Between Science and Politics: Science Fiction as a Critical Discourse in South Korea, 1960s–1990s

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-367
Author(s):  
Sunyoung Park
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Cultural Texts ◽  
The 1960S

AbstractA positivist vision of science fiction as a discourse closely bound to science and technology has been influential in South Korea ever since the first flourishing of the genre in the 1960s. Using that normative vision as a reference, the present essay investigates the ways in which select science-fictional texts have actually represented the technoscientific enterprise in South Korea in the period spanning the 1960s through the 1990s. As the analysis suggests, the heyday of positivist-oriented science fiction in the country was largely limited to the 1960s, which was a time when Koreans looked keenly upon science for its utopian promise of development and modernization for the nation. As later years brought dictatorship and forced industrialization, however, a marked shift toward dystopia and social protest became evident in cultural texts that critically depicted technoscience and modernization as tools of oppression rather than as progress and liberation. The historical existence of this more critical vein of science fiction, it is argued, attests to the genre’s hitherto underappreciated potential for fruitful engagement with the political and social challenges of modernization both globally and within South Korea’s technologically saturated society.

Understanding the State in South Korea

1992 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 512-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES COTTON
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Political System ◽  
World System ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Character ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
The World ◽  
The 1960S

South Korea cannot be seen as an example of the bureaucratic-authoritarian state type. Neither its position in the world system nor its industrialization strategy can be used to give a sufficient explanation of its political and social character. Although these factors have played a part, particular historical, political, and cultural circumstances have permitted the state to enjoy a degree of autonomy during the period of rapid social and economic transformation from the 1960s to the 1980s. The determinants and character of the transition to democratization generally support this analysis, but also indicate that limits exist to the degree of liberalization to be expected in the political system.

Niger: Armed Force Politics and Counterterrorism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Baudais
Keyword(s):  
Security Policy ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Political Transitions ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Institutional Economic ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

Since the independence of Niger in 1960, Nigerien armed forces have played a prominent role in the country’s history, either because of their recurrent “nonpolitical” interventions in the political arena or based on their involvement in the stabilization process of the Sahel and the fight against terrorism. Nigeriens have lived under civil, military, and authoritarian regimes, experienced four coups d’état (1974, 1996, 1999, and 2010), four political transitions, nine presidents, and have voted on seven constitutions. The Nigerien population lived under military rule for 23 out of 60 years following independence. Thus, Nigerien contemporary politics cannot be analyzed without a sound understanding of the Nigerien Army, how the institution became an “entrepreneur politique,” and how institutional, economic, and social factors may encourage the intervention of a nonpolitical institution in the political arena. Politics and the military are definitely connected in Niger. Each coup has had a different motive. The 1974 military coup is one of the many successful military seizures of power that occurred in Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. This first “praetorian” intervention resulted from intramilitary and domestic factors and lasted 17 years under the rule of Seyni Kountché and his successor Ali Saibou. The second intervention in politics occurred in 1996 and also resulted from institutional factors and the inability of the newly elected authorities to overcome their divisions. The 1996 coup d’état was a classic case: a time-limited military intervention using violence to convert itself into a civilian regime. In 1999 the army overthrew a military regime, whereas in 2010 militaries put an end to the democratically elected president’s shift toward authoritarianism. In 2010, the shift in the security situation in the Sahel marked the armed forces’ return to strictly military functions, such as national defense and security and providing support for external operations. Consequently, the security situation in the Sahel strip deteriorated and the major economic and social challenges of the poorest country in the world were neglected. This has led to recurrent political and social tensions that reinforce the fact that addressing the basic needs of the people is as, important as Niger’s security policy.

scholarly journals Inequality and Emancipation : An Educational Approach

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
Stefan Gross
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
The Political ◽  
Educational Approach ◽  
Ancient Time ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Primary Function ◽  
Political Function ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Educational Debate

