• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.349-375
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• 2009

The purpose of this research is understanding of a life and finding suggestion about old person's welfare looking about old person's mutual behavior in an old group culture connected with Jong-Myo park.. For this, researcher has been researching and interviewing and gathering datal more than 1 year about old person in Jong-Myo park and near persons from December 2007. The data were followed by suggestion of Spradley(1979). That is categorization after confirm about territory of a old person's life who in Jong-Myo park or near. Cultural subject was confirmed through these acting that is an old person forgetting from group culture or desire of revelation, Escape from land forced landing, Rescue of dead time. Through the researching of an old persons group culture location, the researcher propose the way of welfare policy about old person.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.157-170
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• 2011

The purpose of this article is to examine how the 'bodily culture' of older men who gather at Jongmyo Park serves to express and solidify their sense of a enduring self. The research was carried out based on the anthropological methods of participant observation and in-depth interviews at Jongmyo park and its adjacent areas. In later life, the image of a continuous self becomes harder to achieve due to the ageism prevalent in modern societies. The situation is worse at Jongmyo park since the park itself has been stigmatized as "the extraterritorial zone for the old" by the media due to the boisterous atmosphere of the park. It is dubbed as a place for those who have nowhere else to go. The singing and dancing, which used to be the dominant forms of activities at the park among older men until the 'sanctification' project propelled by the government, serves as an antidote against the ageist tendency to subjugate them. The 'bodily culture' embodies these men's image of themselves as a continuous being which has not been tarnished by the passage of time. The approach of 'body hermeneutics' is required to interpret the experiences of the body in later life.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.76-80
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• 2009

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.25-36
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• 2016

As the first public park in Korea, birth place of the march first independence movement, and a representative space of leisure of old men, Tapgol Park contains diverse symbolisms and meanings. In 2000, Seoul authorities selected the symbolism of the March First independence movement, and carried forward the sacralization project of Tapgol Park. They eliminated facilities, including vending machines, and restricted most of the leisure activities in the park such as drinking singing dancing, speech, playing chess, writing calligraphy, etc., and loitering. Also, they changed the park's design into a less available space with green areas and switched wooden benches to granite stone. Since the project finished, a representative phenomenon was the elderly men's exodus to Jongmyo Park, where the restrictions were not strong as in Tapgol Park. As a result, the numbers of users in Tapgol Park decreased sharply. However, overcrowded(more than 3000) Jongmyo Park is also in the middle of a sacralization project now. According to an investigation including observation and in-depth interview, most of the elderly men who use the parks almost everyday were in the low economic class. They just visit the parks everyday and chat with their peers, gaining comfort from each other. These phenomena can be interpreted as a social exclusion in society, which made the elderly men move to another place. Meanwhile, although fifteen years has passed since the project was completed, many people still regard the Tapgol Park as a place for elderly men instead of the birth place of the March First Independence Movement. This study focused on such problems and vague place identity, which is neither a memorial place nor a public park. The study discovery the fact they missed the symbolism that Tapgol Park was the first urban park of Korea. Also, it stresses that the monumentality does not need to be sacred, reverent, or inflexible. With this point of view, this study discussed public aspect and everydayness, which are included in most of the urban parks. Finally, this study suggests Tapgol Park as an urban park that has an identity that embraces the condition of monumentality, everydayness, and publicness all together.