Globalization and Korean Nomadism

Abstract

This paper reviews the negative and positive aspects of “nomadism,” considering the changes of modern Korean society from being sedentary to nomadic through urbanization and globalization. “Nomadism” is a word for the spiritual and social trends of a society which witnesses increasingly enhanced social movements and wherein traditional communities are replaced by new, more flexible ones. Although this tendency in Korea can be traced back to the colonial period, this paper covers it since the 1980s when the 1988 Olympic was held in Seoul and the Travel Liberation Law was enacted. Since then, transborder consciousness in people and cultural hybridity began being valued more positively than long lasting requests for cultural-national identity. However, there were critical reactions to nomadism as well. Some critics, who negatively evaluate nomadism, identify it with new liberalism which is often regarded as a kind of market-imperialism by Korean intellectuals. This criticism of nomadism can be understood in the light of how Korea experienced new liberalism with the IMF’s economic control. However, this paper highlights some misleading points in the identification of nomadism simply using an ideology advocating the attack of global capital and transnational conglomerates. It also highlights the duality of nomadism as a spiritual and social tendency and movement against transnational capital and political expansion of global powers without delving into exclusive nationalism and conservative regionalism. The Korean society must consciously transgress these by moving toward the global community.