• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.39-80
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• 2024

Guided by the prism of cultural studies, this paper takes a look at the Manila Korea Town in Malate, Manila. The location, Manila Korea Town, figures as the paper's object of study by exploring, theorizing, and reflecting on its presence and location within the horizon of the signifying powers of Korea-Philippine relations in the contemporary period. With the subject position of this essay, the paper theorizes by responding to the following questions: How does the meaning-making of South Korea fare with other Koreatowns in the world from the scale of Koreatown in Manila? Subsequently, what happens to a place when a global cultural phenomenon evolves into a form of placemaking in a different nation and territory? As Koreatown finally grounds itself in the anarchic lifeworld of Manila, what does this historical development in our urban lives reveal about our contemporary times? Responding to this set of questions led this paper to foreground the idea of a modular imagined community within a four-part discussion. The body of the essay begins by theorizing on the concept that this paper proposes, modular imagined community, and such a concept work draws from the theories of nationalism by Benedict Anderson and Partha Chatterjee. Subsequently, the antinomy between Anderson and Chatterjee is pursued by looking at the history of such a place, and through this step, the paper unravels the character of the place of Manila Korea Town, which explains the conditions of possibility of such social and communitarian formation. Yet as the public is caught by the presence of such development especially at the heart of Manila, the paper expands the scale and viewpoint by shining light on the globality of South Korea in relation to the Philippines. Lastly, this paper closes with a discussion on the food culture facilitated by this recent development, which also pushes us to imagine its potential, especially in light of the critique raised against South Korea and the popular culture associated with this phenomenon.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.329-344
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• 2021

AI assistant, a software interface designed to interact with a user in a natural way and perform specific tasks on the user's behalf, receives increasing attention from both scholars and practitioners. While most of the literatures explain about technical aspects, little is known about the social and psychological factors that intimately influence consumers when using it. This study sheds light on the reason people use AI assistant and how perceived values influence on intention of continuous usage. A total of 361 AI assistant users participated in an online survey, and all were recruited from a major online panel in South Korea. The results from the principal component analysis suggest five social and psychological motives: self-expression, quality of life, entertainment, information, and compatibility. In addition, perceived values, informativeness, entertainment, and trustworthiness, positively predict the intention to use AI assistant. This research provides theoretical contributions from finding motivations of AI assistant usage and from the effects of perceived values on the intention to use it. Practical implications should not be overlooked in this ever-expanding AI industry.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.14 no.1_spc
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• pp.167-186
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• 2008

This study is to investigate, from the perspective of implicit theory, what elements influence children's motivation to learn and how their configurations are different according to different sexes. One analysis was based on answers to a motivation questionnaire by fourth to sixth graders from four different cities in South Korea. The subjects children were most highly motivated to learn were math and science for boys, and math and English for girls, respectively. Factors influencing the motivation were near 30 in number, including later happier life, joy of learning, parental rewards, pleasure of being informed, and meeting parental expectations, among others. Another analysis was an exploratory and confirmative factor analysis on motivation to learn among 856 fourth to sixth graders randomly sampled from 7 different cities all over South Korea. Factors revealed to contribute to the motivated learning here were five factors of utility, interest, recognition, knowledge acquisition(being informed), and expectancy sufficiency. There were some differences in the structure of factors between sexes; importance was given to five factors of utility, interest, recognition, knowledge acquisition, and expectancy sufficiency in descending order for boys, and six factors of interest, utility, rewards, recognition, expectancy sufficiency, and competition for girls.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.73-83
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• 2017

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the CSR activities of small enterprises in hospitality and tourism industry in South Korea. Since previous research on CSR activities has considerably focused on large enterprises whereas small enterprises have relatively less attention, this study aims to explore the characteristics of small enterprises in hospitality and tourism industry and their CSR activities. Research design, data, and methodology - The population of interest for this study was social enterprises registered in Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency (2016), and it was used to verify the social enterprises which has a certification for social enterprises. From 1672 companies in total, the sampling frame was a database with 117 companies in hospitality and tourism industry. This study investigates social enterprises' CSR activities on the company's official websites (e.g., company reports, magazines, the news articles, and interviews). The websites of the selected enterprises in hospitality and tourism industry were analyzed for examining CSR activities by the quantitative content analysis. All of the CSR activities in small social enterprises were classified into six dimensions based on the stakeholder theory. Results - The findings of this study provide the characteristics of the 117 small social enterprises and their specific CSR initiatives. A total of eight main business lines were identified: 1) fair travel, 2) leisure/sports, 3) accommodation/camping, 4) medical tourism, 5) exhibitions/art events/cultural events, 6) leisure activities for vulnerable social groups, 7) Korean traditional culture, and 8) ecotourism/agricultural tourism. The CSR initiatives were classified into six dimensions: 1) environment, 2) employment, 3) multicultural families and vulnerable social groups, 4) local community, 5) economic prosperity, and 6) product. Conclusions - This study revealed the special CSR initiative examples of small enterprises in hospitality and tourism industry. Small social enterprises participate in CSR activities mainly related to their own business lines. Moreover, these enterprises are more closely embedded in their local community development, job creation and education for local residents and vulnerable social groups, and traditional heritage preservation. The findings of this study provide theoretical and practical implications and they can contribute to enrich CSR with literature for small enterprises in hospitality and tourism industry.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.405-411
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• 2024

