The Indigenization of Methodology

Abstract

Questions have arisen concerning the utility of Western methodologies (including techniques, concepts, and theories) to Korean social scientists in their efforts to understand Korean personalities, groups, and culture. The universlism of Western science-i.e., the search for general laws of behavior which are verifiable in any and all contexts-is among the debatable issues which have made Korean social scientists wary and have prompted some to urge an indigenization, or particularizationm, of research. What is precisely meant by indigenization has not as yet been agreed upon, and so it is perhaps wise, with Kim Jae-un (1979), to regard it as a general outlook or commitment, i.e., as maeaning an attitude toward the national identity in the awareness of problems, pursuit of ideas for their solution, adoption of a right methodology, and interpretation of research results in social sciences.