Social Progress and Republican Co-Prosperity: Individual, Religion, and Community

SSK aims to first find new and diverse legal, political, and sociocultural methods that enable "Republican coexistence" while conforming to the modern state's universal policy ideology of "social progress," and to verify its practical probability within the context of Korean civic culture in three sub-areas: individuals, religions, and communities. Under the premise of increasing political, economic, and socio-cultural diversity, deriving citizenship, civic culture, and a sense of community that enables republican coexistence, and designing a new method of civic participation for coexistence is to explore the development potential of Korean society as a developmental and advanced local social model suitable for the rapidly changing era of globalization. However, only when civic participation and the theoretical and practical search for institutional mechanisms for it develop on the rich foundation of Korean society can republican coexistence achieve true social progress. Therefore, this research group intends to present a specific relationship between the material foundation and the spiritual foundation suitable for Korean civil society based on an empirical and convergent research methodology.

   First, the problems of 'citizen participation and republican coexistence', 'publicity of religion', and 'civil society and religion' are intensified at the legal, political, administrative, and socio-cultural levels. In addition, the government intends to focus on the development of a Korean citizen participation model by focusing on interdisciplinary research on the social role and function of religion in the civic participation activities or public domain of religious organizations.

   Second, in practical terms, a network of overseas researchers is constructed and utilized in stages to refer to overseas cases that have already established a structural framework for social progress through republican coexistence. Foreign scholars residing abroad are invited to this research group to hold joint seminars and international conferences with overseas scholars, and to promote the English publication of joint research papers or joint books.

    Third, the results of this research group are made into a database based on digital media, and an archive that is convenient and freely accessible to professional researchers and the general public is made based on a webpage. After completing the construction of the archive, we intend to maintain practical application and public feedback on the Korean citizen participation model developed by this research group.

 As described above, the vision and step-by-step plan of this project group is to develop a citizen participation model at the level of individuals, religions, and communities in a way of republican coexistence toward social progress, and to apply and disseminate its contents to actual reality. By doing so, this research group will be able to present a new level of social development direction that considers both the institutional and spiritual foundations of Korean society.