Knowledge, Culture, and Identity: American Influence on the Development of Library and Information Science in South Korea since 1945

Knowledge and information are regarded as essential for the development and modernization of nation-states. Many developing or Third World countries set modernization as a major goal and strive to achieve it. They can modernize if certain social problems are solved; the problems can only be solved with certain knowledge; and academics provide such knowledge. The dissemination of knowledge through the world, however, occurs within a global network that knowledge is under the control of those with power and is transferred from the “center” to other “peripheral” parts of the world. South Korea is also one of the countries that has eagerly imported necessary knowledge and information from the outside world. With American assistance especially after World War II, major emphasis of modernization has been placed on education, the higher education in particular, including the education for librarianship. The knowledge of American librarianship transferred to South Korea during this historical process has had significant influence on the development of library and information science (LIS) in South Korea. There is, however, a call for a re-examination of the discipline's knowledge system in the country. Researchers in this realm emphasize that the transferred Western knowledge, perceived as modern and advanced, seems predominantly authoritative and functions as “discursive regime” on which academics tend to rely in order to define what should be studied (content) and how (method), while resistant discourses are to be produced as well. Situated in this awareness, the study sheds light on the cultural implications of this knowledge transfer process in LIS, using South Korea as a test case. The major concern of the study is to identify the transfer process of Western knowledge as viewed through the historical development of librarianship in South Korea, and to conceptualize the cultural implications of the historical contexts by placing them within a framework of relevant contemporary cultural theories. The study—historical research anchored within a theoretical framework—embraces three phases. First, it presents an extensive review of relevant theory to explain the phenomena of transnational knowledge transfer. Second it portrays the history of the establishment of librarianship in South Korea based on primary sources and secondary research. Finally, it provides an analysis of current discursive content of LIS research in South Korea on the basis of the theoretical application of the critical discourse analysis.