The contentious Koreans: Civil society, social movements, and human rights struggles in South Korea The participants of the Summer School will get an insight into how socio-political struggles that emanate from the people – and that thus do not exclusively take place in ‘traditional’ political arenas like the government or parliaments – are characteristic phenomena of South Korea’s modern history. The participants will get a better understanding of central concepts like human and civil rights, social movements, and civil society and will be able to grasp how these actors and concepts played a role in Korea after the liberation from Japanese colonial rule from 1945 onwards, as well as before and after democratization, which took place in the late 1980s. This general historical and conceptual overview of human rights struggles will be complemented by six units on concrete socio-political issues that have been relevant in modern and present-day Korea: coming to terms with human and civil rights abuses, the human rights situation of refugees and migrants, the environmental movement, feminist and LGBTIQ activism, activism against youth unemployment, and non-progressive mobilization in South Korea. The latter perspective in particular will shed light on the growing tendency of populist and radical right-wing actors trying to win over people’s hearts and, following this, to take hold of political power, not only in Europe, the USA, and Latin America, but also in South Korea. close