• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.72
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• pp.7-51
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• 2015

Job seeking for young adults after college in South Korea is much fierce and highly competitive. Many job seekers tend to experience despair, frustration, and insecurity in such a dire social situation. This study focuses on the job seeking experiences of younger generation people by closely examining the self-introduction letters. This work pays keen attention to the narrative strategies and portrayal of the applicants' self-described activities in these forms of letters through a detailed textual and cultural analysis. In doing so, this analysis attempts to contextualize the complex structures of feeling for the part of young job seekers as well as various social factors and pressures that influence on them.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.84
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• pp.28-98
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• 2017

This work critically deals with the much unstable and fragmented states of young adults in contemporary Korean society. Nowadays, most of young adults in Korea have encountered much severe, uncertain, and 'hellish' socio-economic situations while their dreams of getting regular jobs are hard to achieve. This study aims to present a nuanced and detailed analysis of their sedimented feelings, variegated emotions, as well as embodied positions by utilizing in-depth interviews and critical explorations on their particular modes of survival.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.143-180
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• 2019

This article aims to examine the manner in which the 'Byeongmat' discourse was constructed, and the mechanism of the 'Byeongmat' discourse. I claim that the constructed discourse excludes disabled persons and women. When the 'Byeongmat' first appeared in the mainstream, it was understood as being presented only by webtoons. Furthermore 'Byeongmat' and webtoons were understood as almost synonymous. In this sense, it is no exaggeration to say that the way in which the 'Byeongmat' discourse was constructed is the way in which 'Byeongmat webtoons' were interpreted. In this article, to find out how the 'Byeongmat' discourse was constructed, I examine two things. First, the reception of media of 'Byeongmat'. 'Byeongmat' was at first understood as 'kitsch' by the media, but soon after generational meaning was added. Second, the interpretation of 'Byeongmat' in academia. In academia, the 'Byeongmat' discourse is advanced as a refined generationalism. Regardless of the 'Byeongmat webtoon' itself, 'Byeongmat webtoon' is interpreted as a text which is destructing narrative and filled with parodies. Furthermore this characteristic of the 'Byeongmat webtoon' is interpreted as a resistance culture of the younger generation. However, this interpretation serves as a mechanism which excludes the disabled and women. Currently, Korean society faces the popularization of the 'Byeongmat' code, the decline of the 'Byeongmat webtoons' and the crack of the younger generation discourse. The current situation allows the 'Byeongmat' discourse to be criticized without losing its social context while securing a distance of critcism. I expect that this article can contribute to further diversifying interpretations of 'Byeongmat' and 'Byeongmat webtoons', and accelerating the crack on the younger generation discourse.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.117-144
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• 2020

The film Burning (Lee Chang-dong, 2018) is one of the most noted Korean films in recent years as a work that unfolds an elaborate narrative in a delicate visualization. This film is a multi-vocal text in which different types of characters appear and scattered objective facts and ambiguous subjective desires are intertwined, so it is a text that has room for diverse interpretations. This article attempts to read Burning as an ethical discourse centered on the protagonist Jong-su, noting that the film raises universal and significant ethical issues that transcend the specific social and historical conditions of a contemporary Korean youth. I would like to examine the situation in which Jong-su is facing and his reaction to it, above all, from the perspective of Jong-su's ethical awakening and leap forward. Jong-su, a young South Korean non-regular man living in the present, encounters and connects with Hae-mi and Ben and attempts to understand the mysteries of the world. His trajectory, which the film shows closely, inevitably intersects the social and historical dimension of confusion and frustration of a young man graduated from the Department of Creative Writing, the reality of family dissolution and the individual psychological dimension of the sudden disappearance of his lover Hae-mi. Burning is a magistrate film that depicts Jong-su as an ethical subject oriented toward 'communal togetherness' while confronting the world and exploring its mysteries despite all his unfavorable conditions, such as his social position of the precariat youth and the epistemological uncertainty of reality perception. It is read as a story of his painful growth, in which Jong-su is becoming a 'writer', who once was a helpless non-regular delivery worker.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.553-568
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• 2018

Popular music is a spce where intrinsic desires and values of young people are well exposed in its process of production and consumption. Previous discussions of Korean youth and youth culture have been proceeding mainly in the sense of their resistances to older generation. However, this is limited in that it neglects the inherent microscopic characteristics of youth culture. The purpose of this study is to investigate what the signs and discourses of youth generation make and share in popular music, and how it relates to social context through the 'Mimesis' theory. As a result, the songs of the 1990s remarkably showed the resistance to the old generation in its narrative structure and have signs which expresses repression and uniformity. On the other hand, the songs of the 2010s have many fragmented signs which has been reconstructed into individualized discourse structure. It is assumed that the songs have been able to gain a lot of empathy and popularity from the young generation by visualizing emotions and desires experienced by themselves in the social context. Through this study, it suggests to pay attention to the sensitivity, desire and creativity of young people in music in the social and cultural context of the time.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.125-157
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• 2018

