The role of Confucianism in South Korea's emergency management system

Numerous Western researchers have examined the influence of Confucianism on development in Asia, but almost no South Korean researchers have studied the topic in regard to emergency management in their own country. This study begins by considering Confucianism as a social culture. Next, it goes on to evaluate its role in South Korea's emergency management system, contributing, ultimately, to efficiencies in emergency management. Drawing on a literature review and a case study, the paper assesses the double- and single-faced approaches, using four major Confucian components: destiny; family; ritual; and relation. The double-faced approach includes the positive and negative aspects of emergency management, whereas the single-faced approach incorporates only its positive aspects. This paper provides, for the first time, a systematic analysis of the relationship between Confucianism and emergency management in South Korea. Its key finding is that the double-faced approach needs to be transformed into a single-faced approach through active facilitation of behavioural change.

Collectivism, individualism, and pragmatism in China: implications for perceptions of mental health

This study aimed to better understand how minor mental health problems (MMPs) are perceived by well-educated urban dwellers in China who are influenced by Western values. Urban China is a rapidly changing society in which traditional Chinese culture and Western thought coexist. As a result, the established processes of interdependent self-appraisal have been challenged and a sense of a bicultural self has developed among a growing proportion of the population. The fieldwork for this study included interviews and observations. The results are derived mainly from interviews with professional practitioners, students, and lay people from three urban sites. One of the main findings was that respondents who referred to traditional and collectivistic Chinese values tended not to label MMPs as psychiatric disorders or illnesses but as challenges in daily life and relationships strain. While the Western medical model of MMPs considers them a form of illness, they were not viewed in this way in traditional collectivistic China in the past, even among educated urban dwellers. However, the urban and educated Chinese who have developed a stronger sense of a bicultural self are now more likely to perceive and deal with MMPs from a Western viewpoint.

The benevolent health worm: comparing Western human rights-based ethics and Confucian duty-based moral philosophy

Censorship in the area of public health has become increasingly important in many parts of the world for a number of reasons. Groups with vested interest in public health policy are motivated to censor material. As governments, corporations, and organizations champion competing visions of public health issues, the more incentive there may be to censor. This is true in a number of circumstances: curtailing access to information regarding the health and welfare of soldiers in the Kuwait and Iraq wars, poor health conditions in Aboriginal communities, downplaying epidemics to bolster economies, and so forth. This paper will look at the use of a computer worm (the benevolent health worm) to disseminate vital information in␣situations where public health is threatened by government censorship and where there is great risk for those who ‹speak out'. The discussion of the benevolent health worm is focused on the Peoples' Republic of China (China) drawing on three public health crises: HIV/AIDS, SARS and Avian Influenza. Ethical issues are examined first in a general fashion and then in a specific manner which uses the duty-based moral philosophy of Confucianism and a Western human rights-based analysis. Technical, political and legal issues will also be examined to the extent that they better inform the ethical debate.