Humanities for Alternative Community: Sharing, Connectivity and Sustainable Utopia

From some point on, we are feeling uncomfortable about mentioning “hope” or an another way of life. ‘Vain hope’ is the most gloomy and cynical new term among satirical terms recently popular with the younger generation of Korea such as ‘Hell Choseon’ (criticizes the current socioeconomic state of Korea); ‘Huksujeo’ (born with a plastic spoon in one’s mouth)’; ‘Yitaebaek’ (half of the 20s are jobless); or ‘N posedae’ (the generation of people who gave up numerous things). These new terms, which refer to giving up efforts to make changes, expectation for better lives and encouragement towards each other, vividly describe the perception of the reality and pessimism of Korean youths.

How can we explain this endless cynicism, despair and pessimism that the young generation feel about their own lives and reality, after having joined massive candle light rallies, drawing worldwide attention, for a peaceful transfer of political power? Witnessing excessive stress, anger, violence, hatred, and extreme egoism in our society that are revealed in numerous incidents posted in newspapers, how can we preach the principle of hope through humanities so that it can be transformed into an energy in our everyday lives?

To address these issues, we set Humanities for Alternative Community: Sharing, Connectivity and Sustainable Utopia as our research theme.

• Diagnose Korean society’s problems dominated by inequality, conflicts, hatred, discrimination, insecurity, and despair in terms of gender, class, generation, ecology and technology
• Establish an academic and practical framework of Humanities for Alternative Community through examining various community movements worldwide
• Recommend viable and feasible policies by applying these research results on Korean society

Overcome the reality in which we are trapped in a vicious cycle of inequality, conflicts, hatred and discrimination and present sustainable alternative community models and realistic policies that can be implemented.
This research will be conducted in the following two categories:

• Human community : experimentation of alternative community to address socio-cultural discrimination associated with gender, class, and generation
• Community crossing barriers between human and non-human entities : establishment of alterative relations to address various issues arising from the relations between human beings and nature and between human beings and technology

• First-year research analysis and diagnosis of real-world issues: crisis in life and breakup of communities

  In the 2000s, Korean society is confronting myriad of acute social issues including misogyny, gender war, social polarization, income inequality, intergenerational conflict, and family breakup. Moreover, the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and new innovative technologies call for fundamental reorganization of existing principles of the society. The first-year research diagnoses the current status of Korean society that is experiencing crisis and breakup of communities to find out solutions.

  Theme	Main categories	Subthemes	Research content
  Crisis in life and breakup of communities	Human communities that fight against discrimination and hatred	gender	Analyze misogyny and gender war
  		class	Analyze income inequality due to polarization and the effects of social discrimination and marginalization
  		generation	Analyze conflicts between generations and breakup of families
  	Posthuman community where humans and non-humans coexist	technology	Analyze dehumanization and social conflicts in virtual spaces caused by artificial intelligence (AI)
  		Ecology	Diagnose deepening ecological crisis and the alienation of humans, nature and the world

• Second-year research Alternative discourses and practices – comparative analysis of sustainable communities

  Despite breakup of communities caused by neoliberal globalization, efforts to maintain and restore communities have been made worldwide. In the second year, research will seek sustainable long-term alternatives regarding major issues facing Korean society, and will focus on community movement that occurs in peripheral societies in East Asia, Central America and Northern Europe as well as in core societies in the world of capitalism. Instead of simply referring to cases in other countries, the significance of such overseas cases on Korean society and their humanistic values and prospect will be studied.

  Theme	Main categories	Subthemes	Research contents
  Comparative analysis of sustainable communities	Human community that fights against discrimination and hatred	gender	Seek alternative political model for gender equality, not just gender revolution
  		class	Plan sustainable sharing economy and transnational communities
  		generation	Present plans to build family communities and local communities with sympathy among generations
  	Posthuman community where human and non-human entities coexist	technology	Propose plans to construct post-human community and media neotopia
  		ecology	Explore a possibility of postmodern natural rights and contemporary appropriation of Taoism

• Third-year research Propose programs and policies - an alternative model for Korean Society

  In the third year, the sustainable community model explored in the second year is presented as a concrete policy option that can be applied to Korean society in the 21st century. Humanities have raised fundamental issues and presented criticism, but been unable to prepare specific solutions to transform the reality. The third-year research will focus on drawing communities that take roots in the real world in Korea but still are based on the imagination of the humanities and on developing concrete programs and feasible policies.

  Theme	Main categories	Subthemes	Research contents
  Present alternative models for the Korean society	Human community that fights against discrimination and hatred	gender	Propose a plan to implement basic income guarantee and a model for sharing city
  		class	Propose a plan to implement basic income guarantee and a model for sharing city
  		generation	Propose moral community model and ways of intergenerational integration through empathy education
  	Posthuman community where human and non-human entities coexist	technology	Conduct posthuman education for the co-evolution of humans and machines and develop policies to enhance digital literacy
  		ecology	Cyclical sharing economy and sustainable agricultural communities