• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.67
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• pp.88-118
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• 2014

This study attempted to clarify (1) the meaning of 'people's livelihood (Minsaeng, 民生)' conveyed by the newspapers in Korean society and the specific matter it refers to, and (2) consider the discourse formed by the newspapers and what does and does not change in that discourse over the passage of time. Editorials were classified and analyzed based on the framework of Fairclough's critical discourse analysis(CDA). It was clear, from the political perspective, that the discourse was respectively formed and changed for each administration. The discourse on 'people's livelihood' was critical and at the same time generally negative, because it dealt with the important social incidents or controversies of the time. The discourse on 'people's livelihood' related to the massive social streams of Korea's democratization and globalization process. Whereas the discourse on 'people's livelihood' in the 1990s, seen from an economic perspective, tried to resolve labor strikes, inflation rate, housing problem, and financial crisis. The discourse in the 2000s changed to issues ranging from economic growth and distribution to bi-polarization problem, job creation, abolishment of non-regular employments, etc. The meaning of 'people's livelihood' produced in the editorials of the major daily newspapers is different from the word's dictionary definition as 'the people's lives'.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.49
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• pp.93-125
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• 2024

The article takes a critical perspective that reunderstanding the canon of Daesoon Thought is necessary to expand its application to the needs of modern society given the rapid speed of societal changes. The key point is the emergence of a cultural ecologism within Daesoon Thought. What is called the cultural ecologism is focused upon the sustainable horizon of unifying culture and ecology in the organic structure of a total-life culture. A reciprocal unity of culture and ecology is characteristic of a coherent whole with an original unitary process in the circle of Nature. Cultural ecologism, therefore, aims at seeking after the sustainability of culture wherein the value of culture is integrated in the grand stream of the ecological spirit of Nature. In the Late Joseon Dynasty, Daesoon Thought paid attention to the Great Opening (開闢) to secure the people's livelihoods and it offered edification concerning anti-feudalism in a dimension of realistic awareness which guided people's lives. The process of the Great Opening functions as a process for the world of the Reordering Works of Heaven and Earth (天地公事) which culminate in the experience the Earthly Paradise (地上仙境) of the Later World (後天). In the cultural ecologism of Daesoon Thought, this course is equivalent to a process of Haewon (grievance-resolution) in the sense of dissolution and reconciliation. From the wide umbrella of cultural ecologism, consequently, it is possible to say that Daesoon Thought can arrive at the reality of the Earthly Paradise (地上仙境) through the Great Opening of the Later World, in which human beings can enjoy the infinite vitality of the universe from within their own finite vitality.