This study aims to address the sustainability of South Korea's conscription system, which is being questioned due to issues like low birth rates and societal changes, and to explore the necessity and implementation strategies for transitioning to an all-volunteer force (AVF). South Korea has long maintained national security through conscription, but it now faces challenges such as a decrease in military resources and the advancement of high-tech military technologies. To address these challenges, the study analyzes domestic and international cases of AVF and assesses the current state and issues of South Korea's military service system. The findings indicate that an AVF can enhance military professionalism and efficiency, respect individual choice, and contribute to reducing gender imbalance and promoting social equity. A phased roadmap for the implementation of the AVF is proposed, along with the need for legal and institutional frameworks and measures to foster public consensus. The study also discusses the potential positive economic impacts and long-term cost savings of the AVF. This research aims to provide concrete strategies and policy recommendations for adopting a Korean-style AVF, thereby proactively responding to changes in the future security environment and establishing a sustainable national defense posture.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2015

Among the cultural groups that increase South Korea's diversity, there are adolescents returning to Korea after their stay abroad. From 15 in-depth interviews with those who stayed abroad for longer than 5 years, 11 codes were generated. The codes were divided into two categories: "assets" when the multicultural experience served as resources for the returnees adapting to Korean culture successfully and "disadvantages" when the multiple experience remained fragmented for the returnees experiencing difficulty in re-acculturation. The distinguishing factors between the success and difficulty in re-acculturation appeared to be the cultural identity as Korean and the "openness to experience." The interwoven nature of personal and social factors stood out, along with the role of cultural identity throughout the process. Also the "openness to experience" as a strategy of integrating the past experiences is discussed, as well as the implications of the findings and the suggestions for future studies in the contemporary multicultural South Korea as a host society.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.430-452
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• 2021

The recent social atmosphere has been a preference for wood utilization and woodworks. The general public does not have many opportunities to enjoy wood culture, so there is a lack of awareness and foundation of wood culture. In this study, classification and case analysis of wood culture were conducted as basic research for establishing a promotion strategy for the general public to enjoy wood culture. The specificity of wood culture and cultural resources was analyzed to establish the concept of wood cultural resources. Through the analysis, wood cultural resources were defined as products created as a result of human activities that implied the cultural value of wood and wood use in terms of conservation, discovery, and utilization. The types of wood cultural resources were classified into seven categories using the classification examples performed on cultural resources: cultural heritage, cultural facilities, cultural festival, wood architecture, culture contents, culture education, and wood products. In addition, cases were searched and proposed for each type of wood cultural resources.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.311-318
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• 2019

Dying alone is an emerging social problem in South Korea. It is reported that most cases of dying alone showed various and chronic health problems. Despite of this situation, there existed neither medical support nor welfare services when dying. It indicated severe health inequality problems. With this background, the purpose of this study was to examine health inequality issue among dying alone cases by using news paper articles during the past three years(2016-2018). Content analysis was employed for 89 dying alone cases. Characteristics of dying alone cases, types of illness and health problems, and unmet medical services were analyzed. Based on the findings, future directions were addressed.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.322-336
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• 2022

South Korea is in the limelight in the past decades as Korean universities races for internationalization. As the number of students studying abroad tremendously increasing, there has been a growing need for higher education institutions to understand international working students' life satisfaction and sense of belonging. The aim of this research is to outline which determinants affects life satisfaction as mediated by sense of belonging. With the samples size of 102 respondents, the proposed research model was examined using structural equation modeling (SEM) and SPSS. Results show that all determinants (Recognition, Quality of Education, Experienced Difficulties in Public Service and Understanding Korean Language) were positively significant toward Sense of Belonging. Likewise sense of belonging holds the positive indirect significant effects of the four determinants to life satisfaction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.336-347
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• 2004

This study was conducted to investigate eating-out behavior patterns of youths, especially junior high and senior high school students. 1600 questionnaire surveys were distributed and 1487 were used for analysis. In order to consider regional differences as well as overall characteristics of youths' eating-out behaviors, the subjects were evenly sampled from north Seoul, south Seoul, big cities, middle/small cities and small towns. As for the frequency of eating-out, 62.7% of respondents answered once to twice per week. For the can of more than 5 times of eating-out per week, the respondents from south Seoul showed the highest frequency. For the case of no eating-out, the highest frequency was shown from the small towns. As for the most frequently visited place for eating-out, 33.6% of respondents answered Korean style restaurants, and 17.6% Boon-sik(Sanck-bar). Regarding the preference of Korean style restaurants, the highest rate was shown from the residents of big cities. For the question of when they eat out, 89.6% answered dinner and 6.3% lunch. For the question about reason of choosing particular restaurants, 61.5% of respondents referred to tastes and 16.6% price. For the question of the most important reason of eating out, 52.6% point out 'meal solution' and 25.6% 'for meeting.' As for the people accompanied when eating out, 67.2% of the respondents answered family. For the cost of eating out per person, 45.7% of the respondents spent 2000-4000 won for lunch; 31.1% spent 5000-10,000 won for dinner; 33.7% of the respondents spent more than 20,000 won for the special events. Regarding the regional differences of eating-out cost, respondents from south Seoul tended to spend the biggest amount of money for lunch, dinner and special day.