• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
• /
• v.1 no.1 s.1
• /
• pp.201-234
• /
• 2001

Sociology(or social science in general) is often diagnosed as in the state of 'crisis' after the collapse of socialism and the erosion of national societies because of rapid globalization. This paper introduces some recent work within science and technology studies(STS) and discusses its potentials to reinvigorate sociology. Although sociologists have rarely regarded STS as contributing to 'mainstream' issues in sociology, an increasing number of STS writers and sociologists have recently started to notice such possibilities. One main reason of this recent change is that STS is no longer merely concerned to convey substantive findings about science and technology, but instead attempts to reconstruct key notions of sociology such as 'social', 'society' and 'agency'. It is in this respect that the discussion below aims to introduce, discuss, and assess the potential contribution of some recent work of STS to sociology. In particular, it is 'actor-network theory'(ANT) that explicitly attempts to examine and suggest the ways in which STS ran help innovate sociology. One major characteristics of ANT is to impute 'agency' to things(nonhumans) unlike traditional sociology. ANT argues that if sociology studies heterogeneous relationships between humans and nonhumans instead of human relations only, it can become once again a vigorous discipline which is able to provide alternative worlds central to the basis of sociology. So this paper focuses on, not the diverse approaches of STS, the characteristics of ANT and its potential contribution to sociology. The author concludes that ANT can not only rejuvenate sociology by implicating new forms of alternative worlds but also open the possibility to contribute to the democratic reformulation of human-nonhuman relationships.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.657-689
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is to develop a substantive theory on 'eating alone'(honbob)and the process of maintaining the lifestyle of eating alone for the need of a non-judgmental understanding on the new 'honbob' lifestyle. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 10 male and female workers in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, who voluntarily eat alone over 70% of their meals per week with the minimum duration of 5 years. Data analysis was performed using grounded theory proposed by Strauss & Corbin (1998) in the qualitative research method. As a result, a paradigm model on the process of maintaining 'honbob' was derived. Based on categorical analysis, the causal condition was 'not trying to tune' and the central phenomenon was 'following the desire to set efficiency as the top priority. Contextual conditions were 'the atmosphere of fierce competition', 'weakening of organizational culture', 'diffusion of individualistic culture'. The intervening conditions were 'personal trait and emotional experience', 'job characteristics of less organization culture'. The action/interaction strategies were 'accepting internal conflicts', 'acting in autonomy', 'finding relationship through media', and 'distancing from superficial relationship'. The consequences were 'enjoying time for self-exploration', 'valuing self-care', 'becoming a epicurean conventionalist', and 'becoming aware of the need for balance'. The core category has been shown as 'self-oriented in accordance to priority of efficiency and being able to appreciate the importance of social group'. The Such phenomenon passes through four different stages - first, the stage of weighing time efficiency while beginning hon-bob; second, the stage of conflict when one feels nervous and not free from others' view; third, the stage of adjustment to justify his/her 'hon-bob'; and the final stage of balance to perceive the importance of social group while going on 'honbob'. The study had the aim of increasing the understanding and acceptance of the new 'honbob' lifestyle through an in-depth exploration of office worker's 'honbob' experience and the process of maintaining 'honbob' so the society can better accept it and, further, to embrace co-existence of various cultures.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.41-52
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate visitor satisfaction(VS) in waterfront parks in terms of resources, facilities, embodiment of theme(ET), site composition(SC), relaxation activity space(RAS), and dynamic activity space(DAS), which are supply-side components in the planning process of waterfront parks, in order to answer the research question; 'How is visitor satisfaction of waterfront parks determined?' After reviewing the literature on parks and the building process of waterfront parks in Korea, we constructed a conceptual framework and have ascertained a research hypothesis. We had obtained data through a questionnaire survey from 327 visitors at waterfront parks, based on the quota sampling method. We have analyzed the data using the path analysis method. We found that: 1) The direct effects of resources and facilities on VS turned out to be 0.273 and 0.306, respectively while the indirect effects are 0.114, 0.170, respectively. 2) The direct effects of SC, as a component of the planning process on VS, turned out to be 0.243 while that of ET had no affect on VS. The indirect effect of ET and SC on VS turned out to be 0.059 and 0.018, respectively. 3) The direct effects of RAS on VS turned out to be 0.129 while the indirect effects of RAS and DAS on VS turned out to be 0.002 and 0.017, respectively. 4) The size of causal effect, in order, were facilities, resources, SC, RAS, ET, and DAS. 5) Resources and facilities, as a park foundation, compose 64.84 percent of total causal effect while ET and SC have 24.04 percent and RAS and DAS have 11.12 percent, respectively. These research results imply that: 1) Existing waterfront parks should be regenerated with the embodiment of water related theme and with improved facilities for RAS and visitor programs and/or facilities for DAS. 2) The relationship among ET, SC, RAS and DAS should be increased for a significant improvement of VS, and 3) A process-oriented approach turned out to be highly useful for the development of substantive theory and methodology. It is recommended that a structural equation model on waterfront parks be developed using more empirical data and this approach be widely applied for testing its validity.