which is increasingly fought out by resorting to philosophical concepts which usually have a Eurocentric pedigree. In this paper, however, I argue that concepts with arguably European pedigree - like religion, culture, identity, heritage and art - travel around the world and are adopted through vernacular discourses that are specific to locally inflected histories and cultural contexts by annexing existing vocabularies as linguistic vehicles. In the process, these vernacularized "universal" concepts acquire different meanings or connotations, and can be used as powerful devices in local discursive fields. The study of these processes offer at once a powerful antidote against simplistic notions of "global"/"universal" and "local," and a potential corrective to localizing parochialism and blindly Eurocentric universalism. I develop this substantive argument with reference to my own professional, disciplinary and theoretical trajectory as an anthropologist and historian focusing on Vietnam, who used that experience - and the empirical puzzles and wonder encountered - in order to develop theoretical interests and questions that became the basis for larger-scale, comparative research projects in Japan, China, India, South Africa, Brazil and Europe. The subsequent challenge is to bring the results of such larger, comparative research "home" to Vietnam in a meaningful way, and thus overcome the limitations of both area studies and Eurocentric disciplines.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.57
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• pp.202-226
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyze how Chinese people perceive the acceptance and spread of Korean popular culture through the analysis of the Korean Wave news frame in Chinese daily newspapers. The result of analysis showed that there was a significant difference in the number of an article appearance in all three daily newspapers by year according to a specific issue including the popularity of Korean Wave-related events, Korean dramas, movies and Korean stars. This reporting trend also appeared in the article format, and all three daily newspapers mainly used an episodic frame to deliver fragmentary Korean Wave trend or personal information emotionally rather than a thematic frame to analyze and interpret the Korean Wave trend in depth. As a result of analyzing dominant news frames using the inductive approach to examine specific contents of the articles, news frames that composed the Korean Wave into the cultural interest frame as 'Interest and attention toward Korean popular culture' and gave positive evaluations were dominant, followed by the economic news frames that explained the Korean Wave from the economic perspective and the political news frames that considered the Korean Wave from the viewpoint of the Chinese Government. These news frames appeared somewhat different according to the publishing purpose of daily newspapers. ${\ll}$People's Daily${\gg}$ which is the official organ of the Chinese Communist Party often covered the political frames to report the policies of Chinese government, ${\ll}$People's Daily (Overseas edition)${\gg}$ often covered economic frames from the overseas perspective and the Jinghua Daily which is a commercial newspaper by nature often handled cultural interest frames to consider Korean Wave as new cultural phenomenon.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.161-195
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to examine factors influencing quality of life for individuals in the family, school or workplace, leisure settings, and Korean society using the indigenous psychological analysis. A total of 3,406 participants, consisting of 1,331 elementary, middle, high school students and 2,075 parents and teacher, completed an open-ended questionnaire developed by Kim and Park (2004b). The respondents reported the factors that influence quality of life in Korean society as follows: Economic condition, collective effort, leisure and cultural life, harmonious interpersonal relationships, effective government policy, and educational attainment. The factors that reduce quality of life in Korean society are as follows: Economic uncertainty, political instability, lack of citizenry, ingroup favoritism, corruption, lack of facilities for leisure and social life, and overemphasis on educational achievement. Second, the factors that influence quality of life in the family are as follows: Harmonious family relations and financial security. For students relationship with friends and academic achievement are reported as important factors influencing quality of life at school. For adults, harmonious interpersonal relationship, financial factors and occupational achievement are reported as important factors influencing quality of life at the workplace. For leisure and social leisure life, financial security, leisure time and interpersonal relationships are reported as important factors influencing quality of life. Third, as for generational differences, students reported political instability and adults reported economic uncertainty as the most important factor reducing quality of life in Korean society. For family life, students reported conflicts among family members and adults reported financial constraints as the most important factor reducing quality of life. For leisure and social life, students reported lack of leisure time and adults reported financial constraints as the most important factor reducing quality of life. Fourth, for students the following characteristics were associated with higher quality of life: Higher socio-economic status of the family, younger, and higher academic achievement. For adults, the following characteristics were associated with higher quality of life: Higher socio-economic status of the family and greater achievement their social life. Implications of these results on the quality of life in Korea, focusing on human relationship, financial factors, self-regulation and educational achievement are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.91-119
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• 2005

