The Tension Between Cultural Codes in South Korean Civil Society: The Case of the Electronic National Identification Card

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hee-Jeong Lee
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Cultural Codes ◽  
National Identification ◽  
Identification Card ◽  
Civil Sphere

This article applies a late-Durkheimian theoretical framework to civil society as a sphere of solidarity in order to identify cultural codes and to explore their role in integrating or dividing members of South Korean civil society entering an information age coincident with processes of democratization. A policy debate relating to information, a debate over the Electronic National Identification Card, is used to show the co-existence of, and conflicts between, a ‘developmental code’ based on economic growth deriving from the authoritarian period of state-sponsored capitalism, and a later ‘democratic code’ based on human rights. This article argues that while the values of a ‘democratic code’ are becoming more dominant in the recent South Korean civil sphere, their validity is continuously challenged. The case also provides evidence that democratization and informatization can operate in tandem to establish dominance of the democratic code in public discourse in the South Korean civil sphere.

TYPES OF CULTURAL WARS: FORMALIZATION, MEDIA REALITY, AUDIENCE REACTIONS

2017 ◽  
pp. 53-58
Author(s):  
Tetiana Zemliakova
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Identity Crisis ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Intellectual Skill ◽  
Cultural Codes ◽  
New Information ◽  
New Type ◽  
Development Of Identity

The article makes a comprehensive attempt to classify the cultural war as a semantic manipulative phenomenon in a new type of information society. The features and causes of development of identity crisis in the context of semantic manipulations of media reality are outlined. The urgency of the research is that a new information age is filled with insidious meanings that offers a system of the same insidious information procedural “performances”. In its turn they are embodied in long held images, forming an entirely new semantic system, and creating a space of permanent action, in which the choice remains for a person of a new information age, who reveals a considerable level of intellectual skill through dialogue or protest, or, on the contrary, acts according to normalized, “dictated”, imposed cult, from which the principles of whole culture are emerging. The result of individual outbreaks of resistance to “information performances” through the collective will of the nation, which seems to be a muscle, which is intensively practiced in the light of the Rusian-Ukrainian war, is justified by the need to preserve the skills of the society to create the nation, or the nation’s identity. One can concede that at the level of nation there is emergence of greatest amount of conflicts associated with the attempt to destroy the cultural core (the nucleus of the nation), which is formed from the norms, standards, values of a certain ethnic group. The main function of such a nucleus is providing for a system of formed cultural codes in order to preserve the nation’s identity. Summing up the results of the research, the author comes to the conclusion that the typology of the cultural war proposed is conditional, but it gives grounds to talk about the symptomatic appearance of semantic disorientation and the identity crisis. In this situation, understanding and differentiation on the basis of own “mental identifier” will become extremely important in order to consolidate the individuals in terms of new conditions.

scholarly journals Climate Change Inaction and Optimism

Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Philip J. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Context ◽  
Positive Action ◽  
Ideological Fantasy

The problem of climate change inaction is sometimes said to be ‘wicked’, or essentially insoluble, and it has also been seen as a collective action problem, which is correct but inconsequential. In the absence of progress, much is made of various frailties of the public, hence the need for an optimistic tone in public discourse to overcome fatalism and encourage positive action. This argument is immaterial without meaningful action in the first place, and to favour what amounts to the suppression of truth over intellectual openness is in any case disreputable. ‘Optimism’ is also vexed in this context, often having been opposed to the sombre mood of environmentalists by advocates of economic growth. The greater mental impediments are ideological fantasy, which is blind to the contradictions in public discourse, and the misapprehension that if optimism is appropriate in one social or policy context it must be appropriate in others. Optimism, far from spurring climate change action, fosters inaction.

Nationalistic education in the Hong Kong and the Macao SARs of China

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric King-man Chong
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Content Type ◽  
National Education ◽  
National Identification ◽  
Education In Hong Kong

