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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear List: </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I don't think Frank has to mianhamnida to anyone
re: his statement about Korean propaganda. The issue of who pays for
research and what is said has been with us ever since academics took money to do
research. We fought with each other all through the 1980s about the
appropriateness of taking money linked in any way to the ROK state. People
had all sorts of different attitudes about it from Jim Palais, never under any
circumstances.....to if there is no attempt at influencing the outcome or what
one says, what is the difference? Funding sources don't have to be
coersive or direct because there is always the issue of the receiver not
wanting to embarrass nor bite the hand that feeds. Yes, the Korea Studies
field exists at the current level because of U.S. strategic funding and Korea
Foundation grants. But having created a field, neither governmnet can
really control the information generated. At least there are more people
now well-acquainted with the recent past and contemporary issues of Korea to go
and speak, teach, and otherwise inform the public about this place. When I
was in graduate school in the 1970s Korean history was still basically relegated
to Fairbank textbook, and it was only mentioned in a few courses at places that
had someone doing Korea....not that many people. I worry that our younger
scholars might be accepting the claptrap about "democratization"
uncritically. so it is refreshing to have a conversation about the
inequalities of all sorts that remain. There might be some procedural
democracy evolving in the ROK but there is still a political systme that only
speaks for a very narrow range of voices in the polity. .....What I wonder
is the point I thought I would make,,,,,,,perhaps it is that we need to continue
our scholarship and build in depth knowledge (however narrowly couched)...but
that we must also not abondon our own politics out of politeness.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Mike Robinson</FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=frank@koreaweb.ws href="mailto:frank@koreaweb.ws">Frank Hoffmann</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws
href="mailto:koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">Korean Studies Discussion List</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, August 28, 2006 8:34
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [KS] How unequal is South
Korea, really?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Dear All:</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Dr. Bertrand Renaud's rejoinder to Paul Shepherd (thanks for posting
this, Young-Key) raises also some questions about Korean Studies.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I think this is a highly interesting discussion because it touches on
just so many important issues that go far beyond economics. Dr. Renaud, of
course, has already expressed that in various ways in his posting.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Inequality, economic, social, sexual inequality, *if* perceived as such,
has always been the motor for political movements. When Dr. Renaud states that
"[t]he land distribution issue in Korea is a major social issue by Korean
choice" he basically seems to say that it is mostly the<I> perception</I> of
inequality that drives people into the streets, whatever the Gini, Pini, or
Winimini. In a country like Korea such perception then legitimizes certain
kinds of political actions. Violent protest such as street fights or
squatting, for example, are widely accepted as legitimate tools of political
protest in Korean culture. Not so in the U.S., but again quite so in most of
Europe! Conflict solving strategies and cultures in general, both in private
and public, are quite different in Korea and the U.S. What I wonder about,
though, is how exactly people come to their perceptions of inequality -- no
doubt this seems to be culture-specific, to a large degree at least. How
otherwise can we explain that hardly anyone in the U.S. really cares about
such amazing facts: "the top one-tenth of one percent [that's 1”, not 1% !] of
the income distribution earned as much of the real increase in wage-and-salary
income from 1997-2001 as the bottom 50 percent of the country" (NBER
newsletter, as quoted by Dr. Renaud). Tell that some first graders and show
them some photos and they will be shocked. But something is happening between
first and 10th grade. Something very different seems to happen in Korea
between 1st and 10th grade.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>In the late 60s and the 70s "interdisciplinary approaches" were very
popular in the humanities. Personally, most such "interdisciplinary" works I
had to read came across like cut & paste wisdom collections for Catholic
youth groups. What really happened, however, is that Economics, Art History
(not East Asian Art History), and many other fields -- not as much History,
unfortunately -- incorporated methods from psychology and sociology into their
disciplines. Economics or Art History, for example, does not need to be
"interdisciplinary" therefore.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Now ... what about Korean Studies, I mean Western Korean Studies as we
all know it? What is that? And who needs it? What for? (Same question for
Sinology/Chinese Studies and Japanology/Japanese Studies.) Is Korean Studies
just a collective term to name studies related to Korea/n from the "real"
disciplines, both the humanities and the hard sciences? Or is it Samsung's and
the Korean Overseas Information Service's international arm to propagate
things Korean? Mianhamnida ...mianhae, mianhae, I will never ever o it again,
but this one time. Can Korean Studies, if it exists (it sure does in Europe)
offer any answer to the inequality/culture complex that e.g. Economics as it
exists as a discipline today cannot answer? If I am asking the wrong question,
please let me know why.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Frank</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><X-SIGSEP><PRE>--
</PRE></X-SIGSEP>
<DIV>--------------------------------------<BR>Frank
Hoffmann<BR>http://koreaweb.ws</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>