Is civil society gendered? What can the Korean women's movement tell us about the very notion and working of civil society and the 1990s history of democratization in South Korea? Students of democratization have overlooked these questions in their study of civil society as a vehicle of democratization and counterweight to the repressive state or the totalizing market (Silliman and Noble 1998; White 1996; Koo 1993; Cohen and Arato 1992; Gold 1990; Keane 1988). Recent criticisms of the celebration of civil society as the third path to societal democratization point out that such analyses tend to lapse into abstract discussions of relations between the state and civil society, devoid of a specific historical or social context (Fine 1997; Tempest 1997; Blaney and Pasha 1993). This absence of context can also lead to an inadequate view of civil society as a uniform and homogeneous space without social inequalities or divisions.
Purging of "pro-Japanese elements"(ch'inilp'a) was not considered necessary by US and/or Syngman Rhee (though it probably would have been popular) COLONIAL LEGACIES (2) South Korea inherited a "highly articulated, disciplined, and penetrating bureaucracy" (more than one would expect of a country of Korea's level of development) (Eckert) Police did not just do repression, but were the "discipline of modernity"-hygiene, dress (colored rather than white clothing), short hair, frugality Mental control through "conversion" (K. chŏnhyang = J. tenkō) Originally used by the colonial regime against communists and nationalists Continued to be used against communists after liberation Administered mass organizations (AMOs)-colonial Rural Revitalization Programs to Yusin New Village Movement drum up support for government-approved modernization Colonial legacies 1contrasts with North Korea that was a revolutionary regime that purged all rightists and "collaborators" (unless the were Communist), and thus provides an example of an alternative modernity (keeping the issues in view), while both North and South share II
Gender and military studies focus on Western postconscription societies, overlooking the significance of military service to gender order in the larger society. Concerned with the military's changing form in industrial and democratic society, military sociology literature argues for the broad trend toward the decline of the conscription-based military and highlights not only economic factors but also geopolitical factors influencing this trend. Yet this literature overlooks the significance of gender in interpreting such geopolitical factors. Focusing on the problem of equity in conscription in contemporary South Korea and on one popular cultural response to that problem, this article examines the importance of men's conscription to the organization of meanings and practices of masculinity (and femininity) in larger society and argues that the geopolitical reality in Korea that justifies militarized national security and the existence of conscription is embedded in the gendered interpretation of what is being threatened and to be protected.
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