Organizer: Jaeyeol Yee, Seoul National University
Chair and Discussant: Mun Woong Lee, Seoul National University
This panel is composed of four presentations made by scholars from different academic backgrounds, i.e., psychology, anthropology, and sociology. Economic growth in Korea for the last four decades has been unsurpassed by any country in terms of the speed and the socio-structural impact it has brought. Organizations and institutions in Korean society rapidly became modern, and a new generation with postmodern value orientation has grown up. Yet the habits of heart and customs of ordinary people living with the modern institutions do not seem to have changed a lot. Modern institutions are embedded in traditional social relationships. Political parties, modern conglomerates, and public life are still maintained by personal ties.
Such a dualism, or the gap between the widening division of labor and the lack of institutionalized trust, reflects the current situation of Korean society which suffers from the aftermath of rush-to industrialization. The growing conflict between the formal and informal aspect of social life became the risk potential of this dualist society.
Paper presenters in this panel have been engaged in collective research for almost three years, sharing their ideas and research results, and their interdisciplinary approach will enrich the understanding of contemporary Korean society. Eun-Yeong Na will discuss the dualist attitudes and generation gap of Koreans using recent national survey data. Jaeyeol Yee will show the shape and characteristics of ordinary Koreans’ personal networks. The analysis shows that the ambiguous borderline between the public and private issues have contributed to the erosion of social capital, or public trust. Jaehyuck Lee will propose a coherent scheme which deals with the topic of vortex society in which personal ties replace civil society to solve individual problems. Kyoung-Koo Han will present a case study on two venture firms which utilize traditional cultural resources to compete in the world market.
Changes of Values and Generational Gaps Between 1970s and 1990s in Korea
Eun-Yeong Na, Chunbuk National UniversityChanges of values and generational gaps between 1970s and 1990s in Korea were analyzed based on the two periods’ survey data. Direct comparisons were possible by including the same items in the 1998 survey as in 1979. Remarkable characteristics of the values of Koreans at the end of 1990s were: (1) the increase of individualism emphasizing self and close family (more prominent in younger, highly educated, and higher income groups); (2) the increase of egalitarian perspective toward women (permission of social activity, decrease of adherence to chastity); (3) temporal retreat of postmaterialism toward materialism after the beginning of IMF; and (4) the increase of assertiveness and a slight decrease of uncertainty avoidance. Younger generation’s values where a noticeable increase in generational gaps were observed were the emphasis of rich life, the negligence of chastity and of upper-lower status distinction, and the increase of individualism and assertiveness. Greater increases in generational gaps were found in rapidly changed values, which could be attributed to a more rapid and greater change in the younger than older generation. Temporal retreat toward materialism from postmaterialism after the beginning of IMF was also more rapid in younger than older generation. The degrees of increase and decrease in various dimensions of values and generational gaps were discussed in terms of the distinction between cohort effect and simple aging.
Social Networks of Koreans
Jaeyeol Yee, Seoul National UniversityEgocentric network data collected in 1996 and 1998 were analyzed to characterize the social relationships of Koreans. In addition to the network size and density, this paper discusses three points pertaining to the characteristics of Korean society. First, this paper shows how individual attributes are related with socio-economic backgrounds of the people, such as education, age, and socio-economic status. Second, diverse social attitudes and values are explained by network properties. Third, after making an interesting typology of personal ties, by cross-classifying duration and frequency of contacts, this paper proposes that social networks based on weak and short ties are most wanted to build public space in Korea. After describing a detailed analysis of the social network properties, this paper concludes that the weakness of voluntary associations, which harbor diverse public issues and communications, is the main cause of the weakness of civil society in Korea. It is closely related with the erosion of trust in public institutions such as the national asssembly, central government, and courts. The research shows that personal networks in Korea perform a dubious role: personal networks expanding over the closed primary social relations contribute to reduce social prejudice and traditional values, yet the expanded network tends to become an economic instrument which is utilized to exploit the information and problem solving.
Society in Vortex: yônchul Society vs. Civil Society
Jaehyuck Lee, Hallym UniversityThis paper has three purposes. First, in a methodological aspect, this paper shows making an explicit application of the methodological individualism in model building and in analyzing of the reality. The recursive structure of the dynamics of the "action-structure" reproduction process will be delineated in a simple model from the methodological individualism perspective. Second, this paper makes theoretical arguments on the systemic linkage between centripetal characteristic of resource allocation at the macro level and social cleavage structuring through formation of exclusive networks among actors at the micro level. This general theoretical argument on the relationship between resource allocation and actors’ networking, summarized by "centripetal structuring" hypothesis is used, especially referring to the Korean case, in explaining how the exclusive-network orientation in a society (yônchul society) can replace the civil society as a mediator between man and state, and how the accumulation pattern of social trust, both between man and man and between man and institution, could be distorted. The third purpose of this paper is to show the empirical evidences concerning those theoretical arguments by analyzing the Korean national survey data collected in 1998. Survey items on centripetal orientation, social network, civil organization participation, and social trust are extensively analyzed by using various statistical methods. In discussion, general theoretical arguments on exclusive-networking and trust are applied to explaining Korean historical experience and, based on that, the current transformative phase in the replacement relationship between yeonjool society and civil society in Korea is assessed.
Politics of Network and Social Trust: A Case Study in the Organizational Culture of Korean Venture Industry
Kyung-Koo Han, Kangwon National UniversityThis paper is an anthropological case study of the managerial efforts to create a "uniquely Korean" organizational culture in two Korean venture companies, and will emphasize the following three points. First, these efforts were developed as an answer to generational conflict in Korea’s work force made apparent when "new generation" workers entered the labor market with the end of rapid economic growth and political democratization in the late eighties. These young workers did not approve of the "Confucian" value orientation and organizational practices; they also detested the older generation’s "doubleness"; "rational," Western-style, formal rules on the surface vs. the informal survival rules heavily relying on personal networks (yônchul), nepotism, corruption, and authoritarianism. Second, these efforts are presented as a long-awaited cultural challenge to the dominance of the Western and Japanese organizational forms and skills in Korea, and are claimed to serve the Korean economy better in the future than the Japanese-style management did in the sixties and the seventies. Third, these efforts try not only to discover and revive the traditional Korean organizational principles but to redefine the qualities that have been denounced as weaknesses in Korean national character responsible for impeding Korea’s modernization. Being unruly, hasty, disobedient, uncooperative, overly competitive, etc. will now make Koreans into creative, resourceful, and independent-minded workers suitable for venture businesses in the rapidly changing future. Whether such "cultural" engineering at the industrial level can bring about significant changes in patterns of social trust and put an end to the centripetal structuring of Korean society remains to be seen.