A Contemporary Portrait of Life in Korea : Researching Recent Social and Political Trends

This book delves into the values, attitudes, and behaviours of Koreans over the course of the past twenty years. Compiled by leading Korean scholars, the book uses the Korean General Social Survey (KGSS), the most comprehensive source of information detailing recent continuity and change in Korea, and addresses a diverse, wide-range of topics such as nationalism, familyism, social inequality, politics, religion, welfare, trust, attitudes towards North Korea, and attitudes towards sex. These issues, in continuously shaping and influencing the lives of Koreans, deserve further examination so as to fully grasp a deeper understanding of Korean contemporary culture. Each chapter covers an overview of background information about the chapter subject and then compares Korean attitudes to those of other countries, drawing on cross-national data derived from sources such as the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) and the East Asian Social Survey (EASS). It collates this data and then unpacks it to demonstrate trends and how they are impacted by stability or change. Despite the rapid economic development and democratization in Korea, it remains difficult to pinpoint common denominators regarding recent social trends in Korea, and there are surprisingly few books that present a current, nuanced, and empirically substantiated scholarly depiction of Koreans and their social issues. This book fills this gap in serving as an indispensable reference for students and scholars interested in the diverse issues in Korean society. Foreword 5 Preface 7 Acknowledgments 10 Contents 11 1 Democracy and National Identity in South Korea After 1987 13 1 Introduction 13 2 Democracy and Nationalism 15 3 South Korea Before 1987: A Brief Overview 17 4 Sources and Analytic Strategies 19 5 Trends in National Identity: Rising Civic Basis 20 5.1 Trends in Ethnic and Civic National Identity 21 5.2 Immigration and National Identity 24 5.3 North Korea 24 6 National Pride and Citizens’ Rights and Duties 26 7 National Identity and Citizens’ Duties: Conscription and Citizenship 29 8 Conclusion 32 References 33 2 Living Together with Unease—Koreans’ Perception of and Attitudes Toward Immigrants 37 1 “Immigration Nation” on the Horizon 37 2 Increasing and Diversifying Foreign Residents 39 2.1 Marriage Migrants and Their Families: Concerned About Generational Poverty, But We Are Still Cold and Callous 41 2.2 Migrant Workers: They Want to Put Down Roots, But We Don’t Know Them Well 44 2.3 Foreign Nationals: Can We Ever Live Together as the Same Koreans? 46 3 Changes in Koreans’ Perceptions of and Attitudes Toward Immigrants 48 4 Uneasy Expectations. But it’s Not Their Problems 59 References 61 3 Religious Landscape in Korea 63 1 Introduction 63 2 Religions in Korea: Folk Religion, Buddhism, Confucianism, Catholicism, and Protestantism 66 3 Religious Belief, Practice, and Attitude 69 3.1 Religious Affiliation 69 3.2 Religious Participation: Church/Temple Attendance 70 3.3 Religious Affiliation, Church Attendance, Strength of Affiliation by Cohorts 75 3.4 Religious Leaders/Religious Organizations 76 3.5 Attitudes Toward Religious Groups 79 3.6 Religious Beliefs 81 4 Conclusion 83 References 84 4 Trends in Gender Role Attitudes in South Korea 86 1 Introduction 86 2 Measurement of Gender-Role Attitudes in Surveys 87 3 Data, Variables and Methods 88 3.1 Trends in Gender-Role Attitudes 90 3.2 Trends in Gender-Role Attitudes by Gender 90 3.3 Trends in Gender-Role Attitudes by Birth Cohort 94 3.4 Socio-Demographic Correlates of Gender-Role Attitudes 96 4 Discussion and Conclusions 100 Appendix 102 References 102 5 Familism in South Korea, 2006–2016 104 1 Introduction 104 2 Social Changes in Korea Since the Start of the 21st Century 105 2.1 Demographic Changes 105 2.2 Feminism 106 2.3 Individualism 107 2.4 Familism 107 3 Methods 109 3.1 Data and Sample 109 3.2 Measures 109 3.3 Plans for Analysis 110 4 Results 110 4.1 Descriptive Statistics 