The Absence of the Public, the Shadow of the Official : The Origins of Korea’s National Research System

The 1990s marked a period of exploration and reorganization within Korea’s national research system. Structural changes in the policy knowledge ecosystem, including democratization, diversification of social agendas, the growth of civil society, and the revitalization of private research institutes, necessitated a redefinition of the roles and responsibilities of national research institutes. A symbolic event in this context was the establishment of the research council system in 1999. This study analyzes the discourse surrounding the reform of state-run research institutes at that time and its impact on the trajectory of the National Research Council (NRC). It explores how the principles of independence, autonomy, and neutrality required of the institute were refracted by the discourse of marketization and competition following the IMF bailout. It reveals that the socially embedded attributes of the absence of the public and the shadow of the official were powerfully at work at this point. The public/private issue, represented by privatization, has long enveloped Korean society as a force that suppresses imagination of the public, and this influence has extended to the formation and evolution of the national research system.