The objective of this thesis is to investigate the influence and. impact of foreign direct investment inflow into the Republic of Korea. It is also an investigation of the development of the Korean economy. The research investigates the relationship between foreign direct investment and the development of the Korean economy by examining both the macro and micro aspects of the relationship between the two. This involves considering the performance of the Korean economy as a whole and then taking a more detailed approach by treating the analysis of the relationship at the level of individual industrial sectors. It also involves investigating the role played by the Korean government in the development of the economy and the control of foreign direct investment inflow. The analysis uses a two stage approach, first by taking an exploratory correlation analysis of the interaction between the inflow and a series of key variables, which allows a number of tentative conclusions to be drawn. By using these conclusions in conjunction with the literature survey we were able to analyse the nature and impact of foreign direct investment in Korea using regression analysis. The analysis revealed that except for isolated instances, the influence of the inflow of foreign direct investment at either the macro-or micro level is long-term. The positive effect of the inflow appears to be strongest on Gross National Product and Gross Domestic Product and on exports rather than imports. The results from the principal industrial sectors suggest that greatest impact was when the inflow was associated with larger firms. Furthermore the results suggest that the country of origin of the investment may well have an influence. In addition the research highlights the importance of the role played by the Korean government.

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There has been a long history of violence between North and South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953 and North Korea is still a current threat to the South due to their missile launches and naval clashes. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the interactions between North and South Korea from 1998 to 2006 and answer the question: What accounts for the difference in responses to North Korean threats by South Korean presidents from the same party with similar stands toward North Korea? Although South Korean Presidents Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun shared similar approaches to North Korea, why did they not always respond in the same way? To answer this question, I examine a case in which North Korea test-launched a rocket and a case in which North Korean vessels cross the Northern Limit Line during each administration. By comparing these cases, I explain why the presidents continued their engagement policy and refrained from condemning the North in all but the case of the 2006 missile test. I test a set of explanations made by experts for South Korean approaches to North Korea to see which explanation best fits each case. I argue that each response was due to a combination of explanations rather than one single explanation. Even though each explanation had some merit, some explanations were more applicable than the others. Both Kim and Roh expressed concern over North Korea due to security and economic concerns. However, as the years and threatening behavior went on the public and international community started to take a greater notice to North Korea's activity and wanted the South Korean government to take action. As a result, public opinion and international pressure partially influenced Roh to shift his responses towards North Korea and halt aid after the 2006 missile launch. / Master of Arts

This thesis considers issues of individual's 'style competence' within global order. Guje (imported second-hand garments) fashion in South Korea is an ideal case study from which to examine consumer autonomy in the adoption of this Western vintage fashion trend since the 1990s. The importance of guje clothing lies in the local-cultural discrimination between the 'imported' and the local second-hand garments; guje clothes have been considered far more fashionable than the locally generated used garments. Consequently, in guje and vintage markets, the origin bears a great significance, such as German or American yasahng, or Japanese(-import) jeans. While the foreign origin of these garments is an emblem of being stylish, the images of foreign cities are mostly presented as ideal places associated with romanticism and nostalgia. Such fashion practice reflects South Koreans 'rose-tinted' view of foreign countries and material culture. Furthermore, nostalgic memories are imagined and constructed based on Western fashion history in replacement of South Korea's own. More importantly, Japan plays a key role as a cultural and material mediator in the introduction of Western fashion, from jeans to luxury goods, to South Korea. This ethnographic research concludes that guje fashion cannot be regarded as a fully autonomous consumer practice, but rather as symptomatic of global homogeneity, which reveals the cultural and material impact of both Americanisation and Japanisation dominant in South Korea.

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In terms of international competition, the most significant feature of the last thirty years has been the increasing success of first Japan and then other Eastern countries in penetrating the markets of the traditional centres of technological expertise in Europe and North America. The role of design in this success has tended to be neglected in academic studies. The present study concentrates on six firms and four products in the S. Korean electronics industry between 1981 and 1985, a period in which output increased by an average of 20% per year. An attitude survey of company managers and designers views on the role of design was conducted. Finally, an attempt was made to assess the quality of Korean imports to the UK though examination of Consumer Research Association reports. Seven factors are identified as contributing to the success of the S. Korean electronics industry: 1) The role of government in indigenous technological development 2) Adaptation of imported technology rather than adoption 3) Top management involvement 4) The potential of cheap labour 5) Learn lessons from foreign competitors 6) Reduced reliance on Japan and other donors 7) Own products in export For the four products, a high degree of Korean independence in design is identified. This is particularly so for styling and chassis design but less so for the design of component parts. The attitude survey found that there is a tendency for both designers and non-designers in the firms to be in agreement regarding the importance of industrial design, advanced technology and the integration of marketing and design policy with all activities. An overall picture emerges of an industry that claims to support the importance of design but draws some of its ideas from overseas. However, some misunderstanding of the role of design was detected. The thesis concludes that the diverse nature of present and possible future problems requires a synthetic approach involving three parties. namely the government, industry and education, and design education will need to be improved before this can happen

