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  • Hankuk Kwahak Gisul Yeongucheje Jinwha 한국 과학기술 연구체제의 진화 [The Evolution of Science and Technology Research Systems in South Korea] by Manyong Moon
  • Sungsoo Song (bio)
Manyong Moon, Hankuk Kwahak Gisul Yeongucheje Jinwha 한국 과학기술 연구체제의 진화 [The Evolution of Science and Technology Research Systems in South Korea]
Paju, South Korea: Deulnyeok, 2017. 470 pp. ₩35,000.

This book was published as a part of the Science and Civilization in Korea series planned by the Korean Research Institute of Science, Technology, and Civilization at Chonbuk National University. As with other volumes in the series, this work presents substantial historical discussions on its topic. The topic examined by the author is science and technology research systems in South Korea since liberation from Japanese colonial rule. The author defines “research systems” as follows: they “mainly refer to research institutes, the spaces in which research and development activities are performed, and the institutions surrounding them, and can encompass the scientists and engineers who lead research within them and even the research accomplishments and culture created by these people” (24–25).

The questions that the author raises regarding research systems in South Korea are, “What historical trajectories have research systems in South Korea undergone, what are the factors that have driven such an evolution, and what are the characteristics emerging from the process? Do unique ‘South Korean research systems’ exist? If so, then when, through what occasions, and how were they created?” (30). Based on such questions, this book mainly traces the historical flows through which research institutes in South Korea have changed. These streams consist of national research institutes, government-funded research institutes (GRIs), corporate research institutes, and university research institutes.

Chapter 2 addresses national research institutes that existed before the establishment of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). Although there have hitherto been introductions to the National Horticultural Technological Institute (NHTI) and analyses of the Atomic Energy Research Institute (AERI), discussion of other research institutions has been insufficient. By examining the cases of not only the NHTI and the AERI but also the Central Industrial Research Institute and the Ministry of National Defense (MND) Scientific Research Institute, the author shows well the [End Page 339] roles and limitations of national research institutes up to the first half of the 1960s. Research institutes at that time were significant for their social confirmation of the very existence of scientific and technological research by gathering and prompting researchers to engage in activities, rather than for their research achievements. However, because national research institutes operated within the regulations under the Government Organization Act and the State Public Officials Act, they were limited insofar as they were not easily able to recruit outstanding researchers or to engage in creative research activities. In this context, the scientific and engineering community in South Korea continued to dream of “proper research institutes,” which culminated in the establishment of the KIST in 1966.

What is insufficient about chapter 2 is the fact that, although case analysis of the relevant research institutes is faithfully conducted, the topography of overall research systems during the period does not emerge with clarity. For example, the author mentions that the nation had eleven scientific and technological research institutes belonging to government agencies in 1959 and seventy-nine scientific and technological research institutes in 1965, but scarcely addresses or provides information on them. As with other chapters, this one should provide detailed analysis on overall research systems by making use of various statistical data. If such cases as the Central Industrial Research Institute, the National Horticultural Technological Institute, the Ministry of National Defense Scientific Research Institute, and the Atomic Energy Research Institute had been arranged within this bigger picture, chapter 2 would have been even more substantial. In addition, while the author mentions that the AERI was an “institution evaluated as South Korea’s first contemporary scientific and technological research institute” (43), there is insufficient discussion of the sense in which such an assessment is possible.

The main actor of chapter 3 is KIST, the first government-funded research institute in South Korea. Because at the time universities focused on education while private corporations focused on production, the conditions in South Korea for performing serious research and development (R&D) had...

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