12.3 비상계엄사태 이후 탄핵 촉구 집회에서 나눔 활동의 경험과 의미 = Experiences and Meanings of Sharing during the Impeachment Protests after the December 3 Martial Law Crisis

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examines how citizens’ voluntary sharing practices that emerged during the pro-impeachment protests following the December 3 martial law were generated, expanded, and sustained, and interprets their underlying meanings. To explore these processes, we conducted in-depth interviews with 12 citizens who participated in sharing activities at protest sites in Seoul and other regions nationwide. Participants were theoretically sampled, and data were collected between March 6 and April 3, 2025. Reflexive thematic analysis was applied. The findings are as follows. First, participation in the protests was primarily driven by anger triggered by the perception of the martial law as an existential threat to everyday life and the foundations of the community. Second, the emergence of sharing practices was shaped by diverse affective states most notably a sense of indebtedness to those who had previously mobilized for democracy and feelings of guilt and gratitude toward those who first took to the streets. Third, digital platforms played a catalytic role throughout the entire process of protest participation, the initiation of sharing, and its expansion and persistence by enabling transparent transactions and reinforcing participants’ immediate sense of efficacy. Fourth, sharing functioned not only as an act of helping others but also as a means through which participants comforted themselves and regained emotional balance amid the crisis. Building on these results, this study develops a multidimensional discussion on the structure of citizen-led sharing in conditions of political crisis and its broader social implications.