110 4.2 Changes in Familism Between 2006 and 2016 110 5 Conclusion 116 References 117 6 Family-Related Values in South Korea: Temporal Changes and Cross-National Differences 120 1 Introduction 121 2 Theoretical Perspective: Values Change and Economic Conditions 122 3 Multiple Aspects of Family Values, Cohort Changes, and Gender Differences 124 4 Data and Methods 125 5 Results 126 5.1 Descriptive Analysis 126 5.2 OLS Regression-Financial Support of Elderly Parents 127 5.3 OLS Regression-Marriage 135 5.4 OLS Regression-Children 135 5.5 OLS Regression–Gender Difference in Age Gradient 140 6 Summary and Implications 146 References 148 7 Stratification and Economic Inequality in South Korea 150 1 Introduction 150 2 Income Inequality and Changes in Socioeconomic Status 151 2.1 Economic Development and Changes in Household Income Inequality 151 2.2 Subjective Class Identification 155 2.3 Perception on Income Inequality and Conflicts Between Classes 159 3 Fairness of Economic Rewards 162 4 Intergenerational Mobility 165 4.1 Intergenerational Mobility in Education 165 4.2 Standard-of-Living Compared to the Previous Generation 169 5 Stratification in Subjective Well-Being 170 6 Conclusion 173 References 174 8 Embedded Economy and Work: Expectations and Fulfillments Before and After 1997 177 1 Introduction: Embeddedness, Multiplicity, Life Values, and Work Values 178 2 The Restructuring (Dis-embedding and Re-embedding) of the Korean Economy Around 1997 180 2.1 Dis-embedding/Re-embedding the Economic and the Political: The New Political-Economy 181 2.2 Dis-embedding/Re-embedding the Economic and the Social: The New Social-Economy 182 3 Values of Life and Values of Work Before and After 1997 183 3.1 Life Values: The Importance of Work/Economy Vis-À-Vis Other Values in Life 184 3.2 Life Values: Satisfaction of the Value of Work Vis-À-Vis Other Values 186 3.3 Work Values: Importance of Different Values in Work and Their Associations 192 4 Conclusion 198 References 200 9 Interpersonal Trust and Its Associations with Respondents’ Community Characteristics 203 1 Introduction 203 2 Overall Trends of Interpersonal Trust in South Korea 204 3 Interpersonal Trust and Social Disorganization Theory 207 4 Challenges for Community-Level Studies in South Korea 209 5 Data Linkage and Estimation 211 5.1 Variables in Use 212 5.2 Estimation Methods 213 6 Determinants of Interpersonal Trust in Seoul 214 7 Discussions 218 References 219 10 Changing Perceptions of Societal Trust Among Koreans: Relative Deprivation, Downward Mobility, and Sociotropic Concern 221 1 Introduction 222 2 Determinants of Trust 224 3 Research Hypotheses and Questions 226 4 Data, Variables and Methods 228 5 Results from Multilevel Modeling 232 6 Conclusion 243 References 246 11 Social Welfare Attitudes 249 1 Introduction 249 2 Attitudes About Welfare Expenditure 252 3 Attitudes About the Responsibility of the Government 253 4 Tax Attitudes 262 5 Welfare Schema 266 6 Conclusion 275 References 277 12 South Koreans’ Attitudes Toward North Korea and Reunification, 2003–2018 279 1 Introduction 279 2 North–South Relations Since 2003 281 2.1 The Sunshine Policy: Kim Dae-Jung and Roh Moo-Hyun (1998–2007) 281 2.2 The End of the Sunshine Policy: Lee Myung-Bak and Park Geun-Hye (2008–2016) 282 2.3 Revival of the Sunshine Policy: Moon Jae-In (2017-Present) 283 3 Data 285 4 Public Attitudes Toward North Korea: A Trend 286 5 Results from Multivariate Analyses 293 6 Concluding Remarks 302 Appendix 303 References 307 The Korean General Social Survey (KGSS) 309 Index 313 This book delves into the values, attitudes, and behaviors of Koreans over the course of the past twenty years. Compiled by leading Korean scholars, the book uses the Korean General Social Survey (KGSS), the most comporehensive source of information detailing recent continuity and change in Korea, and addresses a diverse, wide-range of topics such as nationalism, familyism, social inequality, politics, religion, welfare, trust, attitudes towards North Korea, and attitudes towards sex. -- Book jacket