Joong-Hwan Oh - Böcker

This book examines how former, current and prospective Korean graduate students navigate American universities, especially with regard to the student-advisor relationship. Based on extensive case study research conducted around Vivid Journal—an online social network for many domestic and international Korean graduate students—this volume highlights issues regarding access to various academic capitals (i.e., scholarship, publishing, participation in academic research), successful completion of graduate degrees, and academic or non-academic employment opportunities upon graduation. Through a rigorous analysis of members’ posting behavior, interaction, and role assignments, this book offers a new conceptual framework for online and social support networks, especially around the shaping and mediation of international student-advisor relationships.

This book examines how former, current and prospective Korean graduate students navigate American universities, especially with regard to the student-advisor relationship. Based on extensive case study research conducted around Vivid Journal—an online social network for many domestic and international Korean graduate students—this volume highlights issues regarding access to various academic capitals (i.e., scholarship, publishing, participation in academic research), successful completion of graduate degrees, and academic or non-academic employment opportunities upon graduation. Through a rigorous analysis of members’ posting behavior, interaction, and role assignments, this book offers a new conceptual framework for online and social support networks, especially around the shaping and mediation of international student-advisor relationships.

In this new age of social media, the role of online ethnic networks is as important as offline ethnic networks—families, friends, etc.—in helping immigrants adjust to their new country. This is something that has received very little attention in the academic field of international immigration which Oh hopes to rectify through this book. He focuses on the five American social institutions (immigration, welfare, education, housing, and finance) to explore this topic through the lens of married Korean-American women. In their online "MissyUSA" community, the largest Korean-American women's online community in North America, they share a wide range of information about the rules of each of these social institutions as they work together to navigate American society. Oh explores how the “MissyUSA” community creates two distinctive forms of social capital: social resources and social support. For some of its members (inquirers or information seekers), the “MissyUSA” community functions as an important source of their information (social resources) about the rules of the American social institutions. Likewise, it also functions as a network of social supporters (respondents or information providers) for those information seekers. Here, what makes this book a significant one is the fact that these social supporters are distinctively identified as instrumental guiders (information describers, expositors, confirmers, and advisors) and emotional supporters (companions, encouragers, and critics). By researching the lives of Korean-American women who are members of the "MissyUSA" community, Oh's book works to understand how a sub-set of the Korean-American community shares information about American institutions and uses the internet to do so.

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.

This edited volume unveils diverse issues and factors related to health disparities in contemporary Korean Society. It illustrates how economic and social changes unequally impact different subpopulations, including employees, the elderly, children, and immigrants and describes why health policy and intervention is needed now.

Newcomers and Global Migration in Contemporary South Korea: Across National Boundaries examines the intersections of race, class, gender and inequalities in global migration in contemporary South Korea. The contributors explore South Korean migration policies and study diverse migrants living and working in South Korea as low-wage undocumented workers, refugees, Korean returnees, migrant women married to Korean men, and white professionals. The chapters in this collection make visible the differentiation and divergence of migration experiences due to race, class, gender, and place of origin, which are all also mediated by local inequalities in South Korea.

An in-depth investigation of the complex relationships among food, culture, and society, Communicating Food in Korea features contributors from a variety of disciplines, including economics, political science, communication studies, nutrition research, tourism research, and more. Each chapter presents a unique interpretation of food’s economic, political, and sociocultural relevance. Situated in Korea’s shifting historical contexts, contributors explore themes, such as colonialism, food symbolism, gastronationalism, multiculturalism, food tourism, food security, and food sovereignty to research the ways food intersects with social issues in Korean society.

An in-depth investigation of the complex relationships among food, culture, and society, Communicating Food in Korea features contributors from a variety of disciplines, including economics, political science, communication studies, nutrition research, tourism research, and more. Each chapter presents a unique interpretation of food’s economic, political, and sociocultural relevance. Situated in Korea’s shifting historical contexts, contributors explore themes, such as colonialism, food symbolism, gastronationalism, multiculturalism, food tourism, food security, and food sovereignty to research the ways food intersects with social issues in Korean society.

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.

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.

This book examines the essence of a particular personal experience within a New York City public space.

This book examines the essence of a particular personal experience within a New York City public space.