14119

WiSe 21/22: Modern Korean Society and Culture (Yonsei E-Class)

Daniela Claus-Kim

Comments

This course basically provides a broad overview of contemporary Korean society and culture. In the first few weeks, we discuss the characteristics and the Confucian value system of the traditional Korean society. The main attention is given to the incredible transformation of contemporary Korean society, including the topics of population change and fertility, migration and multiculturalism, economic governance and business system, regionalism and gender, religion and society, social stratification and class, the dynamics of the state and civil society, social movements, and the characteristics of contemporary popular cultures - Hallyu. In addition, we discuss the underlying theoretical frameworks of modernization perspective and dependency perspective for the better understanding of social changes after the early 1960s in contemporary Korean society. In order to draw on the most relevant and up-do-date research on contemporary Korean society, we take an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from sociology, economics, political science, anthropology, education, and cultural studies. These interdisciplinary approaches guide us in sharpening research agendas and questions, in deciding what evidence is necessary to support claims, and in suggesting policy implications. The objective is to discuss how the various pieces of contemporary Korean society have been formed and fitted together – the historical and contemporary; the individual and the institutional; the economic, social and political; the family, class and gender; state and civil society; and popular cultures and 2 hallyu. close