◈ Introduction

▶ Greetings

The Humanities Institute of CNU is a consortium of five research institutes: the Institute of Humanities, the Center for Philosophical Studies, the Center for History and Culture, the Korean Literature Research Institute, and the British American Culture Institute. Together they have led research in the humanities to build a base for interdisciplinary research, set an agenda containing insight into the times, and to conduct systematic joint research. The Humanities Institute of CNU is paying attention to the crisis of the family and community in Korean society. As we enter the era of hyper-individualization, where traditional communities are dismantled and individual desires are prioritized, analyzing and predicting possible changes on the individual and social levels is an urgent task for humanities studies to achieve a more humane future. From this awareness, in 2018, the Humanities Institute of CNU was selected for the Humanities Korea Plus (HK+) project (National Strategy/Convergence Area) governed by the National Research Foundation of Korea with the proposal of "Family-community Humanities for the Integration and Communications in the Hyper-individualization Era", which initiated a total of seven years of research. The Humanities Institute of CNU offers an integrated suite of programs that connects theory and practice while invigorating the system for convergence and multidisciplinary research in cooperation with the CNU Research Institute for Human Ecology and CNU Big Data Center. We look forward to your continued support for the Humanities Institute of CNU. Thank you.

- Director of the Humanities Institute of CNU

▶ Vision

1. Expand and Advance Interdisciplinary Convergence Research

To accumulate interdisciplinary research accomplishments in the humanities fields of literature, history, and philosophy, as well as to carry out cooperative research and academic programs with arts and culture studies, social sciences, natural sciences, family environment, welfare studies, and public health studies.

2. Establish and Promote Agendas Relevant to the Reality of Korea

To analyze the past and present of Korean society and make predictions for the future, and to set the agenda for humanities studies containing insights into the times, and to promote academic discourse.

3. Develop Specialists and Promote Research Achievements

To develop educational programs and support research activities in order to nurture the next generation of humanities talent.

4. Develop and Operate Humanities Education Programs

To development and run education programs in the humanities that can improve communication and build mutual trust to deal with crises at the individual and community levels.

▶ Logo

The lowercase letters "h" and "i" express the academic energy and rhythm created by the Humanities Institute. Green represents the new perspective that humanities research presents to society, purple represents communication and empathy, blue represents the environment, orange represents community and warmth, and earth represents locality.

◈ HK+ Family Community

▶ Agenda Overview

HK+ Research Unit on Family Community, CNU

1. Social integration in the era of hyper-individualization

Korean society has entered a phase of hyper-individualization, where the desires and values of individuals are prioritized. The HK+ Research Unit on Family Community pursues a discourse of social communication and integration by paying attention to the various forms and values of new families and communities and the changes they go through.

2. Reimagining humanistic community in the era of the fourth industrial revolution

Korean society is entering a phase of the fourth Industrial Revolution where the demands increase for a contact-free society as well as for taking care, connecting, and living together in family-community. The HK+ Family Community Research Unit explores the newly emerged various families and communities, and community sustainability.

3. New family standards to lead the multicultural era

Korean society is already internationalized through the increasing number of multicultural families and multicultural communities. The HK+ Research Unit on Family Community is thus dedicated to building a humanistic model that reflects the values of various family types in order to create a new community culture.

4. Humanistic family policies to tackle related problems

Family issues such as family dissolution, domestic violence, low fertility rate, and population aging possibly engender nationwide problems such as demographic cliffs, elderly problems, and the collapse of local communities. We seek to contribute to the critical reconsideration and revision of existing policies and to propose humanistic family policies that consider cultural, emotional, and unconscious desires.

5. National vision of hospitality embracing diverse family relationships

The trends of detraditionalization, hyper-individualization, and globalization have seen various types of family emerge in Korean society, but achieving social consensus on the family scope and composition has proven difficult. By proactively accepting discourses on non-standard families, pseudo-families, defamilialization, and so on, we intend to explore the concept of "an open family" that embraces others, and to present a vision of hospitality that transcends differences.

▶ General Research Plan

<Stage 1 (2018-2020): Build the theoretical foundation for the Family-Community Humanities>

2018: Achieve a critical understanding of family discourse encompassing past and present

ﾠ○ Diagnose and assess prospects of family phenomena: analyze family-related big data

ﾠ○ Analyze current status of family discourse: debate crisis and restructuring of the family

ﾠ○ Select and collect humanities texts related to the family in the fields of literature, history, and philosophy

ﾠ○ Establish a digital archive and platform, family database and family contents

2019: Explore family principles combining the individual and society

ﾠ○ Principles of time and space: life cycle, awareness of genealogy, livelihood activities, and places of residence

ﾠ○ Principles of subject and relationship: appellation in the family, communication across generations, self-relationship, and relationship with others

ﾠ○ Principles of ethics and system: family ethics, family system, family rituals, and family welfare

ﾠ○ Family humanities indices: intimacy, publicity, democracy, ethics, autonomy, spontaneity, and creativity

2020: Create a fluid and hybrid family frame

ﾠ○ Establish the open family model: the geographical and topological two-track model of the family

ﾠ○ Provide humanistic perspectives on family problems: self-renewal of the family in the mechanism of individual, national, and global desires

ﾠ○ Conceptualize an open family: pseudo family and family community

ﾠ○ Seek connections between the family community and the local community: establish relationships between individuals and groups in search of coexistence

<Stage 2 (2021-2024): Form a family-friendly humanities society paradigm and promote practical discourse>

2021: Conceive of and reflect on the family community in the struggle for recognition of individuals and the state

ﾠ○ Explore the desires of individuals and nation-states: safety and happiness, and the rule of law and social cohesion

ﾠ○ Offer criticism on governmental authority not interested in public value: family disintegration, domestic violence, low fertility rate, population aging, the social tendency of distrust, and risk society

ﾠ○ Discover the neighborhood as a living space for individuals: association of quasi-families and family-friendly society

2022: Understand and interpret the family community at the borders of states and the world

ﾠ○ Explore the desires of nations and the world: sovereignty and peace, and humanization and civilization

ﾠ○ Critically assess multiculturalism without multi-culture: migrants, defectors, and diaspora

ﾠ○ Study the community of hospitality in the time of East Asia's leadership: family after unification and East Asian Family

2023: Imagine family community in the communication between individuals and the world

ﾠ○ Explore the desires of the world and the individual: globalization and hyperconnection, self-discovery and self-creation

ﾠ○ Critically assess hyper-connected society without connection: atomic individualization, human alienation, no-relationship society, and hyper-connected society

ﾠ○ Create the concept of open family: quasi-family and family community

ﾠ○ Reflect on companion community in the era of the fourth industrial revolution: family-like relationship with animals, plants, objects, robots, and people as fictive kin

2024: Establish and disseminate a family-friendly humanistic society paradigm

ﾠ○ Create a paradigm for a family-friendly humanistic society

ﾠ○ Search for changes in the public domain through restructuring of the private domain

ﾠ○ Present a practical roadmap for creating a humanistic family ecosystem with cultural, emotional, and unconscious settings