In the reality that the seriousness and concern about the youth problem is increasing, this study focuses on the vision plan project supporting the NEET youth in the social welfare field. Therefore, this study analyzed how the social workers recognized the NEET problem before participating in the project, what difficulties they experienced in the process of the project, and how they coped with these difficulties. The results of the study are as follows. Social workers were saddened by the seriousness of the youth problem before their participation, but they recognized that there was no way to solve it and many social workers were not fully aware of the youth or NEET issues. In this context, in the course of running a project with NEET youth, social workers experienced difficulties due to the nature of the NEET youth, difficulty in forming a relationship with NEET youth, and difficulties for young people not to spend time in the program. And social workers also faced difficulties due to the lack of know-how in the project, difficulties in operating the center alone, and difficulty in achieving employment goals. In the process of coping with these difficulties, social workers have actively sought, persuaded and supported the NEET youths to participate in the project, adapted the time, place and method to the youth, and removed the stigmatization element in the project. They also worked closely with local residents, local institutions and municipalities, formed networks, and changed the viewpoint of providing work experience rather than getting young people, but seeing long-term outcome. As a result, social workers have experienced not only individual change but also social welfare organization, field, community and local institutional change. Based on these results, this study suggested that the social welfare practice field should provide various activities in the process of supporting the youth gap year policy. In addition, this study suggests that the social workers play a role in connecting various actors rather than suppliers when working with young people, and that the social welfare field should expand the scope of project to include youth.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.9-37
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• 2020

The present study examines the transnational "Hallyu" (the Korean wave) phenomenon after the 1990s in the context of a solidarity movement of East Asian women. It also focuses on the passion for the world stage given the cultural industry was supported by the government as a "chimney-less factory" during the IMF financial crisis. Over the past twenty years and through Hallyu 1.0, Hallyu 2.0, and Hallyu 3.0, "K-entertainment" has been advocated, as a concept that encompasses K-drama, K-pop, etc. in the cultural industry. Furthermore, everything Korean, through K-culture, is being put at the forefront. However, there is insufficient discussion regarding the actions of the women who led the Korean wave. This paper examines the female fans and girl groups who played leading roles in the rise of popular culture and its transnational prominence within the context of the female agency and female labor involved. The lack of acknowledgment of their roles is linked to the current erasure of the discussion on the female youth. Discussion on "woman" is still limited to the domain of reproduction in the generational discussion that has replaced the existing nation-state or class led discussions in the current era of neoliberalism. However, since The reboot or the popularity of feminism in recent years, the interest in the female narrative, in works such as 'Kim Ji-young, Born 1982' has been expanding beyond East Asia to the rest of the world. Just as Hallyu was created by women in the beginning, there is a new trend in which women across national borders are joining in solidarity. As such, the present study attempts to prove that the female fan, girl group, and female youths must be one meta-narrative through a feminist reading, rather than individuals with separate identities.

• 한국벤처창업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2018.04a
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• pp.49-55
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• 2018

현장실습은 이론 위주의 대학교육과 실무 역량을 중요시하는 산업체 수요를 매칭시켜 취업률을 제고할 수 있는 중요한 수단으로 최근 청년 일자리 창출 및 취업 역량 제고를 위해 현장실습이 중요하게 인식되면서, 정부의 현장실습 관련 재정지원 프로그램들이 다양하게 추진중이다. 하지만, 정부지원의 현장실습 사업들은 서로 다른 운영기준을 제시하여 참여학생 뿐만 아니라, 산업체와 대학에서도 혼란이 가중되고 있으며, 사업 추진 상의 각종 문제들이 발생하고 있다. 특히 이러한 다양한 프로그램이 유기적 연계가 미흡하여 그 고유의 목적을 달성하는 데에 어려움이 예상된다. 이에, 국내의 현장실습 프로그램을 조사하고 산업체, 대학, 학생의 애로사항 뿐만 아니라, 제도적 문제점을 파악한다. 또한 이러한 문제점을 분류하고 통합하여 개선해야 할 사항에 대해 문제제기를 통해 국내 현장실습 프로그램의 고도화를 위한 유기적인 선순환 프로그램 모형을 제시하고 이의 실현을 위한 산학관 주체의 정책 및 시사점을 제언한다.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.3503-3509
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• 2011

Recently the problem of high unemployment rate of college graduate is one of the government's important issues to be solved. Therefore government has been proposed various policies and strategies to solve the problem and also universities are trying to put their best time and efforts to help students to find their decent jobs. In this study, we have compared the differences of new employee selection criteria between corporation's human resource managers and college students which could be one of the reasons of high unemployment rate. Our research shows that there are significant differences between two groups that are considered to be one of reasons of miss matched employment between companies and applicants. Therefore we have suggested how students, companies and universities can solve the problem of different perceptions on the selection criteria and tried to contribute to increase college students' employment.

• Journal of vocational education research
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.113-141
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• 2016

The apprenticeship training is given as a solution of the youth unemployment problem. The apprenticeship is a system that companies hire and instruct trainees and is implemented in various countries. In Korea, there is a Korean work-learning dual system which is managed by the government rather than the company itself. This Study analyzed Germany, Switzerland and Austria's apprenticeship training system and compared common factors of apprenticeship system, a trainer in company and cost-benefit analysis. The result of the study can be shown as follows. First, Germany operates practical training, meanwhile Switzerland and Austria provide a pre-education course before students enter the upper-secondary VET course. Second, Germany and Switzerland give a single type apprenticeship training, whereas Austria runs a modularization system, which enables students to specify their skills and improves clarity. Third, social partners as well as the government, states, companies/schools actively participate in apprenticeship. Fourth, there is a suitable trainer's qualification system in all countries. Finally, Germany and Austria's companies cause larger cost than benefit in apprenticeship. On the other hand, Switzerland gets larger net-benefit than cost. We can give implications to the Korean work-learning dual system based on this study.