Taking "Bottom-Up" Seriously in Governance: The Case of the Local Governance Network Supporting Settlements of North Korean Refugees in South Korea

In this article we analyze the impacts of a hierarchical administrative tradition on new governance in contemporary South Korea, focusing on ground-level practices of the local network governance in supporting settlements of North Korean refugees. By employing an interpretive approach that seeks to decenter governance in terms of diverse and contingent actions of policy actors against the background of distinct traditions, the study attempts to explain ways in which network governance unfolds in everyday life. Despite the institutional transition from "government to (new) governance," a deeply rooted hierarchical tradition is entangled with relatively new democratic tradition, causing unintended policy outcomes at the ground level in generating confusion and resistance among frontline policy actors. As a result, new governance can be an empty rallying cry unless policymakers and practitioners take the meaning of bottom-up seriously.