Automobile Workers in Korea (review)

BOOK REVIEWS89 societies. Therefore these fifteen papers, spanning over a generation from 1960 to 1985, taken as a whole have a comparative perspective so often lacking in works less catholic in their approaches. Dr. Wang, reflecting his role as an advisor to international organizations, has been conscious of combining theoretical approaches to rural development issues with very practical policy recommendations for rural improvement. A number of the papers included here are founded on empirical Korean survey research, and thus have special relevance to scholars concerned with exploring issues in rural development and in extrapolating from the Korean situation lessons for other nations. Of the fifteen papers, the first seven focus on Korea, and will be of the most interest to readers of Korean Studies. Detailed studies of aspects of rural development in Korea are welcome, because academic attention has concentrated on industrial development and export-led growth. Within the rural sector, the Saemaül Undong [New Community Movement] is the principal concern. These seven papers concern the adoption of modern recommendations in three farm communities (1965); participation in rural action organizations (1967); a family-planning opinion survey in villages (1975); diffusion and acceptance of improved food production techniques (1971); the agricultural technology transfer system (1984); trends in rural, especially integrated, development (1984); and agricultural extension work (1960). The eight remaining papers discuss from a comparative perspective cooperative farming, agricultural cooperatives, agricultural research, extension, technology transfer, integrated rural development and the poor, with a single paper on Lesotho. As with any such volume, each paper varies materially in approach and in comparative focus. Thus the Korean generalist will not need this volume, but the rural development specialist may want to review some of the articles to fill in gaps in research. David I. Steinberg Bethesda, Maryland Automobile Workers in Korea, by Kyuhan Bae. The Institute of Social Sciences (Seoul National University). Korean Studies Series No. 9. Seoul: Seoul National University Press, 1987. Distributed by the University of Hawaii Press. 213 pp. Appendices, bibliography, indices. $15.00 Since the liberation of Korea in 1945, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has moved with a dramatic pace toward joining the world community in trade and politics. In so doing the process of industrialization (more euphemistically called modernization), has wrought on the people of Korea a series of shock waves, large and small. The shift from an agrarian economy to industrialism, the experiment with a new form of government, and adjusting to "urbanism as a way of life," have all tested the adaptability of the Korean people, in the sense that 90BOOK REVIEWS their social structural supports have been rearranged to include a broader network of participants. Big government and big business have come to dominate the lives of the citizens. The nation itself has been transformed from a "hermit kingdom" into one that has, with a certain aggressiveness, moved into the mainstream of international trade. For the most part, it appears that the Korean people have desired these changes, because they seem to portend a better life for everyone. The setting is, therefore, a fertile one for social scientists to test some of the theories of human behavior, to retest (replicate) some well-established studies from other perhaps similar settings, to generate new theories, to do comparative studies, and to explore whatever one's imagination may lead one to do. The point is that there is a basis at present to expect much in the way of substantive information on this nation that appears well on its way toward achieving something called development. Certainly, the Asian Games of 1986 and the summer Olympiad of 1988 are symbolic of the ROK's achievements and place in the modern world. Kyuhan Bae has accomplished much in furthering our understanding of the people of this nation. His data bank is rich with information and the author has made the obvious choice of presenting a particular theoretical framework: the convergence theory. Automobile Workers in Korea includes a standard theoretical introduction, a clear definition of methodological procedure, the introduction of concepts, and general background information. By design, this is a very esoteric work. However, even for the narrow circle of scholars and students of development, the discussion often is...