A Reconsideration of the New Right’s Formative Period (2003–2008): Conservative Experiences, Mass Media and Cultural Memory in Post-Authoritarian South Korea

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-84
Author(s):  
Patrick Vierthaler
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
New Right ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Korean History ◽  
South Korean

The present article re-considers the emergence and institutionalization of the South Korean New Right Movement (2003–2007). Tracing institutional changes in post-democratization South Korea, I argue that the New Right can be evaluated as a process of Cultural Trauma within the conservative ideological spectrum. Revealing the movement’s institutionalization until the inauguration of the Lee Myung-bak government in 2008, I investigate in detail the role of the conservative mass media in the movement’s rise. Furthermore, I examine the movement’s relation to contemporary Korean history and memory, clarifying why the New Right ultimately failed in gaining wide-spread support for their historical narratives.

scholarly journals The New Right and the 1948 Foundation View: A Failed Revision of South Korean Cultural Memory

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Vierthaler
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
New Right ◽  
The South ◽  
Korean Society ◽  
Global Context ◽  
South Korean ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Korean State ◽  
Cold War History

Abstract The emergence of the South Korean New Right movement in the mid-2000s led to the questions of how to commemorate and evaluate the ROK state establishment in 1948, and when to precisely trace such a “foundation” (1919 or 1948?) to be vividly discussed in South Korean society. Was 1948 primarily a political division? Or was it a “foundation for success”? Following the 2008 Foundation Day Dispute, a significant number of scholarly works on the subject has been produced. This article analyses the conservative side of this discourse, approaching the foundation dispute as a conservative attempt to regain hegemony over South Korean Cultural memory in post-democratisation South Korea. Analysing New Right-authored historiography on the subject of “foundation,” the present study discloses how conservatives narrated the formative years of the South Korean state, arguing that merely dismissing the New Right as historical revisionists is too simple a conclusion. Rather, this article argues that struggles over Cultural memory are rooted in the ideological and institutional polarisation of South Korean intellectuals in contemporary South Korea. Furthermore, by contextualising the Foundation View against progressive historiography within South Korea as well as Cold War history in a global context, this study answers why the Foundation View ultimately failed to gain acceptance.

The Specter of the Past: Reconstructing Conservative Historical Memory in South Korea

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-362
Author(s):  
Myungji Yang
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
New Right ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Right

Through the case of the New Right movement in South Korea in the early 2000s, this article explores how history has become a battleground on which the Right tried to regain its political legitimacy in the postauthoritarian context. Analyzing disputes over historiography in recent decades, this article argues that conservative intellectuals—academics, journalists, and writers—play a pivotal role in constructing conservative historical narratives and building an identity for right-wing movements. By contesting what they viewed as “distorted” leftist views and promoting national pride, New Right intellectuals positioned themselves as the guardians of “liberal democracy” in the Republic of Korea. Existing studies of the Far Right pay little attention to intellectual circles and their engagement in civil society. By examining how right-wing intellectuals appropriated the past and shaped triumphalist national imagery, this study aims to better understand the dynamics of ideational contestation and knowledge production in Far Right activism.

An Old Right in New Bottles: State without Nation in South Korean New Right Historiography

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Sungik Yang
Keyword(s):  
Recent Change ◽  
New Right ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The South ◽  
Nationalist Discourse ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Park Chung Hee ◽  
Korean State ◽  
The Right

The New Right movement that arose in the early 2000s in South Korea was a response to a change in ownership of Korean nationalist discourse during the preceding decades. Although nationalism was the preserve of the South Korean right wing from the trusteeship crisis in 1945 through the end of the Park Chung Hee regime, a historiographical revolt in the 1980s that emphasized the historical illegitimacy of the South Korean state allowed the Left to appropriate nationalism. With the loss of nationalism from its arsenal, the Right turned to postnationalist neoliberal discourse to blunt the effectiveness of leftist nationalist rhetoric. An examination of New Right historiography on the colonial and postliberation periods, however, shows that despite the recent change in conservatives’ stance on nationalism, a preoccupation with the legitimacy of the South Korean state remains at the center of right-wing historical narratives. The New Right represents old wine in new bottles.

Behind Closed Doors: The Role of Risky Lifestyles and Victimization Experiences on Fear of Future Victimization Among South Korean Inmates

2019 ◽  
pp. 088626051988818
Author(s):  
Jaeyong Choi ◽  
Brandon Dulisse
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
Fear Of Victimization ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Risky Lifestyles ◽  
Violent Assault

Criminologists have long considered the extent to which victimization experiences influence fear of future victimization. As a result, some scholars have proposed risky lifestyles theory as a theoretical framework linking individuals’ lifestyles and experiences to their fear of victimization. This study contributes to and extends this line of research by exploring whether risky lifestyles and prior victimization influence fear of future victimization among a large sample of incarcerated felons in South Korea. Results show that although risky lifestyles heighten fear of sexual assault and fear of property theft among inmates, risky lifestyles are not predictive of fear of violent assault. This finding expands the scope of risky lifestyles theory and provides an understanding of why fear of victimization occurs within the prison context.

scholarly journals How to Place August 15 in South Korean History? The New Right, the “1948 Foundation” Historical View, and the 2008 Kŏn’gukchŏl Dispute

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Vierthaler
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
New Right ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Korean Society ◽  
Korean History ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Historical View ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
Korean State ◽  
A Minor

