• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.767-793
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• 2011

This study aims to explore how older adults construct their life-world in their ecological and socio-cultural context of rural communities and to understand what meanings they give to the life experiences they have had within their life-world. Two rural villages in Sunchang County in North Jeolla Province, South Korea were selected for this study and ethnographic fieldwork was conducted for about 2 months to gather the data. Despite the fact that rural communities face restructuring and economic decline, older adults in this study gave positive meanings to their life experiences. Doing agricultural labor particularly in later life let them maintain independence and continuity in life, and provided them with plenty of opportunity to interact with nature. Also, they had a sense of control over their physical and social environments where they had been familiar with for a long period of time. Furthermore, older adults had various memories of contributions to families and communities have been created. This research shows older adults in rural communities are active agents of their life-world, dismantling stereotypical notions of older adults as dependent, isolated, and marginalized. Implications of the study are discussed in detail.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.145
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• pp.119-141
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• 2018

This paper is to address the consonance between Confucianism and Christianity, focusing on the first-generation clergy in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, Korea. Andong has turned out many Confucian scholars since Yi Hwang, and thus founded the school of Togye (Yi Hwang's nom de plume). Meanwhile, some of Confucians in Andong converted to Christianity after reading the Bible. Thus, their religious activities and their interpretation of the Bible Confucian factors smacked of Confucianism, which suggests a need to reestablish the relationship between Confucianism and Christianity. This study produced the following results: First, the converts did not aspire to Christianity itself but to saving their country. The first-generation clergy in Andong wanted to sublimate their patriotic and Confucian spirits into Christianity, which is backed up by the independence movement planned jointly by Confucians and Christians in Andong. As for Confucians in Andong, their devotion to their country was a cause of the conversion to Christianity. Second, it was small wonder that Christianity was harmonious with Confucianism at least for early Christianity in Andong. In those days, Confucians in Andong had to achieve their realistic goals and thus did not need to deny Christianity. To relieve the national suffering, they had more need of Christian religiosity than Confucian morality. Likewise, missionaries wanted to propagate Christianity, and therefore did not deny the worldliness of Confucianism. On this wise, the two kept their identities and at the same time could compensate for their shortcomings from each other. This study names such Korean Christianity a 'humanistic religion.'

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.213-261
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• 2018

On May 9, 2018, regime change took place in Malaysia. It was the first regime change that took place in 61 years after independence in 1957. The regime change was an unexpected result not only in Malaysian experts but also in political circles. Moreover, the outcome of the election was more shocking because the opposition party was divided in this general election. The regime change in Malaysia was enough to attract worldwide attention because it meant the collapse of the oldest regime in the modern political system that exists, except North Korea and China. How could this have happened? In particular, how could the regime change, which had not been accomplished despite opposition parties' cooperation for almost 20 years, could be achieved with the divided opposition forces? What political implications does the 2018 general election result have for political change and democratization in Malaysia? How will the Malaysian politics be developed in the aftermath of the regime change? It is worth noting that during the process of finding answers, a series of general elections since the start of reformasi in 1998 tended to be likened to a series of "tsunami" in the Malaysian electoral history. This phenomenon of tsunami means that, even though very few predicted the possibility of regime change among academia, civil society and political circles, the regime change was not sudden. In other words, the regime in 2018 was the result of the desire and expectation of political change through a series of elections of Malaysian voters last 20 years. In this context, this study, in analyzing the results of the election in 2018, shows that the activation of electoral politics triggered by the reform movement in 1998, along with the specific situational factors in 2018, could lead to collapse of the ruling government for the first time since independence.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.50
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• pp.175-206
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• 2017

The current study described the history of Islamic extremism and the recent expansion of international Islamic extremism in Indonesia. For doing so, both content analysis of the existing written documents and qualitative interviews were conducted. For the content analysis, media reports and research articles were collected and utilized. For qualitative interviews, Indonesian students and workers in Korea, Korean spouses married to Indonesian, and Korean missionaries in Indonesia were contacted and interviewed. Qualitative interview was conducted between 30 minutes and 2 hours. On the spot, interviews were recorded and later transcribed into written documents. Due to the difficulty of identification of population and the uneasiness of accessability to th study subjects, convenient sampling and snowball sampling were used. According to the results, Islamic extremism in Indonesia had a deep historical root and generally shared similar historical experience with other muslim countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia where Islamic extremism was deeply rooted in. That is, Islamic extremism began as a reaction to the western imperialism, after independence, Islamic extremism elements were marginalized in the process of construction of the modern nation-state, and Islamic extremist movement was radicalized and became violent during the Soviet-Afghan War. In addition, after 9.11, Islamic extremism in Indonesia was connected to international Islamic extremism network and integrated into such global movement. Such a historical development of Indonesian Islamic extremism was quite organized and robust. Meanwhile, the eastward infiltration and expansion of international Islamic extremism such as IS and Al Qaeda was observed in Indonesia. Particularly, such a worrisome expansion was more clearly visible in the marginalized and underdeveloped countrysides in Indonesia. Such expansion in Indonesia could negatively affect on the security of South Korea. Geographically, Indonesia is proximate to South Korea. This geographical proximity could be a direct security threat to the Korean society, as if Islamic extremism in North Africa and Middle East becomes a direct security threat to Europe. Considering the presence of a large size of Indonesian immigrant workers and communities in South Korea, such a concern is very realistic. The arrest of an Indonesian Islamic extremism supporter in November, 2016, could be a harbinger of the coming trend of Islamic extremism expansion inside South Korea. The Indonesian Islamic community in South Korea could be a passage of Indonesian Islamic extremism into the South Korean society. In this context, it is timely and necessary to pay an attention to the recent trend of Islamic extremism expansion in Indonesia.