Asian Studies Seminar Series: Do-Hyun Han In brief Date - 16 November 2022 Venue - 40 George Square Guest Speaker - Professor Do-Hyun Han (Academy of Korean Studies) Title - "Homo Reciprocans in the Korean and global context" Abstract Written by the speaker, Do-Hyun Han Adam Smith and Edward Banfield provide two interesting stories about homo reciprocans: how people cooperate with each other. On the one hand, Smith emphasized the propensity “to truck, barter, and exchange” as the basis of human society, while Banfield’s Moral Basis of a Backward Society (1958) criticised a lack of “exchange or reciprocity” in his case study of southern Italy. Reciprocity has become an important academic concept thanks to scholars such as Malinowski, Mauss, Polanyi. Since the late 1990s it has also become a popular topic within Korean academia: There have been debates on the nature of reciprocity as modern vs premodern. Guanxi (Chinese), Quan hệ (Vietnamese), and Yeonjul (Korean) have been criticized as nonmodern. Especially during the 1997 Financial Crisis, scholars in Korea and abroad, including Francis Fukuyama, severely criticized the Korean tradition of reciprocity as nepotism, an argument which was supported by a series of social surveys focused on the local city of Chuncheon. However, I argue this modernist approach is one-sided and there are dynamic relations between traditional and modern ways in which reciprocity can be utilised in various and innovative fashion. Since 2018, with the help of colleagues, I launched a research group which studies the past and future of reciprocity in Korea through history, sociology, economics, business, folklore, anthropology, environmental studies, and artificial intelligence. In this team, I focus on the new dynamics of reciprocity in cooperatives and enterprises. Especially in 2021, I did in-depth interviews with young talented entreprenuers in Seoul. To their business success, ‘reciprocity’ greatly contributed; reciprocity mattered not less than human capital and financial capital. About the speaker Do-Hyun Han is Professor of Sociology at the Academy of Korean Studies. He received his PhD in sociology from Seoul National University, and his research interests include community development, social history, and the comparative study of community traditions of Korea, China and Vietnam. His major publications include “A Comparative Study of Rural Social Organization in Traditional Korea and Vietnam”, Religion and the Civic Community; Voluntary Local Associations and the Civic Community; and The Saemaul Movement: A Source Book. Professor Han has led a three-year international research project on community traditions of Korea,China, and Vietnam, and has also been involved in Korea’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme of rural community development. He has also given public lectures on Community Development at the World Bank Institute, Asian Development Bank, KOICA, OECD, Korea Development Institute, Seoul National University, and Shandong University. About the seminar series Each year, Asian Studies welcomes a fantastic range of guest speakers and colleagues to present a seminar on their research, spanning fields as diverse as film and media, literature, religion, society, politics and international relations. How to join Events are free and everyone is welcome. No booking is necessary. Are you interested in studying with us? We are the only university in Scotland to offer full undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in both Chinese and Japanese, as well as postgraduate programmes in Korean Studies and East Asian Relations. Find out more about Asian Studies at Edinburgh Nov 16 2022 17.00 - 18.30 Asian Studies Seminar Series: Do-Hyun Han Join us in person for a seminar by Professor Do-Hyun Han (Academy of Korean Studies) on the new dynamics of reciprocity. LG.10, 40 George Square, The University of Edinburgh Edinburgh EH8 9JX Find the venue: 40 George Square
Asian Studies Seminar Series: Do-Hyun Han In brief Date - 16 November 2022 Venue - 40 George Square Guest Speaker - Professor Do-Hyun Han (Academy of Korean Studies) Title - "Homo Reciprocans in the Korean and global context" Abstract Written by the speaker, Do-Hyun Han Adam Smith and Edward Banfield provide two interesting stories about homo reciprocans: how people cooperate with each other. On the one hand, Smith emphasized the propensity “to truck, barter, and exchange” as the basis of human society, while Banfield’s Moral Basis of a Backward Society (1958) criticised a lack of “exchange or reciprocity” in his case study of southern Italy. Reciprocity has become an important academic concept thanks to scholars such as Malinowski, Mauss, Polanyi. Since the late 1990s it has also become a popular topic within Korean academia: There have been debates on the nature of reciprocity as modern vs premodern. Guanxi (Chinese), Quan hệ (Vietnamese), and Yeonjul (Korean) have been criticized as nonmodern. Especially during the 1997 Financial Crisis, scholars in Korea and abroad, including Francis Fukuyama, severely criticized the Korean tradition of reciprocity as nepotism, an argument which was supported by a series of social surveys focused on the local city of Chuncheon. However, I argue this modernist approach is one-sided and there are dynamic relations between traditional and modern ways in which reciprocity can be utilised in various and innovative fashion. Since 2018, with the help of colleagues, I launched a research group which studies the past and future of reciprocity in Korea through history, sociology, economics, business, folklore, anthropology, environmental studies, and artificial intelligence. In this team, I focus on the new dynamics of reciprocity in cooperatives and enterprises. Especially in 2021, I did in-depth interviews with young talented entreprenuers in Seoul. To their business success, ‘reciprocity’ greatly contributed; reciprocity mattered not less than human capital and financial capital. About the speaker Do-Hyun Han is Professor of Sociology at the Academy of Korean Studies. He received his PhD in sociology from Seoul National University, and his research interests include community development, social history, and the comparative study of community traditions of Korea, China and Vietnam. His major publications include “A Comparative Study of Rural Social Organization in Traditional Korea and Vietnam”, Religion and the Civic Community; Voluntary Local Associations and the Civic Community; and The Saemaul Movement: A Source Book. Professor Han has led a three-year international research project on community traditions of Korea,China, and Vietnam, and has also been involved in Korea’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme of rural community development. He has also given public lectures on Community Development at the World Bank Institute, Asian Development Bank, KOICA, OECD, Korea Development Institute, Seoul National University, and Shandong University. About the seminar series Each year, Asian Studies welcomes a fantastic range of guest speakers and colleagues to present a seminar on their research, spanning fields as diverse as film and media, literature, religion, society, politics and international relations. How to join Events are free and everyone is welcome. No booking is necessary. Are you interested in studying with us? We are the only university in Scotland to offer full undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in both Chinese and Japanese, as well as postgraduate programmes in Korean Studies and East Asian Relations. Find out more about Asian Studies at Edinburgh Nov 16 2022 17.00 - 18.30 Asian Studies Seminar Series: Do-Hyun Han Join us in person for a seminar by Professor Do-Hyun Han (Academy of Korean Studies) on the new dynamics of reciprocity. LG.10, 40 George Square, The University of Edinburgh Edinburgh EH8 9JX Find the venue: 40 George Square
Nov 16 2022 17.00 - 18.30 Asian Studies Seminar Series: Do-Hyun Han Join us in person for a seminar by Professor Do-Hyun Han (Academy of Korean Studies) on the new dynamics of reciprocity.