Emancipation has lost its charisma. In the 1960s, the term had been one of the saviour-concepts in the educational debate on social inequality and the political function of pedagogy in Western countries. Nowadays, as the discussion is still ongoing, the word is rarely in use. Overloaded with political enmeshments and a plurality of meanings, emancipation seems to be nothing more than a nearly forgotten relict of an ancient time. How could this rise and fall happen? The present essay is tracing the colourful history of emancipation in various contexts, recapitulating its pedagogical importance in the 1960s and discovering how the pillars have kept their primary function, although the word is not in use any longer. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jer.v2i0.7617 Journal of Education and Research Vol. 2, 2010 p.9-16

The Scholarly Odyssey of an Activist Historian: Alan Dawley in Historiography

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Tyrrell
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
The Political ◽  
Protest Movement ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Intellectual Product

It would be tempting to see the late Alan Dawley as an intellectual product of the 1960s, a decade that has attracted considerable attention among historians and that shaped the political and intellectual preoccupations of a generation. To be sure, Dawley played a part in that era's social-protest movement that shaped his career as a scholar-activist. Katy Weschler Dawley spoke recently of a young man “with a purpose,” who “became committed to achieve goals of justice, civil-rights and antiwar movements.” These were indeed abiding commitments that would have made the separation of activism and scholarship difficult for any historian, and there is no doubt that Dawley was such a writer driven at the outset by political ideals.

The Fragmentation of the Palestinian Political Field

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 189-216
Author(s):  
Jamil Hilal
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Cultural Field ◽  
National Representation ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Palestinian National Movement ◽  
The Relationship

The mid-1960s saw the beginnings of the construction of a Palestinian political field after it collapsed in 1948, when, with the British government’s support of the Zionist movement, which succeeded in establishing the state of Israel, the Palestinian national movement was crushed. This article focuses mainly on the Palestinian political field as it developed in the 1960s and 1970s, the beginnings of its fragmentation in the 1990s, and its almost complete collapse in the first decade of this century. It was developed on a structure characterized by the dominance of a center where the political leadership functioned. The center, however, was established outside historic Palestine. This paper examines the components and dynamics of the relationship between the center and the peripheries, and the causes of the decline of this center and its eventual disappearance, leaving the constituents of the Palestinian people under local political leadership following the collapse of the national representation institutions, that is, the political, organizational, military, cultural institutions and sectorial organizations (women, workers, students, etc.) that made up the PLO and its frameworks. The paper suggests that the decline of the political field as a national field does not mean the disintegration of the cultural field. There are, in fact, indications that the cultural field has a new vitality that deserves much more attention than it is currently assigned.

Arte ConTexto

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-52
Author(s):  
Antonio Bellisario ◽  
Leslie Prock
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Pictorial Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Socialist Government ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Military

The article examines Chilean muralism, looking at its role in articulating political struggles in urban public space through a visual political culture perspective that emphasizes its sociological and ideological context. The analysis characterizes the main themes and functions of left-wing brigade muralism and outlines four subpolitical phases: (i) Chilean mural painting’s beginnings in 1940–1950, especially following the influence of Mexican muralism, (ii) the development of brigade muralism for political persuasion under the context of revolutionary sociopolitical upheaval during the 1960s and in the socialist government of Allende from 1970 to 1973, (iii) the characteristics of muralism during the Pinochet dictatorship in the 1980s as a form of popular protest, and (iv) muralism to express broader social discontent during the return to democracy in the 1990s. How did the progressive popular culture movement represent, through murals, the political hopes during Allende’s government and then the political violence suffered under the military dictatorship? Several online repositories of photographs of left-wing brigade murals provide data for the analysis, which suggests that brigade muralism used murals mostly for political expression and for popular education. Visual art’s inherent political dimension is enmeshed in a field of power constituted by hegemony and confrontation. The muralist brigades executed murals to express their political views and offer them to all spectators because the street wall was within everyone's reach. These murals also suggested ideas that went beyond pictorial representation; thus, muralism was a process of education that invited the audience to decipher its polysemic elements.

