Networked Publics, Multi-tentacled Participation, and Cooperative Expertise in Risk Politics = American Beef and the Korean Candlelight Protest

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper examines how the Korean government’s decision regarding the import of US beef caused massive candlelight protests for several months in 2008 and beyond. I characterize unpredictable and emergent formation of public online and offline as networked publics and their diverse and unpredictable ways of participation as multi-tentacled participation. Because scientific claim on BSE is one of the central issues in their participation. I particularly pay attention to how they construct cooperative expertise to counter the government logic. Conceptually, I analyze the recent development of public participation in STS and then highlight its indeterminacy of participation and mutual process of making scientific claims between protesters and experts. Empirically, this study mainly depends on various data elicited from participation observation, interviews, and various types of literatures. First, in introduction, I explain some key concepts and arguments in this paper, situating the case study in the participatory turn of science studies. Second, this paper describes how media framed American beef as a possible cause of BSE and how it made citizen concerned and ignited a massive protest. Third, the paper examines how the massive candlelight protest were organized, how these actions challenged the authorities of the Korean government, and how the Korean government oppressed this social movement. I highlight heterogeneous and spontaneous formation of networked publics. Fourth, I describe networked publics’ diverse participations such as street demonstration, attacking conservative media, online impeachment, spreading information on BSE, joining official politics. I characterize it as multi-tentacled participation or participation by all means. Fifth, because people including ordinary citizens and experts interpreted the BSE risk differently and the scientific evidence is inconclusive, I examine how oppositional experts as movement participants cooperated to construct knowledge claims to legitimize candlelight protest. Sixth, I describe how legal experts and protesters help each other to nullify the import of American beef and to defend the government legal charge. In discussion, I raise questions on how we should understand public participation differently in STS and how the Internet age brings us new ways of doing politics and participation. Simultaneously, I highlight the importance of cooperative expertise to gain cognitive authority to gain movement’s legitimacy. In conclusion, I argue that the network society opens up a possibility to create networked publics and new ways of participation, but public meaning, political milieu, and people’s harness of technology are also central to understand the candlelight protest.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Import of American Beef and Medias Farming
• 3. The Formation and Evolution of Candlelight Protes: The Rise of Networked Publics
• 4. Multi-Tentacled Participation
• 5. Cooperative Expertise in Scientific and Policy Disputes
• 6. Legal Cooperation between Lawyers and Protesters
• 7. Discussion
• References