This study examines the perception and trust of Korean society and people among students and adults using the indigenous psychological analysis. A matched sample of 1,107 participants, consisting of 369 students, their mothers and their fathers completed a questionnaire developed by the present researchers. The results indicate that parents more likely than adolescents to hold negative views of Korean society. Adults are more likely than adolescents to view Korean society as showing high ingroup favoritism, to be insecure, to be conservative, to be corrupt, and to have social inequities. Both groups agree that Korean society is not rational nor democratic, but believe that it has the potential for progress. Second, parents are more likely to hold negative views about Korean people. Adults are more likely than adolescents of viewing Korean people as overly conscious about social face, emotional, selfish, exclusionary, and conceited. Both adolescents and their parents agree that Koreans are cooperative, full of jung (deep affection and attachment), and sincere. Third, adults are less likely to trust Korean institutions than adolescents. Adults are less likely than adolescents to trust National Assembly, political parties, and unions. Adolescents are more likely than their parents to trust family members, school friends, teachers, and government employees. These results indicate that adolescents have higher trust of Korean society and people than their parents. Fifth, the overall results indicate that both group perceive Korean society as showing high ingroup favoritism and corruption. In terms of Korean people, respondents had a more balanced view of perceiving them as highly sensitive to social face and being emotional, while also perceiving them as cooperative and full of jung. The trust of Korean institutions were generally low, especially the National Assembly and political parties. However, the trust of family was very high, followed by trust of school friends and teachers. The trust of government employees was low and this was especially the case for politicians.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.75-88
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• 2021

The film won the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and received the Academy Award for a non-English-speaking film in February 2020, respectively. It has received a monumental evaluation in the world film history. Overall, this film is about class conflict, and critics evaluate the theme of the film as "badly twisted class gap" and "anger from class." The film expresses an intrinsic conflict embodied in culture as a "tragedy in which no bad person appears," rather than the dichotomous composition of the classical class struggle from Marxism. In other words, this can be seen as expressing the substrated class relationship of the modern society that Pierre Bourdieu had argued. This film has been focused as a controversial target under Korea society with excess of ideology. Politics used to adopt the keyword, 'parasite', for political disputes not only in culture contents world. Paradoxically socialism China did not allow to release film 'Parasite.' On the other hand, Lee O-Yong argues that the movie "Parasite" does not look at social phenomena through a dichotomous perspective, but is viewed through a "double perspective" and evaluates that it does not lose eyes looking at humans through tension. This view is based upon 'Vital Capitalism'. Lee. O-Yong looks at the movie "Parasite" from the perspective of "Vital Capitalism". The theory of Vital Capitalism does not seek to find the root of historical development in class struggle conflicts, but rather figuring out history and society pays attention onto the intrinsic characteristics of life, Topophilia, Neophilia, and Biophilia. Lee Eo-ryeong argues that the development of civilization theory evolved from the stage of Hobbes' Darwinism or predatism to the stage of host vs. parasite of Michel Serres, and onto the stage of Margulis's 'Win-Win (inter-dependence)'. In this paper, after overview of vital capital concept and preceeding research, re-interpretations were tried onto scenes based upon fields from habitus, culture capital. This exploration looks for a alternative for excess of ideology in Korea society.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.103-129
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• 2004

This article examines the Korean adolescents and adults' social representation and trust of Korean society and people using indigenous psychological analysis. Respondents were asked to write in an open-ended questionnaire their perception of the following five aspects: Korean politics, economy, society, culture and people. They were then asked to report why they trust or distrust Korean society. A total of 1,064 respondents (218 middle school students, 200 university students, 218 fathers of the middle school students, 218 mothers of the middle school students, and 210 teachers) completed a questionnaire developed by the present researchers. The data were collected during April to June, 2003. The results indicate that 94.5% of Koreans view the existing political system and politicians as being corrupt, inept, factional, and lacking in integrity. A vast majority (84.9%) recognize the existence of systemic problems in the Korean economy. A total of 78.2% see problems in Korean society being dominated by selfishness, factionalism, conservatism, and social uncertainty. For Korean culture, a majority of respondents report being proud of its cultural tradition, accomplishment, and creativity. At the same time, 45.7% report loss of cultural identity and pride due to external influences. More than half of the respondents report negative aspects of Korean people (i.e., selfish, lack of morality, rushed, and overly focused on their social image), while nearly half of the respondents report positive aspects of Korean people as being compassionate, cooperative, good-natured and hard-working. As for reason for trusting Korean society, around a third report "because it is our country," followed by its future potential, and the good-nature and willingness of Korean people to work hard. The reasons for distrusting Korean society is the dishonesty politicians, corruption, institutional ineptness, and economic uncertainty. These results indicate a low level of collective efficacy in influencing and affecting change in Korean society.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.543-564
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• 2011