Having Their Say, Leaving Their Mark

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-153
Author(s):  
Adolphus G. Belk ◽  
Robert C. Smith ◽  
Sherri L. Wallace
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Black People ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Documents ◽  
Adverse Conditions ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Independent Organization

In general, the founders of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists were “movement people.” Powerful agents of socialization such as the uprisings of the 1960s molded them into scholars with tremendous resolve to tackle systemic inequalities in the political science discipline. In forming NCOBPS as an independent organization, many sought to develop a Black perspective in political science to push the boundaries of knowledge and to use that scholarship to ameliorate the adverse conditions confronting Black people in the United States and around the globe. This paper utilizes historical documents, speeches, interviews, and other scholarly works to detail the lasting contributions of the founders and Black political scientists to the discipline, paying particular attention to their scholarship, teaching, mentoring, and civic engagement. It finds that while political science is much improved as a result of their efforts, there is still work to do if their goals are to be achieved.

NCOBPS Fifty Years

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-135
Author(s):  
William J. Daniels
Keyword(s):  
Predominantly White ◽  
Black Student ◽  
Personal Narrative ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Predominantly White Institution ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
White Institution ◽  
The 1960S

This personal narrative recounts the experiences of an NCOBPS founder, who discusses significant events in his life from student to faculty that motivated his professional journey, including his participation in the founding of NCOBPS. It reflects on what it meant to be a black student, and later, a black faculty member teaching at a predominantly white institution in the political science discipline in the 1960s. It also provides a glimpse into how the freedom movements shaped his fight for fundamental rights as a citizen. Finally, it gives credence to the importance of independent black organizations as agents for political protest and vehicles for economic and social justice.

The critical theory of democracy in Western political thought

2020 ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Ruqaya Saeed Khalkhal
Keyword(s):  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
The Church ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
Or Applications ◽  
The Ideal

The darkness that Europe lived in the shadow of the Church obscured the light that was radiating in other parts, and even put forward the idea of democracy by birth, especially that it emerged from the tent of Greek civilization did not mature in later centuries, especially after the clergy and ideological orientation for Protestants and Catholics at the crossroads Political life, but when the Renaissance emerged and the intellectual movement began to interact both at the level of science and politics, the Europeans in democracy found refuge to get rid of the tyranny of the church, and the fruits of the application of democracy began to appear on the surface of most Western societies, which were at the forefront to be doubtful forms of governece.        Democracy, both in theory and in practice, did not always reflect Western political realities, and even since the Greek proposition, it has not lived up to the idealism that was expected to ensure continuity. Even if there is a perception of the success of the democratic process in Western societies, but it was repulsed unable to apply in Islamic societies, because of the social contradiction added to the nature of the ruling regimes, and it is neither scientific nor realistic to convey perceptions or applications that do not conflict only with our civilized reality The political realization created by certain historical circumstances, and then disguises the different reality that produced them for the purpose of resonance in the ideal application.

State-run celebration of Liberation Day in Czechoslovakia (based on audiovisual sources)

2019 ◽  
pp. 251-268
Author(s):  
Timur Gimadeev
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Experience ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Military

The article deals with the history of celebrating the Liberation Day in Czechoslovakia organised by the state. Various aspects of the history of the holiday have been considered with the extensive use of audiovisual documents (materials from Czechoslovak newsreels and TV archives), which allowed for a detailed analysis of the propaganda representation of the holiday. As a result, it has been possible to identify the main stages of the historical evolution of the celebrations of Liberation Day, to discover the close interdependence between these stages and the country’s political development. The establishment of the holiday itself — its concept and the military parade as the main ritual — took place in the first post-war years, simultaneously with the consolidation of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Later, until the end of the 1960s, the celebrations gradually evolved along the political regime, acquiring new ritual forms (ceremonial meetings, and “guards of memory”). In 1968, at the same time as there was an attempt to rethink the entire socialist regime and the historical experience connected with it, an attempt was made to reconstruct Liberation Day. However, political “normalisation” led to the normalisation of the celebration itself, which played an important role in legitimising the Soviet presence in the country. At this stage, the role of ceremonial meetings and “guards of memory” increased, while inventions released in time for 9 May appeared and “May TV” was specially produced. The fall of the Communist regime in 1989 led to the fall of the concept of Liberation Day on 9 May, resulting in changes of the title, date and paradigm of the holiday, which became Victory Day and has been since celebrated on 8 May.

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