Changing Patterns of South Korean Social Movements, 1960s-2010s

This chapter examines the changing patterns of South Korean social movements from the 1960s to the 2010s in terms of their constituents, their communication and mobilization structure, and the way in which they influenced institutional politics. Some long-term trends that require particular attention include: the extension of participants from cultural elites and organized activists to a huge number of ordinary citizens; the shift of the structure of the field of social movements from the inter-organizational ties of committed activists to highly decentralized networks of organizations, communities and individuals; and a change in the major way of affecting institutional politics from the moralized acts of cultural elites through strategic actions by movement organizations to large-scale protests led by networked citizens directly pressuring the actors of institutional politics.