Nowadays, as the importance of knowledge is emphasized and the technology for production, propagation, and sharing of knowledge has developed, discussions on the possibilities, limitations, and future prospects of the knowledge society are becoming more active as well. The potential of knowledge and information for social change, identified through discussions of the information economy of the 1950s, the post-industrial society of the 1960s, the information society of the 1980s and ’90s, and the knowledge society of the 2000s, has helped the knowledge society to become a key agenda of social science discourse. This article examines the formation and development of knowledge society dialogue, several related issues, and their implications for Korean society. As the research shows, today's society is a knowledge society in that, first, a broad range of people are involved in creating, sharing, and spreading knowledge; second, knowledge acquisition is an important part of everyone’s life cycle; and finally, knowledge becomes the basis for all decisions and actions. However, the knowledge society we face today is not simply one where accessibility is heightened by the increase and spread of knowledge. It is a paradoxical society in which fear, ignorance, risk, and uncertainty increase as knowledge increases. The reality of the knowledge society we face clearly portrays the paradox that human lives are more at risk as we push the frontiers of science and technology as well as the fact that ignorance increases as scientific paradigms spread throughout society.

Moral emotion is a set of complicated global emotion with ‘emergent property’ as being constituted of various local emotions such as ‘debt consciousness, gratitude, guilty feeling, etc. As the typical representative feeling of sociality, it has been functioning to produce the base of empathy(or sympathy) by reflecting others as well. Moral emotion has contributed to providing the motivational energy for social change, for construction for trust and solidarity. Currently, a group of scholars and social movement activists have suggested the alternative economic model based on the reciprocal exchange being contrast with the market economy in which the pursing ’maximized profit’ has resulted in the inequality, polarization, social exclusion, etc. I have argued that the moral emotion as the capacity of reflecting others have operated in enhancing and reinforcing the reciprocal principle.

Owing to the rapid growth of ICT, digital economy, the outcome of the reconstruction of economic transactions led by ICT has been consolidated. After a brief review of the background and the development of digital economy, this study seeks to identify main characteristics of digital economy in order to capture out its overall nature. Eight characteristics of digital economy are identified; de-materialization, dis-intermediation, over-saturation, heterology, customization, globality. fantasy-orientation, and the tendency of increasing returns. While first four characteristics lead to demand-based economy, the other four characteristics are going to enhance the flexibility of economic system. Due to these dual effects, digital economy tends to shift from profit-acquisition economy to need-gratification economy. Given the condition, a new alternative economic principle that goes beyond the Say’s Rule stressing supply side and effective demand theory supported by Keynesian economists is expected to be requested.

The multi-religious phenomenon of Korean society, which is regarded as a religious department store, is characterized by diversity and dynamism. This feature is closely related to the emergence of new religious movements. This is why understanding of new religious movements is essential to explain the changing process of Korean religion today. As a result of this effort, this paper examined the meaning and limitations of Buddhist new religious order through the case of Wonyung Order of Korean Buddhism. First, after examining the general characteristics of new religious movements and new Buddhist Order in Korea, the characteristics of Wonyung Order of Korean Buddhism are derived in comparison with the foundation background, purpose and task, the mission of Buddhism in the ‘Founding Declaration’，and proposed the development plan of Wonyung Order of Korean Buddhism. In the following, we discussed the meaning of the present situation facing Wonyung Order of Korean Buddhism in new Buddhist Order since the 1970s. The main results of this discussion are as follows. First, since the 1970’s, the emergence of new Buddhist Order often appeared in conflicts within Korean Buddhism. Second, although the doctrinal system and rituals are complete, Wonyung Order of Korean Buddhism, which does not have its own monk education system, stands at the crossroads of success and decline of the organization. Third, the future course and results of Wonyung Order of Korean Buddhism will become a touchstone for new Buddhist Order that has appeared since the 1970s.

This study examines the “Jungto-Society,” which has been carrying out a social participation movement based on the teachings of Buddhism in Korea. Since the mid-1990s, the Buddhist community, which used to be passive in terms of social participation, has endeavored to socially engage as well as to reform the monastic order, but the results were not yet significant. Nevertheless, the Jungto-Society, a community based on lay Buddhists, rather than the monastic order, overcomes the limitations of the traditional communities and continues to systematically conduct the social participation activities of sharing. The Jungto-Society is based on the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism, ‘Sanggubori Hahwa Jungsaeng(上求菩提 下化衆生)’ and encourages the lay Buddhists to be socially participated by digging into the values of public life. The systematic and organized social participation activities that are founded on Buddhist teachings, which cover not only other religious people but also the public, can be considered to play an important role in creating an atmosphere of communication in the Korean society. The Jungto-Society leads social participation movements by dividing them into environmental, human rights, and peace movements, which consider global welfare problems. It tells lay Buddhists that Buddhist teachings are closely connected with our lives, leading them to social participation. With their mission of ensuring “right and accessible Buddhism for all," they prove that daily social activities and religious practices are compatible. The members of the Jungto-Society aim to become practitioners who make their lives happy, rather than disciples who follow a particular leader in the existing monastic order, and this aim helps them to overcome the limitations of the social activities of traditional religious groups. The spreading social participation activities of the Jungto-Society among lay Buddhists is significant since it spreads out the activities of sharing consistently and systematically through the religious values in present-day Korean society, where social movements have little influence.

