Dream-Capital of Creative Youth: A Comparative Study on Korea and China

• In Event: Creative Youth and their Dreams in East Asia

Abstract

In this presentation, we want to analyze the dream-capital of creative youth. So far, analyzing agency in sociology, only economic capital, social capital and cultural capital had been emphasized, not paying proper attention to roles of mind and the primary accumulation of capitals. We argue that among the concept of ‘dream-capital’ should be articulated, which foresees future, enables to project a person’s own ideal capability and to replace his/her present pleasure for future orientation. ‘Dream capital’ is total capability to dream and the essential component of ‘heart’(Kim, Hongjung, 2015). In order to measure the dream-capital of creative youth, we constructed an innovating survey and conducted researches both in China and S. Korea. Dream-capital is composed of four dimensions. For the actual measurement of dream-capital, we composed the battery of dream-capital with various components such as capability to dream, path of dream, contents of dream, ways of dream, multi-scales of dream, dream and despair. For instance, in order to measure the capability to dream, questions regarding competence of imagination, hope, optimism and resilience had been included. Moreover, we also measure composition, pathway and contents of dream, secondly, ways of dream whether authentic or realist; whether confident or unconfident; thirdly multiple scales of dream such as private dream, public dream and national dream etc. Through the comparison of the survey analysis, we will be able to find the similarities and differences of Creative youth in China and Korea.

Authors

• Hong Jung Kim, Seoul National University Asia Center

• Seok Ho Kim, Seoul National University