The 6th Special Lecture (2022. 7. 26.)
- 유교문화연구소
- Hit142
- 2023-10-05
Topic: The Historical Formation of Korean Meritocracy and its Criticism
Speaker: Kwon il Park(Social critic - author of "Meritocracy in Korea")
Date: Tuesday, July 26, 2022, 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Venue: Online ZOOM meeting
CCECC hosted Dr. Kwon-il Park, a social critic and author of "Korean Meritocracy," to discuss the historical formation of Korean meritocracy and its criticisms, as well as the problems and characteristics of Korean meritocracy, which is distinct from Western meritocracy, and its origins.
In this lecture, Dr. Park identified the "pursuit of status through exams" as the main characteristic of Korean meritocracy, and the winner-take-all mentality that it reinforces as the main cause of discrimination and hateful sentiments in Korean society. He cited South Korea's low "self-expression value" as an indicator that Korean society is characterized by an extreme preference for "differential distribution based on effort and ability," regardless of class, pressure of competition, discrimination against the weak and minorities, and indifference to issues such as the common good and ecological crisis, and analyzed that this will hinder the development of democracy. He believes that this problem can be solved by transforming the social structure through various measures to dismantle privilege and divide power.
By analyzing the current state of Korean people's perception of meritocracy and the gap between it and actual indicators, Dr. Park's lecture provided an important basis for the Center to explore the possibility of a viable alternative to the pathologies of Korean political society, including meritocracy.