The purpose of this article is to recover the religious variable which is ignored by the previous researches dealing with the anti-Chunsungsan tunnel Movement and to show that this movement was constituted by the mutually disparate axes, the civil-environmental movement and the civil movement of religion, thus the movement could be called as two movements. For this, I firstly argued that these two movements should be approached separately in theoretical term when we graft the social movement theory with the insight of sociology of religion. In application of this conception, I analyzed the quantitative data of collective action list and media exposure, and the qualitative narratives of the participants. In result, I found the causally connected two different mobilization curves and figured out that, at the early stage of movement, whole movement’s central dynamic force was provided by the Buddhist group and they were driven and by their peculiar environmental narrative. Finally, I tried to evaluate the implication of this case in the context of discourse on the role of religion in the public sphere in secularized modern society.

Constitutions of South Korea and japan do not forbid religious political parties to be active. In South Korea, no political party with religious affiliation have entered the National Assembly. In japan, on the other hand, Komeito as a religious political party entered the parliament successfully and now forms a coalition government with the Liberal Democratic Party, the ruling party. This research aims to identify the factors responsible for religious political parties in South Korea and japan to take such different paths. The focus is on the inner and outer environments surrounding religious political parties. Inner environment refers to the congregation, religious doctrine of specific religions, and policies and actions of religious political parties. Outer environment includes political landscapes, religious terrains in a nation, and international order. Variations on seven factors, four inner environmental and three outer environmental, are utilized in making comparison between religious political parties in South Korea and japan. Cheondoist Chungwoo Party and Komeito are analyzed. When it comes to the congregation, Choendogyo has 200,000 in South Korea and 1,800,000 in North Korea. Soka Gakkai International has 5,000,000. In terms of religious terrains, Cheondogyo was the third largest congregation in South Korea next to Christianity and Buddhism while the largest in North Korea. Soka Gakkai International, though categorized as a new religion out of Buddhism, was and still has more followers than Christianity in Japan. Both Cheondogyo and Soka Gakkai International stress the importance of social and political participation in their doctrines. Religious political parties were organized and participated in politics as way of practicing what is preached. The policies by Cheondoist Chungwoo Party were close to that of center-left, “Chosun Democracy”. Soka Gakkai International’s policies, though claimed to be centrist, were of rightest orientation. Cheondoist Chungwoo Party, both in South and North Korea, acted in accordance with other groups. On the other hand, Komeito acted alone in the beginning. Komeito first entered politics in Japanese 1955 System born out of the Cold War. Around the time when the Cold War ended, Komeito became one of the ruling parties. Political landscapes around the time Cheondoist Chungwoo Party was active favored the right in South Korea and the left in North Korea. Such political landscape is the outcome of the Cold War at the time. Different paths of Cheondoist Chungwoo Party and Komeito can be explained by the policies of religious political parties implemented in response to the national political landscapes structurated by international order. The fact that Komeito turned to the right upon connecting to conservative party after the Cold War makes the point clearer. Religious terrains, congregation and specific actions can serve as a foundation for religious political parties to enter the realm of politics. However, they do not contribute to the success of religious political parties in joining the Parliament.

As the number of foreign residents with different types of visa has been increasing rapidly in the Korean society in 2000s, the issue of community settlement and social integration has become important. According to the statistics of Ministry of the Interior and safety, around 400,000 foreign residents had resided in Seoul as of the end of 2016. Once they arrive in Korea, they start their living around the area where they live, not an abstract community called ‘nation’. For this reason, Seoul Metropolitan Government has enacted the ordinance for foreign residents and multi-cultural families, which is a legal-institutional device for the stable settlement of foreign residents and improvement of their living conditions. This ordinance has a direct impact on the lives of foreign residents. Therefore, it is meaningful to look at this by-laws. Unlike the previous studies dealing with the ordinance on support of foreign residents and multi-cultural families, this study applied the concept of residents’ rights to foreign residents. Especially, focused on the ‘economic sector’ that can be easily neglected in the policies and systems for foreign residents. In detail, this study analyzed whether the ordinance was enacted to guarantee economic participation and rights for foreign residents in Seoul. The analysis framework that is set up based on the sub-areas and major indicators was used for the study. In conclusion, this study tried to suggest concrete and realistic improvement plan according to the analysis result. Moreover emphasized the responsible role of Seoul City for foreign residents. Thereby, laid the foundation stone of the ordinance for foreign residents and multi-cultural families in accordance with the expression ‘Global City, Seoul’.