This study is to seek for the possibility of folk study which can aggressively cope with the structural contradiction of modern Korean society, for which the endeavor was put into so as to create the conception with which a social solidarity can be ma ...
This study is to seek for the possibility of folk study which can aggressively cope with the structural contradiction of modern Korean society, for which the endeavor was put into so as to create the conception with which a social solidarity can be materialized in any folk studies and that was applied as a link to presentation of a model of folk knowledge for the social solidarity. That is, the purpose of this study was to find out the direction for creating folk knowledge or realizing opportunities for discussion as a theoretical cause on the reality.
Only when current folk phenomena or its study is associated with the issues of modernity or post-modernity, can it exist. Accordingly, any folk knowledge from folk studies can’t help corresponding to social problems generated from the structure of modern Korean society, which is because new looks of the study subjects may well appear among various problems in modern society. Those are the necessities and validities of this study.
In this study, the inducement of the concept appropriate for study was more necessary than anything else for the approach to the new emergence of new folk corresponding to major problems in modern society and the analysis of its meaning. In other words, the issue of how to set the codes for creation and interpretation of folk knowledge came to the fore. For its resolution it was indispensible to analyze the meanings of diverse cases on folk phenomena, which means it was necessary to carry out another research where any studies on the meaning and value of folk were recognized again along with its relevance to the structure of modern Korean society. In particular, for the designing of folk-knowledge theory aimed at stronger social solidarity, it was needed to newly analyze the social properties and meanings that folk or folk knowledge has. Along with the progress of these researches, it became possible for the role and status of folk knowledge to be inquired into and ultimately the character and theoretical model of folk knowledge for social solidarity could be established.
Consequently, in those researches in the first year, analyses of cases where their meanings and values were estimated became key points. While the areas and objects of investigation might well be different, they were common in that the folkloristic solution to the fundamental issue sought for in the first-year research, ‘impossibility of social solidarity in modern societies’, was common. In addition, this study provided proper materials for the determination of ‘Role and Status of Folk Knowledge in Modern Korean Society’ which was the study subject of the second year.
In the progress of the second-year research, the full-scale discussion for social solidarity of folk knowledge was planned, for which attention was paid to “Emergence or Return of Village” shared widely as modern version of folk so that it might be a concrete research subject. And then this phenomenon was conceptualized as “Village Action” for more progress of discussion. Thirty cases of village action, which are currently more active in concrete researches, were collected for analysis. The analysis was focused on the appreciation of character and status of the village action in relation to the structure of Korean Community.
The phenomenon that physical time and space was compressed along with the development of IT technologies can be considered to be among the backgrounds for emergence of village action. In the very phenomenon, the capital turn-over rate beat the limit to the organic labor and public sections were privatized into a new territory of capital accumulation. As a result, the village action emerged, which led the ecological and public nature to be paid attention to as a motivity for alternative imagination. That is, the village action has been emerging in the courses of serial alternative experiments where those problems in the entire society generate due to the compressive development of Korean Capitalism.
While the study was becoming concrete, the necessity for organizing the trend and outcome of the study on village was raised. In accordance with it, another research was carried out on the trend and prospect of studies on Saemaeul Movement, community, village making and alternative village. During this research, what was considered to be the most important was that this village study was closely related to any discussion on problematic situations of minorities in modern Korean society.
On the other hand, such phenomena as village movement, village formation and village revitalization are showing some concrete behaviors. Its meaning is determined by the correlation with social structure depending on what behavior it is. So, it was necessary to pay attention to the property of action for the conceptualization of the phenomenon, which resulted in the conceptualization of various plans and actions related to village community as “Village Action”.
In reality, the village action village researches paid lots of attention is a representative social phenomenon that social minorities are resolving their problems in an autonomous and alternative way, which is a very folk phenomenon in that it is based on village communities. Therefore, it is very reasonable that those village communities have been major study objects so that the role and status of folk knowledge may be discussed in modern Korean society.
Village Action is not only a research object effective for establishment of cross-sectional relation between folk knowledge and social practice but also a key research field enabling folk knowledge to come up with a new pattern of social connectivity. Accordingly, for any discussion of the role and status of folk knowledge which is a problematic phenomenon in minority groups in modern Korean society, it was indispensible to structurally analyze the terrain of study on village action.
Based on the structure analysis of such research terrain, it was possible to lay the corner stone for establishing a concept appropriate for folkloristic study on the problematic situation of minorities in modern Korean society. Again, on the ground of the concept, the research for social solidarity of folk knowledge could be conducted. In other words, the character and status of village action was investigated as a key point. Along with the determination of the village action as a modern folk phenomenon corresponding to the problematic situation of minorities developing in various ways, the study was carried out. Especially, with the approach to village action as a key object of modern folk, the character and status was reviewed in relation with the structure of modern Korean society.
The character of ‘Village Action’ can be appreciated differently depending on the its position in social structure, where, of course, the social structure interlocked with the nation along with the implication of ideological quality, power and dominant value. Accordingly, raising a question about village action and social structure is an ultimate core to appreciating the functional relation between folk knowledge and structure of modern Korean society. Based on such structural analyses, the role and status of folk knowledge for social solidarity could be determined.