Beyond the policy rhetoric: the limitations of gender mainstreaming in South Korea relating to women and childcare

This article examines the limitations of the gender mainstreaming discourse regarding the issue of childcare by women in South Korea, an area of responsibility that was transferred from the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) to the Ministry of Gender Equality (MGE)1 in 2003. Through employing a discursive institutionalism approach, this article articulates that whilst the gender mainstreaming discourse has been interpreted at the surface level of politics, it has been formulated differently behind the scenes due to various policy interests. I argue that the discourse has remained at the level of superficial political rhetoric with underdeveloped understanding about the relationship between childcare and gender, thus retaining a stereotypical view of women as caregivers.N/

Understanding and supporting creativity in design

Belgium Herbarium image of Meise Botanic Garden

South Korea's automotive labour regime, Hyundai Motors’ global production network and trade‐based integration with the European Union

This article explores the interrelationship between global production networks(GPNs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) in the South Korean auto industry and its employment relations. It focuses on the production network of the Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) — the third biggest automobile manufacturer in the world — and the FTA between the EU and South Korea. This was the first of the EU’s ‘new generation’ FTAs, which among other things contained provisions designed to protect and promote labour standards. The article’s argument is twofold. First, that HMG’s production network and Korea’s political economy (of which HMG is a crucial part) limited the possibilities for the FTA’s labour provisions to take effect. Second, that the commercial provisions in this same FTA simultaneously eroded HMG’s domestic market and corporate profitability, leading to adverse consequences for auto workers in the more insecure and low-paid jobs. In making this argument, the article advances a multiscalar conceptualization of the labour regime as an analytical intermediary between GPNs and FTAs. It also provides one of the first empirical studies of the EU–South Korea FTA in terms of employment relations, drawing on 105 interviews with trade unions, employer associations, automobile companies and state officials across both parties

State form and state strategy : the case of the Kim Dae Jung Regime in South Korea (1998-2003)

PhD ThesisThis study explores the Kim Dae Jung regime's(1998-2003) implementation of the restructuring policy of the chaebol (i.e., the mega industrial conglomerates in Korea) in order to demonstrate that the capitalist state is located within a complex dialectic of structures(forms) and strategies. In addition this thesis critically reviews some contentious issues in the field of capitalist state theory. Applying major state theories to the case of the Korean state, this study defines the form of the Kim Dae Jung state as an ensemble of its 'exacerbated dependency' at the international level; 'increased labour power' at the level of social formation; and 'fragile state unity' at the level of the political regime. The form of the Kim Dae Jung state is emphasized as a binding structure which regulated the development of the government's chaebol reform policy. At the same time, in order to overcome the fallacy of the form determination thesis, the capitalist state( the Kim Dae Jung state)is stressed as a social relation that can be analysed as 'the site,the generator and the product of strategies'. Within the analytical framework of the dialectical complex of 'structure and strategy', this study investigates the successful and/or detrimental structural conditions of the chaebol reform policy and the strategies of the state and social classes to capitalise on and/or overcome those conditions. Apart from dealing with the Korean case, this research is concerned with the review of state theory. With regard to the state's relation with the economy in capitalism, the mainstream intellectual tendency is challenged: the tendency to accept a dichotomous relation between the state and the economy and confirm the absence of state intervention in neo-liberalism. The class nature of the capitalist state is also an important issue in this study. Revisiting the 'Miliband-Poulantzas debate, this study demonstrates that the capitalist state is not 'a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie'. More importantly, this study reveals (for the first time) the hard-core of Poulantzas' theory (i. e., the reproduction mechanism of the economic system) and demonstrates that the lack of the understanding of this 'reproduction mechanism' has caused a serious degree of misunderstanding of Poulantzas among state theorists (including Bob Jessop, Stuart Hall and Ralph Miliband). Finally, this study suggests that it is constructive to investigate contemporary issues, i.e., globalisation, Euro-capitalism and American imperialism in the context of the reproduction mechanism of the whole world capitalist system.British Foreign and Commonwealth Office 3610 Rotary Club Korea University of Newcastle upon Tyn

