FEMALE PEASANTS AND THE ALTERNATIVE AGRI-FOOD MOVEMENT IN SOUTH KOREA: AGROECOLOGY AND THE KOREAN WOMEN PEASANT ASSOCIATION MOVEMENT

This paper examines the current state and socio-ecological implications of the alternative agri-food movement organized by the Korean Women Peasant Association (KWPA) in South Korea. In the process of rapid industrial development, South Korean farm sector has suffered from serious environmental problems, depopulation, and poverty. Food production itself has become mostly industrialized using abundant amount of chemical input. This, along with mass consumption system relying on large supermarkets, has led to an unsustainable food system. In this situation, there has been a rise of alternative agri-food movement by the KWPA. We have focused on the influence of agroecology in the KWPA’s activities, which might bring about a more sustainable food system. Under the dominant paradigm of agro-industrialism, farm production inevitably depends on outside resources. This de-contextualizes and disconnects farming from local ecosystems and social relations. Agroecology has emerged in recent years as an alternative paradigm, which can reconnect farming, nature, and society. We have analyzed the KWPA’s programs, such as the indigenous seed preservation movement (ISPM) and Sisters’ Garden Plot (SGP). We have found that agroecology plays an important role in the KWPA’s programs, which involve sharing indigenous farm knowledge; preserving and finding indigenous seeds; and providing seasonal, local, and organic food to the public. These activities have also led to the empowerment of female peasants. These as a whole could be important social resource for a transition to a more sustainable food system

The Trinity: A critical dialogue between St. Augustine and Emil Brunner

The purpose of this study is to understand the relation between God and human beings in the Trinity. This critical dialogue between Augustine and Brunner is in order to see their different approaches to the Trinity. Augustine tries to understand the Trinity by seeing the static vision of God. Augustine identifies human beings' seeing the vision of God and their salvation by human beings' transformation. Augustine focuses on the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He thinks that the Son's coming into the world is God's illumination. The Son mediates between God and human beings by taking human form. Augustine's project is to see God face to face by human beings' transformation. So he focuses on human beings' life, death and life after death. The reason why he focuses on these three things is to match Jesus' incarnation, death and resurrection. On the other hand, Brunner concentrates on God's coming into the world. This is God's participation in the world as the encountering event through the Son. According to Brunner, God's self-giving love through the Son is the essence of the Trinity. Human beings' responding to God's self-giving love is a way to understand the Trinity. God's self-giving love is the issue of a critical dialogue with Augustine. Augustine's assertion of human beings' transformation for seeing God face to face is revised by God's self-giving love. The point of the Trinity is God's coming into the world. But Augustine focuses on human beings' participation in God through the Son's coming to the world. What we try to do through a critical dialogue between Augustine and Brunner is to rethink Augustine's argument of the static vision of God in the Trinity. Augustine tries to see the God of unknownness through the Trinity. But Brunner tries to understand the Trinity in God's coming into the world. Human beings' transformation for perfect understanding of the Trinity is the theme of philosophical trinitarian theology. Augustine focuses on human beings' deification. But Brunner concentrates on human beings' responding to God's self-giving love. In his ethical theology, to love God and to love your neighbour are the ways to understanding God's love through the Son's death and suffering. With the Trinity, Augustine tries to focus on human beings' transformation as the means of achieving eternal happiness by seeing God face to face, whereas Brunner focuses on human beings' respond to God's self-giving love. Jesus' coming into the world is the point of their distinctive approach to the Trinity. Thus, a critical dialogue between Augustine and Brunner shows what the Trinity means to human beings' life in the world. What the Son's coming into the world means to human beings is human beings' transformation or human beings' acceptance of God's self-giving love

Metal/graphene sheets as p-type transparent conducting electrodes in GaN light emitting diodes

We demonstrate the use of graphene based transparent sheets as a p-type current spreading layer in GaN light emitting diodes (LEDs). Very thin Ni/Au was inserted between graphene and p-type GaN to reduce contact resistance, which reduced contact resistance from similar to 5.5 to similar to 0.6 Omega/ cm(2), with no critical optical loss. As a result, LEDs with metal-graphene provided current spreading and injection into the p-type GaN layer, enabling three times enhanced electroluminescent intensity compared with those with graphene alone. We confirmed very strong blue light emission in a large area of the metal-graphene layer by analyzing image brightness.open281