This study sought to determine how the residents of Pohang, Korea, perceive geothermal plants after the 2017 Pohang earthquake by applying social representation theory through a mixed-method approach incorporating qualitative and quantitative research. Th…

This study sought to determine how the residents of Pohang, Korea, perceive geothermal plants after the 2017 Pohang earthquake by applying social representation theory through a mixed-method approach incorporating qualitative and quantitative research. The residents’ perception of the geothermal plant was largely anchored to their perception of nuclear power plants. At the time of the Gyeongju earthquake in 2016, public discourse on nuclear accidents developed and was thereafter perpetuated by the Pohang earthquake victims via cognitive anchoring. The survey results demonstrated that Pohang residents had a significantly negative opinion on geothermal plants regardless of safety, climate change mitigation, and economic factors. Upon analyzing the respondents’ energy preferences through factor analysis, geothermal power plants were found to aggregate in the same category as nuclear power plants. This result statistically confirms that Pohang residents associate geothermal power plants with the risk discourse on nuclear power plants.

The Korean government collects and releases sociodemographic information about people infected with COVID-19, their travel histories, and whether or not the patients wore masks. Korean mothers then upload this information on the boards of online groups ca…

The Korean government collects and releases sociodemographic information about people infected with COVID-19, their travel histories, and whether or not the patients wore masks. Korean mothers then upload this information on the boards of online groups called “mom cafes.” Based upon a digital ethnography of 15 “mom cafes,” we examine how Korean mothers understand the travel histories of virus patients and explore the relationships between morality and materiality in the context of infectious disease surveillance. The main findings reveal that mom cafe mothers form moral personhood based on information gathered about artifacts, places, and the mobility of patients. They tie patients' travel histories inextricably to moral identities. Non-maleficence is central to Korean mothers’ morality. This morality appears through the material discourses of artifacts, places, and mobility. A face mask becomes one such hallmark of morality. It is a requisite for moral persons. Those who visit crowded places, such as churches, clubs, and room salons, become immoral because they can be easily infected and spread the virus to their families and communities. To mom cafe mothers, mobile patients, such as clubbers, appear less moral than those who self-quarantine due to the high infection rate of COVID-19. We conclude that morality in this context involves the materiality of artifacts, a sense of place, and the spatial mobility of people.

With the advent of artificial intelligence, stakeholders and experts cede their policy decisions for human affairs to computer algorithms in algorithmic governance. However, they face a new material principal-agent problem, which occurs between computer s…

With the advent of artificial intelligence, stakeholders and experts cede their policy decisions for human affairs to computer algorithms in algorithmic governance. However, they face a new material principal-agent problem, which occurs between computer scientists as principals and computer algorithms as agents. Drawing upon new materialism, this study investigates informational asymmetry, malfeasance, agency relationships, and solutions related to the principal-agent problem. The inscrutability of computer algorithms is central to the notion of informational asymmetry and their relational agency is related to the notion of malfeasance. The principal-agent relationship is viewed as the output of socio-material assemblages in which computer scientists strive to build trust with computer algorithms. The inscrutability of computer algorithms coupled with their performativity would make it challenging for human principals to ascertain the malfeasance of computer algorithms as agents, thereby forming the material principal-agent problem. Finally, this study recommends an incremental, precautionary, and technologically pluralist approach to cope with this problem.

The notion of place is quite useful to account for local acceptance of energy transitions. Using semi-structured interviews and content analysis, this article explores how new places are imagined or formed in opposition to wind farms in South Korea, with …

The notion of place is quite useful to account for local acceptance of energy transitions. Using semi-structured interviews and content analysis, this article explores how new places are imagined or formed in opposition to wind farms in South Korea, with a focus on the memory of place disruption and sensory interactions with wind turbines. First, residents opposed to the construction of wind farms imagine negative places in opposition to future energy transitions, such as places in which landslides and ecological disruptions have occurred, based on trauma from past place disruption. Second, residents’ sensory experiences of the noise created by wind turbines and the turbines’ aviation-obstruction lights form concepts of artificial, urban, or mechanical places in opposition to the natural or rural quality of the places prior to wind turbine construction. These negative places that are formed based on memory and sensory input drive opposition to wind turbines. Therefore, place-people relations should be adequately and carefully discussed in both site-planning and community engagement processes associated with wind farms.