A Study of Strengthening Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge of Statistics and Probability via Professional Development

A professional development program (PSPD) was implemented to improve in-service secondary mathematics teachers’ content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and self-efficacy in teaching secondary school statistics and probability. Participants generated a teaching resource website at the conclusion of the PSPD program. Participants’ content knowledge change and self-efficacy change were measured. After PSPD, three participants were selected to represent three types of change. Teachers’ classroom instructions were video-taped and analyzed to explore the enactment of PSPD components, such as activities and concepts. Interviews were conducted to assess factors that facilitated teachers’ change and the enactment of PSPD components. Preservice teachers who majored in secondary mathematics education were asked to evaluate the teaching resource website that PSPD participants generated. Their applications of content in this website and feedback to this website were analyzed. Case study research method was adopted in this study. Findings revealed that PSPD participants’ self-efficacy in teaching statistics and probability improved significantly. There was a moderate positive relationship between in-service teachers’ statistical content knowledge and self-efficacy in teaching statistics and probability. PSPD participants’ utilization of PD components may be influenced by school conditions, the characteristics of PD materials, and whether teachers perceive and accept PD content. Six out of 17 preservice teachers utilized materials in the teaching resource website in their lesson plans. Preservice teachers preferred teaching resources that were ready-to-use and easy to access

Building National Integrity Through Corruption Eradication in South Korea

Since South Korea gained a substantial degree of political and economic development in recent history, the South Korean government has tried to eradicate corruption by introducing institutional frameworks in addition to a number of new laws and institutions. As a matter of fact, the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index score of South Korea is improving over time, but it still far behind other leading countries. The purpose of this article is to review the South Korean Government’s efforts for curbing corruption. This paper first reviews the development of major anticorruption infrastructure such as the anti-corruption legislation and the independent agency for anti-corruption in the South Korean government, followed by discussion of the development of major anti-corruption measures, the international evaluation on corruption, and the role of civil society for curbing corruption. After that, there are the policy implications and the conclusion

ACCOUNTABILITY IN SOUTH KOREAN NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS: STAKEHOLDER EXPECTATIONS AS PERCEIVED BY NONPROFIT LEADERS

My dissertation attempts to identify the major societal and strategic forces that shape the development of South Korea’s nonprofit sector as perceived by Non-profit Organization (NPO) leaders and managers. I began with a reflection on Lester Salamon’s (2012) theoretical framework, which specifies four impulses—civic activism, voluntarism, professionalism, and commercialism—that have historically exerted pressure on the U.S. nonprofit sector and, consequently, shaped its present structure and behavior. My first research question is: what are the impulses shaping the South Korean NPO sector? I seek to discover if Salamon’s framework is transferable to the South Korean context. South Korea has a distinct social foundation and history of civil society, which may generate different impulses than those in the U.S. My dissertation delves into the universalities and particularities of the driving forces that South Korean NPOs face. My second research question is: what specific accountability obligations are perceived by NPO leaders to be implied by the various impulses? For the purpose of this study, accountability is defined as the management of diverse stakeholder expectations on nonprofit management (Kearns, 1996; Romzek & Dubnick, 1987). This study focuses on how NPO leaders and managers align the organization with perceived stakeholder expectations. This study is comprised of two phases: employing mixed methods of the Repertory Grid Method and organizational surveys. The first phase aims to identify what a sample of NPO leaders believe to be the driving forces impacting their accountability environments. In phase II of the study, the survey is designed to determine how NPO leaders perceive the driving forces that are shaping their accountability environment and, further, to identify the ways that they are responding to these forces. This study found that the reinforcing influence and countervailing interchange between the social movement and strategic management impulses have been significant and tangible in the South Korean context. It also observed that the duality structure, which refers to the split between advocacy-focused NPOs and service-focused NPOs in the nonprofit sector, prevails in the South Korean nonprofit sector in terms of the nonprofit leaders’ perceptions of their accountability obligations towards their main stakeholders