Abstract In Korea, August 15 marks both the liberation from colonialism (1945) and the promulgation of the South Korean state (1948). As a memorial day, 8.15 became to be narrated mostly as the day of liberation, while 1948 plays only a minor role. However, in the 2000s, the emergence of the New Right brought new debates on how to evaluate post-liberation history. A historical view proposing public memory on 8.15 centred on the “foundation” of South Korea emerged (kŏn’guk view). Combined with attempts to re-name 8.15 into a foundation day (kŏn’gukchŏl), an intense dispute between proponents and opponents of the re-narration was the result. This paper outlines the emergence of the New Right and traces the origins and politicisation of the kŏn’guk view and demonstrates how adopting the kŏn’guk narrative in state commemoration events led to a broad dispute in South Korean society. I trace this view’s origin to 2003 and argue that it got politicised in early 2008 during the early Lee Myung-bak administration. The politicisation resulted in a dispute in politics, civil society, and newspapers, whose progress and characteristics I analyse in detail. As a result of the 2008 Kŏn’gukchŏl Dispute, the issue of how to narrate the events of 1948 became actively discussed in academic scholarship since 2009.

scholarly journals Confucian Democracy and a Pluralistic Li-Ki Metaphysics

Religions ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 325
Author(s):  
Hyo-Dong Lee
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Public Culture ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
General Will ◽  
South Korean ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ethical Monism ◽  
Diverse Groups ◽  
Landmark Study

This essay explores the possible constructive role of a Confucian metaphysics in the pluralistic Confucian-democratic context of South Korea. In his recent landmark study, Sungmoon Kim has argued that South Korean democracy is sustained by a public culture of civility that is grounded in Confucian habits and mores and yet is pluralistic in ethos. I appreciatively interrogate Kim’s thesis in order to advance a claim that a comprehensive Confucian doctrine such as Confucian metaphysics can contribute significantly to the flourishing of Confucian democratic public culture, provided that it affirm a pluralistic ontology. I contend that the tradition of Korean Neo-Confucian li-ki metaphysics, particularly one found in the works of Nongmun Im Seong-ju, offers rich resources for a pluralistic ontology despite its history of ethical monism. By putting Nongmun’s thought in conversation with some of the contemporary critiques of the Schmittian (mis-)appropriation of the notion of popular sovereignty, I outline a pluralized version of the Rousseauian general will—a kind of critically affectionate solidarity of diverse groups of people—that is Confucian in character. My claim is that such a critically affectionate solidarity finds its grounds in and draws its nourishment from a pluralistic Confucian ontology.

Making Integrity Institutions Work in South Korea

Asian Survey ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 898-919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Turner ◽  
Seung-Ho Kwon ◽  
Michael O’Donnell
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
The South ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Popular Protest

This article deals with the scandals that engulfed South Korea’s president, Park Geun-hye, in 2016–17 and the role of popular protest in how she, her confidante, and associated officials and business leaders were pursued, prosecuted, and jailed. The South Korean experience is located in a framework of integrity institutions and the 1986 exemplar of “people power” in the Philippines.

Ubiquitous city: Urban technologies, urban infrastructure and urban informatics

2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 515-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong-Hee Shin
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Positive Development ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
The South ◽  
South Korean

South Korea continues to lead the way in digital opportunity with its recent, innovative and ubiquitous city projects. The u-city initiative in South Korea is a national urban development project that focuses on strengthening the role of information and communication technologies in civic planning and management. This study tracks the changing dynamics driving the information society initiative of South Korea to evaluate the process of design and development of u-city. This study reviews qualitative data related to the u-city projects, describes the transformations and translation of this data in the public, political, and social discourse, and discusses the prospectus of a ubiquitous information society environment. The findings raise fundamental, practical questions about the role of ubiquitous computing in shaping our future cities. The findings show that there are more challenges ahead than prospects, despite the fact that the u-city has all the advanced technological components for a positive development. The South Korean u-city is typically more prone to problems related to the lack of social infrastructure, market restrictions, political quagmires and vested financial interests. The paper discusses the deficiencies of the South Korean approach, namely a lack of holistic approach by integrating technological possibilities with social application needs.

A multidimensional analysis of spiritual leadership, affective commitment and employees' creativity in South Korea

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1035-1052
Author(s):  
Ki Seok Jeon ◽  
Byoung Kwon Choi
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Affective Commitment ◽  
Spiritual Leadership ◽  
Multidimensional Analysis ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationships between three dimensions – vision, hope/faith and altruistic love – of spiritual leadership and employees' creativity and to verify the mediating role of affective commitment in such relationships.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 462 South Korean employees in diverse industries through self-reported questionnaires, and hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression analysis.FindingsThe authors found that vision, hope/faith and altruistic love were positively related to employees' creativity, while their affective commitment mediated such relationships. The authors also verified that the multidimensional structure of spiritual leadership was valid in the context of South Korea.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that leaders need to understand the importance of vision, hope/faith and altruistic love toward employees in formulating employees' affective commitment and stimulating creativity. Thus, organizations need to establish and operate leadership training programs for promoting leaders' behaviors that are based on spirituality.Originality/valueThis study contributes to broadening the variety of spiritual leadership's outcomes by providing an initial evidence of how spiritual leadership is associated with employees' creativity. Extending the verification of multidimensional structure of spiritual leadership so that it can be applied in South Korea has also been considered.

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