Wind farms are constructed in mountainous rural villages where indigenous elderly people believe in Korean traditional beliefs such as pungsu (fengshui or geomancy) thought and shamanism. Built upon mixed qualitative methods, this research examines the re…

Wind farms are constructed in mountainous rural villages where indigenous elderly people believe in Korean traditional beliefs such as pungsu (fengshui or geomancy) thought and shamanism. Built upon mixed qualitative methods, this research examines the relationship between traditional beliefs and local opposition to wind farms. First, the interpretation of mountains and wind based on pungsu clashes with favorable discourses on wind turbines. From the pungsu viewpoint, the wind turbine is considered similar to the iron stakes driven into renowned Korean mountains by Japanese imperialists to block the national spirit of Korea during the Japanese colonial era. A straight, strong wind with high-energy efficiency for wind power generation is considered inauspicious in terms of pungsu. Second, pungsu in local opposition to wind farms is prominent in clan communities in mountainous inland areas with a high proportion of elderly people. Third, senses are associated with shamanism in shaping the elderly’s perception of wind turbines. The noise and lights of wind turbines is a reminder of past memories related to ghosts or dokkaebi (a Korean goblin). Thus, pungsu and Korean shamanism present a unique story that is absent in Western debates on wind farms.

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Since President Moon Jae-in took office in May 2017, South Korea has been embroiled in a major social controversy about energy transition. The president's pledge to transition toward renewable energy represented a dramatic change in Korean energy policy, …

Since President Moon Jae-in took office in May 2017, South Korea has been embroiled in a major social controversy about energy transition. The president's pledge to transition toward renewable energy represented a dramatic change in Korean energy policy, which has been focused on nuclear and coal-fired plant expansion policies since the 1970s. This study examines public perception of energy, with focus on the relationship between nuclear power and climate change as well as party preferences, based on a nationally representative survey of Korea. The survey data shows that the risk-risk tradeoff strategy, reframing nuclear power generation as a way to mitigate the risks of climate change, seems to be ineffective in Korea. Furthermore, nuclear power represents the values of the elderly, materialists, developmentalists, and conservative political parties. These results suggest that Korean energy policy is a very political issue rather than a strictly scientific or economic one. Therefore, this issue should be deliberated through a democratic process.

The goal of the present study is reviewing the literature on the scientific community and also on science, technology & society to increase interactions between innovation studies and social studies of science and technology. Up until now, various empir…

The goal of the present study is reviewing the literature on the scientific community and also on science, technology & society to increase interactions between innovation studies and social studies of science and technology. Up until now, various empirical studies on Korean scientists and engineers have been concentrated on researchers at universities, while they have paid inadequate attention to researchers at state-funded research institutes and private companies. In addition, these studies have tended to use concepts in Western academia to elucidate Korean cases. On the other hand, recent empirical researches on the effects of the evaluation systems in universities, PBS system, and the network of school ties suggest that these topics may reveal the unique characteristics of Korean scientific community. Empirical studies on the scientific community have also shown that Korean research institutes and researchers who are in charge of innovation in Korea have demonstrated a tendency to conform to the government's guidance due to long experiences of state-led R&D and nationalism. Research on science, technology and society has viewed the participation of citizens in science and technology as a way toward science and technology democracy, and tended to have a strong practical orientation. However, there has been a relatively small amount of research on how citizen participation influences the direction and content of technological innovation. Also, although, from the viewpoint of technological innovation, how participation of citizens in science and technology can contribute to knowledge production and innovation is a critical issue, relatively small numbers of case studies on this subject have been conducted. Therefore, as the scholars who have emphasized the democracy of science and technology have actually experimented with various ways of citizen participation, innovation researchers may have to design and implement citizen participation through which citizens’ local knowledge can contribute to technological innovation.

The concept of environmental justice has focused on inequality in the distribution of environmental risks across races, classes and regions. By looking at the distribution of chemical pollution emitted by each industrial sector and factory, the present …

The concept of environmental justice has focused on inequality in the distribution of environmental risks across races, classes and regions. By looking at the distribution of chemical pollution emitted by each industrial sector and factory, the present study analyzes inequalities in the production of environmental risks which has been often neglected in the discussion of environmental justice. The result shows that, from 2008 to 2014, a small number of industrial sectors and factories produced most chemical pollution, which led to the strong inequality in the production of environmental pollution. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the amount of chemical pollution emitted by each industrial sector or factory did not show statistically significant relationship with its economic contribution (i.e., the amount of sales and the number of employees). Also, when we measured the extent to which chemical pollution was unequally distributed at the level of factory using Gini coefficient and Theil index, it became evident that, in the manufacturing industry in Korea, a small number of factories in each industrial sector produced most chemical pollution. When we measured the amount of chemical pollution per employee in each factory, it turned out that the unequal distribution of chemical pollution was affected by the type of industrial sectors but not related with the number of employee.

