The Politics of Officially Recognizing Religions and the Expansion of Urban ‘‘Social Work’’ in Colonial Korea

AbstractHow did the Japanese Empire, while adamantly adhering to assimilationism, manage the politics of colonial difference in the interwar years? How should we situate the seemingly exceptional conduct of Japanese colonial rule from a comparative perspective? To examine these questions, this article analyzes the mindsets of mid-level colonial bureaucrats who specialized in social work. Social work became a major field of political contestation in the post-World War I period around the globe. Policies on social work tested colonial officials regarding their assumptions about state-society relationships and Japan's assimilationist goals. Their debates on social work reveal that by the end of the 1920s colonial officials in Korea had reached a tacit consensus to use a particular analytical lens and ideological goal that I call “ruralism.” In the ruralist paradigm, these officials viewed Korean society as consisting of “rural peasants” and understood Korean social problems as primarily “rural problems.” Ruralism was a product of many overlapping factors, including pressures to integrate colonial society into the imperial system, the empire-wide popularity of agrarian nationalism, global discourses that increasingly dichotomized the “rural” and the “industrial,” and the rivalry between the colonial government and the metropole. How social work officials re-conceptualized the colonial masses and attempted to engage with social problems under the rhetoric of assimilationism showed a similar dynamic to the “developmental colonialism” that prevailed in the French and British empires after World War II.

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Houses of Moral Suasion: Between Rehabilitation and Punishment

Journal of Korean Studies ◽

10.1215/07311613-8747694 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 25-49

Author(s):

Young Sun Park

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Institutional Development ◽

Colonial Korea ◽

Vulnerable Children ◽

Disciplinary Power ◽

Korean Society ◽

Orphaned Children ◽

Regulatory Approach ◽

Moral Suasion ◽

The Relationship

Abstract This article traces the conceptual, legal, and institutional development of Korean “houses of moral suasion” by exploring the example of the first such institution, the Yŏnghŭng School, founded in 1923. The appearance of houses of moral suasion in this era showcases the institutionalization of children deemed problematic and thus undesirable. The idea of rescuing and disciplining children became interconnected and conflated as these children were conceived of as both victims and threats, a process of othering that defined them as simultaneously needy and problematic. In dealing with children, social work aimed to be both disciplinary and protective, and the discourse surrounding the institutionalization of vulnerable children demonstrated the methods through which Korean society criminalized, disciplined, and corrected marginalized children. The link between vagrant or orphaned children and delinquency can be read as a fundamental reordering of the relationship between modern disciplinary power and marginalized children. This in turn reinforced the regulatory approach to undesirable children more generally in colonial Korea.

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Dysphagia in Hospice Care: The Roles of Social Work and Speech-Language Pathologists

Perspectives on Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders (Dysphagia) ◽

10.1044/sasd23.4.173 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 173-186 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Deborah Hinson ◽

Aaron J. Goldsmith ◽

Joseph Murray

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

End Of Life ◽

Case Studies ◽

End Of Life Care ◽

Hospice Care ◽

Patient Communication ◽

Life Care ◽

Speech Language Pathologists ◽

Four Levels

This article addresses the unique roles of social work and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in end-of-life and hospice care settings. The four levels of hospice care are explained. Suggested social work and SLP interventions for end-of-life nutrition and approaches to patient communication are offered. Case studies are used to illustrate the specialized roles that social work and SLP have in end-of-life care settings.

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