[Engineers for Korea] Chapter 5

Loss of Privilege and Visibility:

1980-1998

2020. 04. 21
Sujin Yoon 02022019
University of Science and Technology, Korea Institute of Science & Technology

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Loss of Privilege and Visibility: 1980–1998

Rationalizing the Economy

Engineers Lose the Spotlight: 1980s

Coordinated Creativity?

Competitive Self-Development or an Organized Profession? 1990s

Discussion

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 Avoid self-sacrifice for the
nation or others

A way of life centered on Tend to devote themselves

themselves and their families to what they like

Indifferent to Strong tendency

politics and society to be complacent

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1. RATIONALIZING THE ECONOMY

Thatcherism

Chun Doo-hwan. Military regime Private sector initiatives

Reaganomics
11th & 12th term (served: 1980–
1988)

• Reducing direct government involvement in regulating commercial enterprises

• Privileging those capable of investing in commercial enterprises

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1. RATIONALIZING THE ECONOMY

cell phone communication

The Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

Private-led market competitive and open-style economic operations.

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2. ENGINEERS LOSE THE SPOTLIGHT: 1980S

Increase of technical workers

Figure 1: Democratization movement in July 1987. Figure 2: Democracy Movement at Yonsei University in the
Source: Korea Democracy Foundation and Kyunghyang Shinmun. 1980s.
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2. ENGINEERS LOSE THE SPOTLIGHT: 1980s

Serving “ordinary people.”

Still in military governance

Roh Tae-woo
13th term (served: 1988–1993)

“A civilian government”
Benchmarks from U.S., Europe, Japan
Kim Young-sam
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14th term (served: 1993–1998)
3. COORDINATED CREATIVITY?

• The new Korea highlighted diverse

contributors with variable ends.

• Attempt to facilitate and support a range

of contributors

• Creative technological development

emphasized coordinated action
Kim Young-sam
14th term (served: 1993–1998)
• The industrial conglomerates gained
even greater visibility and power

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3. COORDINATED CREATIVITY?

DAEWOO – AJOU UNIV. POSCO - POSTECH

PUSAN NATIONAL UNIV. SAMSUNG – SUNG KYUN KWAN UNIV.

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4. COMPETITIVE SELF-DEVELOPMENT OR ORGANIZED PROFESSION? 1990s

Engineering graduates dramatically increased

Number of employees : manufacturing to service industries
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 4. COMPETITIVE SELF-DEVELOPMENT OR ORGANIZED PROFESSION? 1990s

• Asian financial crisis of 1997

• Bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• Unemployment increased
• The appearance of
Kim Dae-jung
15th term (served: 1998–2003)
“Venture Businesses”

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COMPETITIVE SELF-DEVELOPMENT OR AN ORGANIZED PROFESSION? 1990s

Child birth
Child care

Figure 5.12: Proportions of women working and completing education by age group,
2004. Source:KOSTAT, State Statistics.

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COMPETITIVE SELF-DEVELOPMENT OR AN ORGANIZED PROFESSION? 1990s

The
The National Accreditation
Engineering Board for
1991 1998
College Deans Engineering
Council Education in
1993 1996 Korea

The Korean The National

Society for Academy of
Engineering Engineering of
Education Korea
I have to find
stable
employment !!

• Support of engineering faculty

• Improve the status of engineers
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Discussion

In your country, is there any examples of

synergies between companies and universities?

After analyzing the employment status graph of female engineers

after graduation, it was found that social participation decreases with
age. How can we solve this?

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