The Contemporary Origins of Korean Dynamism = The Contemporary Origins of Korean Dynamism

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

South Korean history presents a rare case of a country that has successfully undergone rapid economic growth and industrialization to become what is now an information society that is predominantly urban in nature and more global in outlook. In order to explain such all-encompassing but compressed change, this article looks at the sociocultural mechanisms that facilitated South Korean dynamism. That is, I believe there exist particular socio-psychological mechanisms that led South Koreans to accept, support, and internalize rapid change. Two conflicting value systems have developed at the same time, providing a unique kind of internal energy to the process. Openness and autonomy, the tension between state-led mobilization and spontaneous engagement, support for equality coexisting with the desire for distinctness, and the contradictory national psyche which both seeks to accept and rebel-such are the tensions, it is argued, that have produced and formed the basis for South Korean dynamism. In addition, the present article seeks to shed light on the operating principles of this dynamism through summarizing the joint research project of this volume that explores seven items intimately connected with the lives of South Koreans: Land, Housing, Rice, Markets, Family, Certifications, and Schools.