2018–2020
Ⅰ. How will artificial intelligence evolve, and how will it change our lives?
Research themes, 2018–2019
The changes the age of artificial intelligence will bringDefines the core ideas of artificial intelligence in plain terms — its concepts, principles, technical foundations and uses — and surveys where the field is heading, so that global change can be anticipated. Takes Korea’s particular circumstances into account and proposes ways in which artificial intelligence could make individual lives happier and society richer.
The brain and cognition in the age of artificial intelligenceAnticipates which domains of human brain cognition are likely to be taken over by artificial intelligence and which will remain distinctly human for some time, and proposes what cognitive science suggests we should do to prepare for that age and live well in it.
Biotechnology in the age of artificial intelligenceAnalyses the biotechnologies driving innovative change, chiefly in bio-health; looks for new demand in that field and for ways to use the simulated results that come of combining it with AI; and proposes lines of development that could work synergistically for Korean society.
The economy and society in the age of artificial intelligenceSets out the issues now emerging, or likely to emerge, in the structural change that advancing artificial intelligence will bring to the economy and society, and proposes policy alternatives for the competitiveness of the economy and the progress of society.
Research themes, 2019–2020
The philosophical challenge of COVID-19: is your freedom safe?The crisis is a philosophical challenge that redefines the relation between safety and freedom, and our attitude to it settles that relation. Do we yield freedom for safety, or accept a threat to safety for freedom? How we answer decides what our society will look like. The study asks how we should respond.
Structural change in the market economy and the crisis of democracyCOVID-19 is likely to worsen income inequality. Stimulus alone cannot resolve it, and lower-income households are likely to suffer further economic shocks through the recovery, so the fissures between democracy and capitalism may deepen. The study asks what alternatives Korea has as the balance between democracy and the market, and between freedom and state intervention, becomes a serious question.
Pandemic, infodemic and the post-truthCOVID-19 has bred an infodemic — a mass infection of false information. When the false claim spread that toilet paper would run out because it shares materials with mask filters, supermarkets around the world turned into scenes of panic buying. The study examines this mass infection of information and belief in Korean society, and the problem of the post-truth.
Crises in historyThe COVID-19 crisis is one variant in a long history of successive catastrophes. The study looks at what each society suffered when such events struck, how it responded and what changed afterwards, and asks what reflection the present crisis offers us.
Polarisation accelerated by the pandemicBeyond health and quarantine, COVID-19 is accelerating the polarisation and inequality that have grown severe since the turn of the century: infection concentrated among vulnerable groups; inequality in schooling and housing for lower-income households as classes move online and private tutoring grows; adjustment and dismissal of non-regular workers in a slack market. The study asks what these inequalities will mean for Korean society.
Other work
- A national essay contest for undergraduate and graduate students
- Continued growth and development for Pohang’s next seventy years
- Development as a sustainable hub city of the East Sea rim
- Strengthening Pohang’s competitiveness
- Development into a university city for the 21st century
- Research commissioned by the Future Consensus Institute (Yeosijae)
- Running the first Urban Regeneration School in Songnim village, Pohang
- An advanced course on founding social-economy enterprises, Urban Regeneration School, Songdo-dong, Pohang
- A survey of expert opinion for planning a programme to nurture advanced research talent for innovative growth
2017–2018
Ⅰ. What are the fractures in Korean society, and how can they be healed?
Research themes
Class conflict: polarisation in Korean societyAnalyses Korean conditions from several angles in order to reduce inequality and polarisation, and looks for policy responses.
Labour conflict: conflict in Korean working life — welfare policy for insiders and outsidersAnalyses the conflict between regular workers (insiders) and non-regular workers, the self-employed and the economically inactive (outsiders), and assesses and strengthens the Korean welfare system with a focus on including outsiders.
Generational conflict: generational conflict and the struggle for recognitionRather than treating conflict itself as the problem, considers how conflict may be institutionalised, and looks for responses through close analysis of conflict between generations.
Gender conflict: gender and gender conflict in Korean societyStudies gender conflict among the younger generation from the standpoint of digital democracy and the agency of digital subjects.
Ideological conflict: between citizens, elites and politicsAnalyses the causes and character of ideological conflict in Korean society and looks for workable resolutions.
Conflict of values: humanistic and economic value — on materialism in KoreaAsks how Korean society can move beyond economistic thinking, examining its causes, its structure and possible remedies.
Other work
- A national essay contest for undergraduate and graduate students
- Local government that creates jobs: city, industry and university at the centre
- POSTECH’s cooperation programme between Pohang and business
- The University of Ulsan’s efforts toward university–local government development
- Contributing to the Ulsan community and its industrial competitiveness
- Sustainable urban development through revitalising regional universities
- The role the community wants its university to play
2016–2017
Research themes
The micro-foundations of civic democracy — citizenship, the common citizen, and welfareHow is the micro-level citizenship of democracy to be cultivated if Korea is to develop into a first-rank society?
A change of mind for Koreans: two tasksA study of the sense of inferiority Koreans must overcome if Korea is to become a first-rank society.
Reflective consciousness: reason and being — toward a better future societyWhat is the purpose of the industrial development that governs Korean society, and what should it aim at? Through fundamental reflection on these questions, looks for institutional ways to practise cultural reflection and development.
Changing values among Koreans, seen through data: quantitative variations on Kim Uchang, Song Bok and Song Ho-keunWhat characterises Korean values today? An analysis of their character and relative position using empirical data.
Other work
- A national essay contest for undergraduate and graduate students; essays by foreign residents in Korea
- A national essay contest; essays by experts from many fields
- Proposing how universities should change to meet the future society
- Essays on the future society, and what should be done about it, by mid-career scholars who studied abroad on POSCO scholarships (PWAC)
2015–2016
Research themes
Expertise and innovation among Korean administrative officialsHow is the expertise of Korean administrative officials to be raised? How is their education and training to be reformed?
Reforming the recruitment and employment of officials as society changesHow are the recruitment and employment of Korean administrative officials to be improved?
Unification and the role of Korean administrative officialsWhat should Korean administrative officials prepare for unification?
Method
- Essays by experts in various fields
- A national essay contest for undergraduate and graduate students
- Surveys of the general public and of POSTECH students
2014–2015
Research themes
How national elites (leaders) are madeA comparative study of how leaders are trained and produced — the selection process — in advanced countries such as the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan: what characterises each country’s leaders, and how good leaders might be raised.
Leadership for the future societyWhat should the first-rank future society we aim at look like, and what leaders and leadership will draw it forward?
Leadership for coexistence and shared prosperity in 21st-century Northeast AsiaA study of the roles of each country’s leaders in the Northeast Asia of this century, and of the dynamics among the leaderships of Korea, China and Japan.