Dissertation Defense for Sooa Lee

“The Emergence and Development of Cross-National Knowledge Sharing and

Production: Case Studies of International Collaborative Projects in South Korea”

April 9, 2021, 8:00 am at  https://bluejeans.com/351802713.

Abstract

Highlighting South Korea’s transition from a recipient to a donor country of ODA in 2010, this study examines the two cases of cross-national university knowledge sharing and production in Korea: One with the US and the other with Tanzania. While the study entails qualitative approaches such as ethnography, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews, the theoretical framework is drawn from Bourdieu’s concepts of symbolic powers and habitus. The findings suggest that economic, social, and cultural capital both promotes and hampers cross-national knowledge sharing and production among developed, developing, and bridging countries. In addition, this study argues that actors from a bridge country (Korea) contribute to the cross-national knowledge sharing and production by balancing structural discrepancies through different forms of agency. As for the contribution, in-depth analysis of findings with Bourdieu’s framework of structure and agency offers unique insights to literatures regarding cross-national university collaborations and development, and relevant S&T policies.

Committee Member Names and Titles:

Willie Pearson, Jr. (Chair)

Professor, School of History and Sociology, Georgia Institute of Technology

Binayak Bhandari

Department Chair, Assistant Professor, Woosong University, Korea

Connie McNeely

Co-Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy, Professor, Public Policy, George Mason University

Mary McDonald

Homer C. Rice Chair in Sports and Society, Professor, School of History and Sociology, Georgia Institute of Technology

Jennifer Singh

Associate Professor, School of History and Sociology, Georgia Institute of Technology