In the process of managing organization, the strategic decision-making and corporate performance are not independent, but they are interdependent each other. In most Korean firms, decision-making power and authority are concentrated on the higher echelons of managerial hierarchies. Examining big five trading conglomerates in Korea, this present paper investigates the relationship between strategic decision-making and a corporate performance. Although a number of review studies on Korean management have been developed over the years, there have been less works designed with decision making in mind. In order to achieve research objectives, this paper predicted some hypotheses, and the major findings include: 1) the influence of Korea's long-standing Confucian tradition and culture dominated across organizations, there have not been significant changes in decision-making process within big five trading firms; 2) top executives' excessive involvement in decision-making process does not hinder corporate performance. This result implies that the decision power is still tended to be centralized in the hands of the top management. 3) However, the power of Board of Directors in decision-making has become increasingly important; and 4) decision makers do not tend to misuse or abuse their political position and power for their own interests.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1-15
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• 2020

As the entrepreneurial ecosystem turns out to be a leading factor in improving nation's entrepreneurship, many studies are underway in the country to develop the start-up ecosystem. Although the entrepreneurial ecosystem is receiving attention as an essential factor for the nation's economic growth as well as entrepreneurship due to its inter-relationship with start-ups, government agencies and investors, criticism of measurement indicators has been increasing due to the different institutional and political contexts of each country, including the various definition of start-up ecosystem. In this study, we develop indicators that are suitable for domestic conditions in Korea and that can measure the level of start-up ecosystems in each regional level. FGI and Delphi surveys by scholarly experts in each field of start-ups & entrepreneurship were conducted to verify how well existing indicators fit the domestic situation and to develop indicators that can measure the local entrepreneurial ecosystem in Korea through close examination. As a result, the local entrepreneurial ecosystem consisted of three to four sub-components and 38 sub-components, each consisting of seven indicators, including Policy, Investment, Culture, Market, Human Capital, Support and Knowledge. It is expected that this research will be used to diagnose local start-up ecosystems and to propose discriminatory policies that can complement regional strengths and weaknesses.

• Convergence Security Journal
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.101-110
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• 2020

Since the third inter-Korean summit, the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang and the U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore and Hanoi, denuclearization negotiations are under way that will determine the fate of the Korean Peninsula. However, the negotiations are stalled and some skepticism is expected due to the conflicting U.S.-North Korea stance over the terms of denuclearization. The reason why it is difficult to realize the complete denuclearization of North Korea is that there are a variety of variables such as the traditional security dilemma in Northeast Asia, the hegemonic competition between the U.S. and China, and the formation of a new cold-war system. At a turning point when three inter-Korean summits and three U.S.-North Korea summits were held in the wake of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, North Korea's complete denuclearization has become a must-do historical task for Northeast Asia and world peace beyond the Korean Peninsula. In this sense, the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang is seen as a historic occasion for presenting a new milestone for the denuclearization of North Korea and the development of inter-Korean relations through the 9.19 Pyongyang Joint Declaration and the Military Agreement. Meanwhile, Constructivism, which has become the main paradigm of international political theory, presents the view that ideological variables such as ideology, history and culture define material factors, identity and interests of state actors, and that the structure of international relations can be changed through interaction. In this study, the historical meaning of the 9.19 Pyongyang Declaration, which is now past its first anniversary, was considered from a constructivist perspective. To this end, the development process of constructivism theory and analysis model and the development process of inter-Korean relations were briefly reviewed, and the military implications of the 9.19 Military Agreement were presented.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.599-619
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• 2008

Korean peninsula has a long history and a geopolitical location as a buffer tone, which has provided the conditions for cultural dynamism and diversity across space and time. The changing processes of place names in Korea is considered to be better suited to the study on cultural politics that is interested in the culture wars over the meaning of culture among different social subjects. In order to ensure the legitimacy of cultural politics for the study of place names in Korea, this study attempts to make a theoretical construction based on the concepts of place identity, territorial contestation, and the politics of scale. Cultural and linguistic theories to be best applied to the study of place names in Korea are the theories on Angehm's and Castells' identity, $P{\hat{e}}cheux's$ identification, Hall's decoding, and Voloshinov's ideological sign. Power relations involved in the inclusion and exclusion are necessarily concerned with the process of constructing a place identity or territorial identity by means of a place name, which represents identity and ideology of a social subject. In the examination of this process, it is necessary to take the elements of identity, ideology and power relations into consideration. In this study, therefore, the politics of scale is experimented for its applicability in the study of place name in Korea, which is expected to accommodate concepts of boundary, territory, territoriality and territorialization. In the end, it is suggested in this study that a series of basic and interdisciplinary studies on the cultural politics of place names in a range of area should be undertaken along with the enough theoretical knowledge of cultural politics.