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The Reconfiguration of Identity in South Korea : Examining the Potential of Workplace-based Intercultural Interaction for Social Change

한국에서의 정체성 재구성: 사회변화를 위한 직장 기반 문화간 상호작용을 중심으로

초록 (요약문)

In the second decade of the 21st century, South Korea still finds itself in a transition period between being a monoethnic nation and a multiethnic immigration nation (Lee 2010). Processes of globalization have caused the sociohistorical forces of nationalism and multiculturalism to clash. Accordingly, South Korea’s population also finds itself situated between the two forces, in need to configure a relationship between the two. At the same time, the demographic shift in form of a rapidly rising foreign population inside the country is enabling more intercultural interaction between Koreans and foreigners. Taking into consideration South Korea’s need for foreign labor, workplace-based intercultural interaction is likely to gradually increase. This research project investigates contemporary Korean identity amidst the tensions between nationalist and multiculturalist forces, to answer the question whether intercultural interaction leads to a reconfiguration of Korean identity. In order to do so, in-depth interviews were conducted with Korean nationals. Their thoughts and perceptions about personal experiences with workplace- based intercultural interaction were extracted to derive whether a possible reconfiguration of their identity was caused by this interaction. The results of this study revealed that intercultural interaction changed the research participants’ perceptions about foreigners in South Korea, and about their own identity. Nationalist as well as multiculturalist tendencies could be identified by analyzing the data, confirming the coexistence of both forces within Korean identity. Additional factors relevant to intercultural relations in South Korea were also found, such as workplace- related aspects and the factors of language, race and appearance that still act as obstacles to cultural coexistence in South Korea – inside the workplace and beyond. Participants showing signs of identity reconfiguration points towards intercultural interaction as a catalyst for societal change in South Korea.

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목차

1. Introduction 1
1.1 South Korea's demographic shift and the intercultural workplace 5
2. Literature Review 9
2.1 Nationalism 9
2.1.1 National identity and ethnic identity 12
2.1.2 National identity and ethnic nationalism in Korea 17
2.2 Multiculturalism 20
2.2.1 The emergence of multiculturalism and its contents 20
2.2.2 The critique of multiculturalism 24
2.3 Intercultural interaction and identity reconfiguration 26
3. Methodology 32
4. Data and findings 34
4.1 Nationalist sentiments 34
4.2 Multiculturalist sentiments 41
4.3 Workplace-related aspects 50
4.4 Additional factors 57
4.4.1 Language 57
4.4.2 Race and appearance 59
4.5 Identity reconfiguration 60
5. Summary and conclusion 67
References 72

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