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Die UN-Konvention über die Rechte von Menschen mit Behinderungen fordert eine internationale Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema „inklusives Bildungssystem“. Die Forderung beeinflusst die konzeptuelle und schulpraktische Entwicklung für integrative bzw. inklusive Förderung von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit sonderpädagogischem Förderbedarf. Dies ist sowohl in Deutschland als auch in Korea zu einem relevanten Themenbereich der sonderpädagogischen Forschungen geworden. Die integrative und inklusive schulische Förderung von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Verhaltensstörungen ist jedoch sehr umstritten, da Kinder und Jugendliche mit Verhaltensstörungen als schwierig integrierbar angesehen werden. Insbesondere findet integrative bzw. inklusive Förderung häufig im Rahmen der reduzierten personellen, institutionellen und materiellen Ressourcen der Sonderpädagogik statt. Dies kann die qualitative Verschlechterung sonderpädagogischer Förderung besonders bei Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Verhaltensstörungen zur Folge haben. In diesem Kontext liegen die Hauptinteressen dieser Dissertation darin, Rahmenbedingungen zu schaffen, um integrative und inklusive Förderung von diesen Kindern und Jugendlichen ohne das genannte Risiko zu gewährleisten. Im Vergleich zwischen Deutschland und Korea wird es versucht, einen Weg zur Weiterentwicklung eines theoretischen und schulkonzeptuellen Rahmens für eine integrative und inklusive schulische Förderung von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Verhaltensstörungen aufzuzeigen. / The Convention on rights of people with disabilities calls for an international debate on the issue "inclusive education". This demand influences the conceptual and practical school development for inclusive support of children and young people with special educational needs. This has become a relevant research topic in the field of special education both in Germany and Korea. The inclusive school promotion of children and young people with emotional and behavioral disorders is very controversial, because it is difficult to integrate them into normal society. In particular, inclusive promotion is often necessary in areas of reduced human, institutional and material resources of special education. This can result in a degradation of the special promotion especially with children and young people having emotional and behavioral disorders. In this context the main issues discussed in this dissertation are how to create the environment, to ensure inclusive promotion of those children and young people without the risks of degradation as mentioned above. By comparing Germany and Korea a path will be given of how to develop a theoretical and conceptual framework for an inclusive educational promotion of children and young people with emotional and behavioral disorders.

The study reported in this dissertation aimed at exploring relations between parental factors - parenting and maternal executive function (EF) - and preschool children's EF in the South Korean context (the Republic of Korea; Korea hereafter). Specifically, it investigated the replication in the Korean context of existing findings in Western cultures on the link between parenting and child EF. In addition, the present study explored parental aspects that have rarely been linked to child EF: 1) the relation of parental verbal input to child EF, 2) simultaneous relations of parenting and maternal EF to child EF, and 3) mediating roles played by parenting in the maternal EF-child EF link. Ten kindergartens located in different districts (middle- to upper-middle class households) in Seoul, Korea hosted the present study, and data were collected from a total of 92 mother-child dyads who volunteered to take part. The children were aged between 3 and 5 years, with 97 per cent of them being 4 years old, and they were reported not to have experienced developmental issues. The mothers were biological parents of child participants. Both the mothers and children performed on age-appropriate EF tasks. Three types of parenting dimensions were focused on in two contexts of mother-child interactions: maternal contingency and intrusiveness in a problem-solving context and maternal verbal input during a mother-child reminiscing conversation. Maternal verbal input was operationalized to consist of four constructs: maternal elaboration, semantic connection (maternal utterances that are semantically connected with the child's utterances), maternal mental-state references, and connected mental-state references (maternal mental-state references that are semantically connected with the child's utterances). As such, a total of 14 maternal traits during the two mother-child interactions were examined for their relations to the development of child EF. Mother-child interactions were videotaped for later analysis. As a result, 184 five-minute video clips were obtained and analysed by adopting a quantitative approach. Results showed that the positive relation between maternal contingency and child EF was successfully replicated in the Korean context. In addition, maternal connected mental-state references, particularly emotion references, were found as a significant factor explaining child EF, above and beyond three covariates of child EF (child age, child verbal ability and maternal educational attainment). However, maternal intrusiveness was found not to be significantly related to child EF in the Korean context. Next, the analysis of the simultaneous relations of maternal factors to child EF showed that maternal contingency accounted for unique variance in child EF more than any other parenting variables involved in the present study. In addition to maternal contingency, maternal EF (i.e., maternal shifting as measured by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task) and maternal connected mental-state references were found to significantly account for unique variance in child EF. Finally, it was found that the maternal EF-child EF link was not explained by parenting behaviours explored in the present study. Instead, maternal contingency was found to mediate the link between child verbal ability and child EF and the link between maternal educational attainment and child EF. While the above mentioned results were the main findings of the present study, the difference in the results should be addressed between when using the whole sample (N=92 dyads) and only 4-year-olds (N=89 dyads). Child's age was found to account for less unique variance in child EF when using only 4-year-olds. In addition, the significant link between maternal EF and child EF when using the data from the whole sample became insignificant when using the data from only 4-year-olds. These findings are discussed in terms of universal or culture-specific links between maternal EF, parenting behaviours and child EF, adding to the literature by presenting the first empirical evidence on this research field in a non-Western context.

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