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare and analyse the role and implementation of nationalistic education in Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions (SARs) since their respective handover of sovereignty to China in the late 1990s. Both SARs face the educational need to cultivate a Chinese national identification among the students after the sovereignty changes. While Macau SAR has enjoyed a relatively smooth implementation of nationalistic education towards which Macau’s schools and students are largely receptive to nationalistic programmes since its handover in 1999, Hong Kong SAR Government’s nationalistic education was met by reservation from some parents, students and civil society’s groups under allegations of “political indoctrination” and “brain-washing”. The Hong Kong civil society’s resistance to National Education culminated in the anti-Moral and National Education protest in Summer 2012 and then Hong Kong schools and society. This paper attempts to provide an overview and analysis on the development of nationalistic education in both Hong Kong and Macao SARs, and to give some possible explanations on the factors that lead to differences of perceiving and responding to the nationalistic education between both places. Design/methodology/approach After conducting a literature review, this study utilises different sources of data such as curriculum guidelines, previous studies and other scholarly findings in examining the development of civic education and national education policy in both SAR societies, as well as in discussing the possible developments of nationalistic education in both SARs by making references to previous studies of citizenship and nationalistic education. Findings This study found out that different relationships between the two SAR Governments and their respective civil society, the extent of established socio-political linkages with China, as well as the introduction of a core subject of Liberal Studies in Hong Kong secondary schools, which emphasises on multiple perspectives and critical thinking skills, are some plausible factors that explain different stories and developments of implementing nationalistic education in Hong Kong and Macao SARs. Research limitations/implications For giving suggestions for a nationalistic education in both Chinese SARs, first, there should be an exploration of multiple citizenship identities. This will allow people to choose their identities and thus facilitate their belongingness in terms of local, national and global dimensions. In addition, there should be an exploration of a Chinese national identification with different emphases such as knowledge orientation and critical thinking so as to cater for youth values. Promoting the idea of an informed and reasonable-in-thinking patriot could also be a way to ease the concern that building a national identity negates a person’s freedom of thinking. Originality/value This paper attempts to compare and analyse the different responses to the same policy of enhancing nationalistic education development in both Hong Kong and Macao SARs of China. Some plausible explanations were given based on political, social and educational factors, as well as youth value oritentations. This paper would be an attempt to show that a top-down single-minded orientated nationalistic education may not work well a society such as Hong Kong, where civil society and youth values are quite different than that can be found in China.

scholarly journals In fear of a reversal back to the spirits-drinking era — the 2004 decrease of Finnish alcohol taxes in public discourse

2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matilda Hellman ◽  
Thomas Karlsson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Alcohol Policy ◽  
Alcoholic Beverages ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Drinking Patterns ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Public Health Perspective ◽  
Total Consumption

Aims The study investigates how the dissimilar tax reductions for different alcoholic beverages (spirits, wine and beer) were debated during the large tax decrease on alcoholic beverages in Finland in 2004. Design and Data The material comprises parliamentary proceedings and discussions, as well as daily press items (=105) from 2003–2004. Content analyses, both quantitative and qualitative, were performed. Results The parliament's discussion on the unequal treatment of different beverage types concerned mostly the overall framing of a public health perspective, differencing between consumption of “spirits” and “non-spirits”. The mass media framed the question mostly from the industry's point of view. Neither a clear support of the total consumption model (excluding specification of beverage sort), nor a strong liberalisation model for alcohol policy were expressed in the materials. Varying stances were merely motivated within a paradigm of “changing drinking patterns”. Conclusions The differing treatment of different beverage types, especially the large reductions in spirits taxes, was crystallised as the fundamental public health concern surrounding the decision to lower alcohol taxes. In the end of the article the authors ask whether the lack of clear stances other than the drinking pattern framing could imply that the Finnish alcohol policy debate has become more heterogeneous, neutralised or resigned in its basic nature.

The Impact of Military Spending on Economic Development

2018 ◽  
pp. 182-191
Author(s):  
Saptarshi Chakraborty
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Military Spending ◽  
Military Expenditure ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
External Threats ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Impact

Some countries spend a relatively large percentage of GDP on their militaries in order to preserve or secure their status as global powers. Others do so because they are ruled by military governments or aggressive regimes that pose a military threat to their neighbors or their own populations. It is debatable whether there is a causal relationship between military spending and economic growth in the economy. It is again a policy debate how much to allocate funds for civilian and how much for military expenditure. Under these puzzling results of the impact of military expenditure on economic growth which is frequently found to be non-significant or negative, yet most countries spend a large fraction of their GDP on defense and the military. The chapter tries to investigate the relationship between military spending and economic growth in India. It also sees whether external threats, corruption, and other relevant controls have any causal effect. This chapter obtains that additional expenditure on Indian military in the presence of additional threat is significantly detrimental to growth implying that India cannot afford to fight or demonstrate power at the cost of its development.

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