Hojeong Lee - Böcker

The Making of a Smart City in Korea: The Quest for E-Seoul displays how the notion of the smart city has been interpreted and applied in Seoul—the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. The contributors show how a shift into a digital city has brought about noticeable changes in the governance, economics, and cultures of Seoul.This edited volume on the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s quest for e-Seoul provides great resources for many cities worldwide seeking to benchmark this particular type of smart city, as well as for all those academics in the fields to learn it, given that Seoul has systematically pushed different stages and strategies of the smart urbanization.

Through a critical examination of the Korean diaspora in transnational contexts as a case study, Korean Digital Diaspora: Transnational Social Movements and Diaspora Identity unmasks the process of how people of the diaspora have built social interactions and communication with others online, how they have orchestrated social movements, and finally, how they have narrated and reshaped their diaspora identities in their everyday lives. Utilizing an ethnographical approach, including in-depth interviews, participant observation, and a field study in New York City and Philadelphia, Hojeong Lee delineates how digital media technology has expanded into a new form of diaspora, digital diaspora, within the Korean diaspora community, and how it has mobilized the social movements of Korean diaspora members. Accordingly, Korean diaspora members have begun to imagine their community as a transnational global diaspora. Korean Digital Diaspora concludes with an analysis of how the changed attitudes of diaspora members have also influenced how they define themselves and how they are reshaping their diaspora identities. This multi-site, three-year study reveals the nexus of media, individuals, and society, highlighting the transnational social movements of diaspora members.

Digital Media, Online Activism, and Social Movements in Korea deepens the current understanding of online activism and its impacts on society by highlighting how various forms of social movements have been mobilized in Korea. Through exploring movements in Korea such as political participation based on SNS, the 2008 U.S. beef protests, and the 2016-2017 candlelight vigils, the contributors study the intersection of digital media platforms, current trends, and social, cultural, and political conditions within Korean society. Using a wide range of events and movements, this book analyzes how people have utilized the development of digital media to facilitate social movements and effect social change.