This dissertation studies the effect of both personal and national economic evaluations and social identity on individual vote choice in both Korea and Taiwan by utilizing and improving upon information-processing models developed in social psychology. Economic voting literature generally makes a strong claim that economic voting should affect individual voting behavior in all contexts. Information-processing models suggest, however, that attitudes about certain issues must be available and accessible, and that candidates must be distinctive on these issues, in order to have a bearing on individual behavior. I explain the varying effects of economic conditions and social identity on individual vote choice across elections and individuals in the two countries on the basis of changes in the accessibility of attitudes toward economic conditions and social identity and the distinctiveness of alternatives. Empirical findings in this dissertation show that (1) economic voting has a surprisingly limited explanatory power in both Korea and Taiwan, (2) individual political preferences are shaped less by self-interest or material well-being than by emotional attachment to social identity in a society where ethnocultural cleavages predominate politics, and (3) individual voters respond differently to short-term economic fluctuations, depending on their levels of education and their lifetime economic experiences. My study provides a new perspective on the nature and influence of economic conditions and identity issues on individual vote choice by accounting for variations in individuals and the political and social context in which they are situated. / text

My thesis film for the Master of Fine Arts degree is an 18-minute documentary entitled Free North Korea Radio. This report is an account of the filmmaking process from the initial idea through the finished film. / text

No description available.

In the last decades of the 19th century an interdenominational missions group emerged from within Anglo-American Protestantism: the SVM. This organization sought to broadcast the gospel to the entire world and through this message establish a version of modernity based on Christian belief. This work examines the presence of this evangelical movement in Korea and will consider the implications of its brand of Christianity on the exchange between missionaries and Korean nationalist. Towards this end, this paper will examine missionary discourses produced by leading evangelicals within the church apparatus and consider the writings of James Gale, one of the organization’s missionaries stationed in Korea. This paper will attempt to demonstrate that, although outsiders to the Japanese colonial regime, the evangelicals' exchange with Koreans was still shaped by Orientalist assumptions and broader compromises made between the interlocking ideologies of Capitalism, Social Darwinism and Christian doctrine.

No description available.

In the last decades of the 19th century an interdenominational missions group emerged from within Anglo-American Protestantism: the SVM. This organization sought to broadcast the gospel to the entire world and through this message establish a version of modernity based on Christian belief. This work examines the presence of this evangelical movement in Korea and will consider the implications of its brand of Christianity on the exchange between missionaries and Korean nationalist. Towards this end, this paper will examine missionary discourses produced by leading evangelicals within the church apparatus and consider the writings of James Gale, one of the organization’s missionaries stationed in Korea. This paper will attempt to demonstrate that, although outsiders to the Japanese colonial regime, the evangelicals' exchange with Koreans was still shaped by Orientalist assumptions and broader compromises made between the interlocking ideologies of Capitalism, Social Darwinism and Christian doctrine.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) joined the Antarctic Treaty in 1986 as the 33rd member and became a consultant party in 1989. Despite its geographical remoteness from the region and the geopolitical pressures it faces at home, ROK has made great progress in its scientific research in Antarctica as well as the Arctic. In particular, since the inauguration of the Lee Myung Bak administration in 2008, Seoul has accelerated its commitment to polar research by announcing that it would set up a second permanent base in the Antarctic continent and build a new 7,000 ton ice breaker. South Korea is the 9th largest economy in the world and is now seeking ways to expand its global political influence. The Korean government sees its expansion into Antarctica and the Arctic as part of its path to a greater global leadership role. This thesis explores the reasons behind South Korea’s increased involvement in Antarctica, while referencing the activities of its Arctic programme. It profiles various bodies involved in maintaining and negotiating ROK’s Antarctic presence and voice on Antarctic affairs; it discusses Seoul’s core interests in the Antarctic continent and the polar regions overall, which help to shape its Antarctic policy.

The objective of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the development of the housebuilding industry in Korea. Starting from a description of the growth of the industry in the regulated environment, relevant theories are investigated. Based on both theory and evidence, an analytic framework is then developed from which four main research areas are drawn. The first area is an analysis of the structure of the Korean housebuilding business. The focus is on the investigation of governance structure within the housebuilding business and determinants of that structure. The second area is an examination of efficiency in the housebuilding business. Cost structures of the housebuilding business, the input factor relationship, the extent of economies of scale, and productivity are evaluated. The third area is an analysis of the building firms' diversification strategy. The extent of diversification among housebuilding firms, the changing pattern and the motives for that diversification are examined. Finally, the fourth area brings these elements together to investigate the efficiency of the firms' diversified production structure by estimating multi-product cost functions. Interviews and secondary data sources were used to examine the structure of the Korean housebuilding business. For the analyses of the efficiency of the business, multiproduct firms, and the firms' diversification strategy, econometric modelling techniques such as Translog cost function estimation and multivariate regression estimation were employed. The cost structure of the Korean housebuilding business was found to be price inelastic, with relatively low productivity and increasing returns to scale. Firms tended to depend on 'contracting' throughout the production process and also showed diversified production structures. Diversification was motivated by avoiding risks and uncertainty within the housebuilding business and by using retained resources efficiently. The diversification strategy was found to be economically efficient, although the estimated optimum scale suggests that the current scale of the firms may be too large.

A work dealing with the American Army of Occupation in Korea during the early post-war years, the novel examines the nature of the relationships between the West and the of seeing as their differences occur in two divergent cultures. The aggressive nature of the West's sense of choice-in-action is shown on every hand to be in conflict with the East's sense of being, a sense of passivity which appears to be more closely in touch with the laws of human growth as these laws are operative in the universe. In developing this theme through the conflict between two cultures, two different approaches to the nature of reality itself begin to emerge.

This thesis investigates the events leading up to and following the first North Korean nuclear test, which took place in 2006, in order to examine first, whether the test helped the North Korean regime survive, and second, how this unilateral action acted as a balance to the United States’ policy of oppression. The thesis will also attempt to shed some light on the validity of the Western International Relations (IR) theories by ascertaining the balance of threat and applying the notion of “two-level games” to the nuclear conundrum. Through the lens of these IR theories, the research described in the thesis addresses three smaller questions: (1) how did the nuclear test stabilize Pyongyang’s integrity as a balance to the threat of a potential American military attack?; (2) how was the test used as a bargaining mechanism to urge the Bush administration to shift away from its hostile stance and towards a policy of engagement?; and (3) how did the test influence the security environment of the Northeast Asian region? Finally, the thesis considers various reasons why the nuclear deadlock in which we currently find ourselves will not be resolved in the foreseeable future, and it suggests that resolution of the nuclear stalemate can only occur once comprehensive deal-making incentives between Washington and Pyongyang are adopted. / Graduate / 0615 / lomulos@yahoo.co.kr