Korean Society, Facing Social Deconstruction

Recently, an argument has been made that the Korean society is facing a “risk of social deconstruction,” which disintegrates the dependence among members of the society or increases the hostility among them.

Lim Hyun-jin, Social Science professor at Seoul National University, is planning to unveil his thesis on “the risk of social deconstruction” on September 2 at the Asan Foundation’s 27th Anniversary Symposium.

According to Professor Lim’s thesis, which had been distributed earlier on September 1 by the Asan Foundation, Lim argues, “Coupled with the dramatic structural changes in politics and the economy since the financial crisis in Korea, incidences of felonies, rising unemployment, divorce, low fertility rate, and aging of the society are increasingly threatening the social unity and sustainability.”

He cited the “condensed industrialization” of growth-oriented Korean economic policies as the prime cause for the risk of social deconstruction and said, “This is closely associated with the increased financial difficulties following the 1998 currency crisis.”

Professor Lim also said, “The conflict between regions and social classes is being dramatically diversified by the younger generation,” and pointed out, “Faced with new challenges, society must establish a social safety net to move forward to becoming a sustainable and sound one.”

He also suggested that the Korean society has experienced seven risks since the Korean War: national security risk and livelihood difficulties during the 1950-60s, political oppression in the 1970-80s, technological disaster in the 1990s, the earth’s ecological crisis, natural disaster in the 21st century, and finally, the social deconstruction.

Lim said he came to this conclusion by analyzing various social indicators over the past three decades such as crime rate, divorce rate, and unemployment rate.

Asan Foundation’s 27th Anniversary Symposium on “Confronting Society’s Risks and Disasters” will be held at 2 p.m. on September 2 at the Kim Koo Museum and Library in Hyochang-dong, Youngsan-gu, Seoul.

Jae-Dong Yu jarrett@donga.com