In 2008 the Korean government decided to resume importing US beef, leading to a nationwide controversy over the risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. Korean media coverage of BSE during this controversy demonstrates how me…

In 2008 the Korean government decided to resume importing US beef, leading to a nationwide controversy over the risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. Korean media coverage of BSE during this controversy demonstrates how media reporting on scientific matters interacts with political controversy over science-related risks. In Korea, where media organizations tend to be associated with particular political ideologies, the media emphasized the uncertainty of scientific accounts in the BSE case and reinforced the politicization of science by selectively mobilizing contrasting scientific claims and scientific authorities based on each media outlet’s political position. The distinctive role of such a media culture in the science-related political discourse is further highlighted when we consider US media coverage of BSE risk during the same period: in that coverage, the baseline technical risk-related issues were taken for granted and the BSE controversy in Korea was presented largely as a trade issue.

This article examines the relationship between the senses, artifacts, and trade at South Korean agricultural produce auctions. It explores the impacts of market devices on sensory interactions between auctioneers and buyers that are essential to market…

This article examines the relationship between the senses, artifacts, and trade at South Korean agricultural produce auctions. It explores the impacts of market devices on sensory interactions between auctioneers and buyers that are essential to market transactions. Through ethnographic interviews and participant observations at Garak Market, Seoul, this study compares hand signal trading with electronic trading in agricultural produce auctions. It analyzes how the senses affect auction price estimation and formation, as well as their contribution to economic agency and social relationship among economic actors. The study then examines the impact of new market devices in electronic trading (e.g. trading screens, computer monitors, and wireless bidding terminals) on trading’s sensory aspects of seeing or hearing. It argues that the devices change the modality of sensory interactions between auctioneers and buyers. This transforms power struggles, forming a looser but more equal relationship between auctioneers and buyers and decreasing the overall auction price in the market.

The United States (US), European Union (EU), and South Korea had different definitions and visions of technological convergence before interacting with each other from the late 2000s. The Korean government has used Western policies as a benchmark but prod…

The United States (US), European Union (EU), and South Korea had different definitions and visions of technological convergence before interacting with each other from the late 2000s. The Korean government has used Western policies as a benchmark but produces a distinct concept of technological convergence due to a particular imaginary of technology as a vehicle for national economic growth. This sociotechnical imaginary of technological developmentalism influences Korea’s translation of technological convergence from other jurisdictions. Because the sociotechnical imaginaries of different nations are difficult to communicate across national contexts, the translation of visions often changes the original meaning of things like technological convergence. Western sociotechnical imaginaries such as human enhancement and sustainable development do not translate well into South Korea due to the national imaginary of technological developmentalism. First, Korea’s Lee administration predominantly envisioned converging technology (CT) as a new growth engine, in contrast to the US and EU which emphasize visions of trans-humanist or sustainable futures respectively. Second, the Park administration’s CT vision imitates the Western societal challenge-driven rationale, but this vision was not enacted. As such, the democratic, sustainable imaginary of societal challenge-driven innovation is not easily translated into Korea’s national imaginary or technology policy.

Despite a growing interest in research collaboration, few studies have examined the influences of policy measures on collaboration practices and on the scientific outcome of the research. By analyzing individual-level panel data of researchers in humaniti…

Despite a growing interest in research collaboration, few studies have examined the influences of policy measures on collaboration practices and on the scientific outcome of the research. By analyzing individual-level panel data of researchers in humanities and social sciences in a Korean university, the present study shows that adopting a partial discount system for the number of coauthors, which has been designed in such a way as to reward coauthored publications, could redirect researchers’ attention away from working alone to collaborating with others, as proposed by advocates of team-based incentives in principal–agent theory. In addition, the present study shows that, although collaboration was positively correlated with the impact factors of the journal and the total number of publications, the fractional count of publications, which divides the number of publications by the number of authors, showed a negative relationship with participation in collaboration.

By analyzing a nationwide survey on Korean publics, this study examines the social determinants of public support for three types of scientific research—basic research aimed at pure knowledge, applied research toward industrial application, and rese…

By analyzing a nationwide survey on Korean publics, this study examines the social determinants of public support for three types of scientific research—basic research aimed at pure knowledge, applied research toward industrial application, and research for social problem-solving which aims to enhance ordinary citizens’ quality of life. The present study finds the differential effects of social- and political value orientations on the level of public support for respective types of research. As ones have more progressive in their subjective political orientations, they are more likely to support research for social problem-solving than other types of research, while conservatives tend to support basic research and those with neo-liberal ideology tend to support applied research. The Korean public also tends to perceive research for social problem-solving as a counter to basic research while it has been developed against the conventional emphasis on applied research in Korea. Also, the level of support for research for social problem-solving increases with the higher level of trust in scientific authority and expertise, while it has been developed against expertism and included public engagement in science as an important element. Finally, those who have lower income tend to support for research for social problem-solving than other types of research. The implications of these findings are discussed.