• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.554-567
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• 2012

It can be suggested that social geography in the 2000s in Korea has achieved a considerable development, dealing with various theories and issues. This suggestion can be identified first of all with the publication of several texts of Social Geography in this period. For important theoretical discussions, the neoliberal glocalization process of capitalist economy has promoted geographical researches from the perspective of political economy, and the development of information and communication technology, increasing foreign immigrants, environmental problems such as the global warming, and social participation and empowerment of women in Korea have increased social geographical concerns with and theoretical discussions on informational society and city, multiculturalism and/or transnationalism, political ecology and environmental justice, and feminism. This paper provides a review on these major issues in recent theoretical discussions in social geography in Korea, and suggests a brief comment on its future development.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.323-351
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• 2010

Through the biographical approach, the current research purports to reconstruct the Changeprocess of values and identities on the lives of the first-generation Korean-German females in Germany from the transnational perspective. Ten interviews were conducted, using Schutze's autobiographicalnarrative interview. Interview data were analyzed through the application of Schutze's autobiographical-narrative interview and Mayring's qualitative content analysis. Findings showed that on the onset of emigration, their values centered around hybrid collectivism. Their life in the process of emigration was characteristic of a shift to hybrid individualism. Furthermore, the life at beginning of emigration was found to be characterized by a singular regional identity. The process of emigration was shown to mark the conversion into dual identity, dual regional and dual national. Some theoretical and practical suggestions for the emigrants' welfare were finally offered that were associated with the process of values and identities changes in their life.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.616-634
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• 2009

Criticizing the existing social science approaches to transnational migration for their ignorance of spatial perspectives and the resultant limits in the understanding of the concrete processes of international migration and settlement, this paper aims to examine how spatial perspectives and geographical epistemology can positively contribute to the understanding and conceptualization of transnational migration. In particular, it emphasizes that the processes of transnational migration cannot be solely understood in terms of 1) global capitalist restructuring and economic rationality, 2) the impacts of deterritoralized transnational networks, or 3) the operation of immigration regimes constructed at the national scale. Alternatively, this paper argues that the conceptualization of 'transnational space', which is based on the understanding of the socio-spatial dimensions - that is, place, territory, scale and networks - that affect the processes of transnational migration, could significantly contribute to the understanding of the transnational migration.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.26
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• pp.405-444
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• 2012

This paper is based on the view that film should be conceived as a form of cultural practice whose meaning is always in the process of being produced within diverse socio-cultural contexts and aims to examine the ways in which the meaning of Korean film is (re)mediated or received in diverse cultural contexts outside the country. In this paper, we employ two theoretical grounds. Firstly, it positions itself in line with the audience studies within the field of cultural studies where the audience is conceived as active agents who produce the meaning of a popular culture text. The recruitment of the theoretical propositions from the audience studies enables recognition of the significance of the reception in film practice which recently seems to be oriented on production and distribution. Secondly, we conceive transnationality of film as that which is being produced in the process of transaction between the film and the audience, that is to say, transnationality is a form of discourse that emerges upon cultural interaction. The empirical work involves examination of a set of reviews of four films--Chihwaseon, Oldboy, Thirt, Poety--that have been published in daily newspapers and some popular film magazines in the U. S., the U. K. and France. Through the analysis of the film reviews, we identify four interpretive schemes or rather discourses recruited via which the Korean films are approached and understood: auteurism, formalism, universal themes, emotional response. We propose that these four kinds of discourse provide a common ground for the audience from different cultural backgrounds to understand Korean film. Furthermore, we also suggest that transnationality of Korean cinema needs to be reconsidered in terms of the reception as the audience from different socio-cultural backgrounds should be understood as active agents who are capable of engaging in Korean cultural texts such as film in their own way producing various meanings and these are also constituent of the meaning of the cultural texts.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.149-167
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• 2008

Korea has persisted in the notion of "ethnic nationalism." That is "one race, one people, one language" as a homogeneous entity. This social ideal of unity prevails, even in overseas Korean communities formed by voluntary and involuntary displacement in the turmoil of modern history: communities made intermittent with the Japanese colonial occupation and with postcolonial encounters with the West. Given that the Korean people suffered from the trauma of deprivation of the language caused by the loss of the nation, nation has been equated with the language. Accordingly, "these bearers of a homeland" are also firm Korean language holders. The linguistic patriotism of unity based on the intertwining of "mother tongue" and "father country" has become prevalent in the collective memory of the people of the Korean diaspora. Korean American literature has grappled with this concept of the national history of Korea and the Korean language. The aesthetics of Korean American literature has been marked by an influx of literary resources of 'Korea' in sensibilities and structure of feelings; Korean myth, folk lore, songs, humor, traditional stories, manners, customs and historic moments. An experimental use of the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, written down as pronounced, provides an ethnic flavor in the midst of the English texts. Despite its national framework of mind, however, Korean American literature as an interstitial art reveals a keen awareness of inbetweenness, and transnational hybrid identities. By exploring the complex interrelationships of cultural and linguistic boundary-crossing practices in Korean American literature, this paper argues that the poetics of the Korean diaspora challenges the closed structure of identity formation, and offers a transnational sphere to deconstruct a rigidly demarcated national ideology of "one race, one people, one language," for the world literary history.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.68
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• pp.130-165
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• 2014

By exploring the works of popular culture, our research aims to demonstrate that culture and politics revolve around each other. Culture and politics are not separate but are articulated into cultural politics; the process of articulation reveals various comparable areas, including contradictions and differences. Our research pays specific attention to Japanese modernity in the eight popular manga series by Naoki Urasawa. These works seemingly value peace and brotherhood, placing themselves in opposition to the logics of the conservative right wing. After engaging in a thorough reading and re-reading, however, we found three salient themes in the deep layers of the works: first, no-nationality a-nationality; second, the relationship between Japan and the West, and representation of Asia; and third, nostalgia for Japan of the past, and transnational desire. The manga series contain the ideas of leaving Asia and entering the West and overcoming modernity. Our research findings reveal that the works of popular culture, specifically those by Naoki Urasawa, subtly expose transnational desires of Japan in tandem with the tensions in international politics between Asia and Japan.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.218-232
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• 2013

One of the most interesting points in the era of globalization and transnationalism is the movement of people, namely migration. This research aims to explain the discourse of marginalization on Korean-Chinese by Korean merchants as the migrants expand their shops in the Chinese Food Culture Street. The Chinese Food Culture Street has been formed by Korean-Chinese restaurants and shops for the process of differentiation from the Garibong-Daelim area. Korean merchants in the street are not opposed to the influx of Korean-Chinese into Korea, however they do not want to the influx of them into the Jayang area. As the influx of Korean-Chinese into this street has increased, so the Korean merchants in the street have marginalized them as dangerous element for local security, as immoral beings cling to their business, and as the main reason for the regional underdevelopment. However, this marginalization of Korean-Chinese makes difficult to understand the real change of local area, because there has been some positive effects by the influx of them such as the improvement of surrounding environment and the elevation of local imagination. This research clearly suggest that the marginalization of migrants by major society is from the fixed idea and prejudice, and this research suggest the need to further study on the occupation and change of local by migrants.