‘2007년 과학’ 대 ‘2008년 정치’?: 광우병 논쟁과 과학 자문의 정치 문화 = ‘Science in 2007’ vs. ‘Politics in 2008’?: The Controversy over Mad Cow Diseaseand Political Culture of Scientific Advice in Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The safety standard on beef imports, to which the Lee Myung-Bak administration agreed in a negotiation with the United States in 2008, caused large- scale protests of citizens who had concerns about the possible risk of mad cow disease. This newly-settled standard was criticized as ignoring the more strict standard suggested by an expert advisory committee in 2007. It was assumed that the “political” power in 2008, expecting that the US Congress would ratify the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, must have subdued the “scientific” advices of experts in 2007. This paper, regarding this situation as a tricky but significant controversy about the relationship between scientific advice and policy-making, analyzes the detailed practices of an expert advisory committee and a consultation meeting with stakeholders called the Animal Disease Control Council. This will show that scientific advice was entangled with political and cultural considerations, and especially that economic globalization contributed to a specific configuration related to the scientific advice on mad cow disease. This paper finally argues that the political culture of scientific advice deserves more attention, as it not only helps explain the controversy over mad cow disease but also disclose diverse factors underlying constraining risk assessment and the negotiation and boundary-making with policy-making.