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In this article, I take French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy’s discussions of the city as a threshold, through which I propose a “singularly plural” model of urbanism that could reflect the complexity and multiplicity of the 21stcentury urban environments. In doing so, I pay particular attention to four concepts that are derived from Nancy’s ontological explorations: 1) community 2) spectacle, 3) everyday life, and 4) the public. Followings are the summaries as to how I articulate each concept in its relationship with urban discourses. First, what Nancy means by the term ‘community’ does not necessarily mean a mode of being together that leads to a complete harmony and stability. What arise instead are forms of life that enable the modes of being together in given urban settings in fragmentary and non-hierarchical manners. Second, Nancy critically reinterprets Guy Debord’s influential theory of the spectacle, through which he claims that the materialist urban conditions work as a crucial ground where one is able to speculate about and build the sociality and senses of community. Third, in a similar vein, Nancy explores the multiple meanings of the everyday in the capitalist urban world, in particular, being attentive to its ‘singularity’ that cannot simply be represented or appropriated by other means of expression. Such a claim of the everyday is based on his critical overview of the scholarship of everyday life, which has long been the subfield of ‘Urban Studies’; furthermore, it urges us to explore the multiplicity of urban life that operates through the entanglement of consumerist behaviors and media-driven practices. Fourth, Nancy’s ontology also encourages us to explore the meaning of the public (or publicness) in a broad sense; ordinary experiences of urban infrastructures such as the subway, airports, shopping malls might look trivial in its semantic dimension, but nevertheless bring forth modes of ‘being separate but together’ in a loose sense. Nancy’s discussions of the public also resonate to the phenomenological surveys of ‘place’ in the age of globalization which has been the prominent zeigeist since the 1990s. By taking Nancy’s ontological explorations as a crucial impetus in exploring the ontological possibilities of city space under the overriding moods of globalization and consumer culture, as well as critically reviewing the key urban discourses of the late capitalism that are represented by the theories of ‘alienation’ and ‘commodity fetishism,’ I propose a more resilient model of urbanism.

According to Arne Naess, the "shallow ecology movement" fights against pollution and resource depletion. Its central objective is, for the Norwegian philosopher. the health and affluence of people in the developed countries. Criticizing the anthropocentricism which is inherent in the traditional ecology, he advocates the "deep ecology". This new ecology calls for a shift from an anthropocentricism world view to an ecocentricism. As deep ecology grows, so do the counter attacks. The academic arena who is most critical of deep ecology is Murray Bookchin's social ecology. In this paper, I will review the main concept of deep ecology, ‘biospherical egalitarianism’, and the criticism of the social ecology community on it. In particular, I introduce the view of social ecology, which defines deep ecology as anti-humanism, and examine whether that argument should be persuasive or not. I followed Warwick Fox, defining the Bookchin's view as "the fallacy of misplaced misanthrophy" and I want to prove that it is not appropriate to criticise the view of Arne Naess, a leading scholar of deep ecology, as misanthrophy. However, while modern multinational companies are destroying the lives of the peoples of the Third World, I want to respect the Bookchin's view of social ecology which insists that the ecological crisis is caused more by sociopolitical factors than the world view as 'anthropocentricism'. At the same time, I emphasize that the ecologists should not focus more on the difference between ecologies and the criticism of one another ; instead, the ecologists should focus more on mutual similarities. By doing so, we can concentrate on caring for both human and animals & plants oppressed in the natural world.

Bok Geo-il's Searching for the Epitaph is an alternative history science fiction, one of the important achievements in Korean literatuer in the late 1980s. ealier studies on this novel have focused on elucidating the unfamiliar form. For that reason, these studies have had limitations that colonialism, the central theme of the novel was superficially treated. This paper defines this novel as transrealism literature that transcends the boundaries of reality and fantasy, and presents a critical interpretation that combines postcolonialism a feminist discourse. In this novel, the formal aspects of the fantastic imagination of alternative history, the postmodern arrangement of metafiction and intellectual discourse are to stimulate the contemplation for the coloniality that is piling up contradictions in our society and to explore the possibility of postcolonialism. the main character, Kinoshita Hideyo's struggle to satisfy love desires, social desires, artistic desires, and historical desires is closely related to the problem of masculinity. Japanese women are also the objects that inspire poetic inspiration to him. However, later on, he experiences the frustration of artistic and social desires and love by loss of masculinity. It is similar to his position as a Korean dominated by Japanese empire the position of his national existence as a colonial Korean who is under empire control. Just as empires and colonies are represented as gender relationship, his love for Japanese female Tokie is also frustrated. He He restores his shrunken ethnicity and masculity by murdering a Japanese officer who harassed his wife and daughter. His trip to a provisional government in Shanghi can be seen as a founding myth of modern Korea. Internalized colonial modernity regards the manifestation of masculinity as the best value in connection with totalitarianism and constantly treats women as other. The lost nationality is represented as a woman, and the establishment of a modern nation appears as reinforcement of masculinity. In this sense, the main character is trapped in the desires and limitations of modernity. The existence of a female subaltern can also be seen from a postcolonial standpoint. In this novel, women are the objects of the male character's desire, the source of poetic inspiration, and the metaphor of the colonized country. Their bodies and sexuality are sacrificed between colonial and national discourse.

This study examines the trends of researches of the contemporary history after post cold war period, centered on nation building, the most important task and primary concern along with post-colonialism in the liberation period considering international political situation The differences in perception and perspective on the construction of the nation right after the liberation are related to the question of whether to emphasize nation or democratic system. These differences are also closely related to the domestic and international situation such as the post-cold war due to the change of the times. After the democratization period of the 1980s, research on the post - 1945 period has focused on the process of establishing a divided nation on the Korean peninsula. This research tendency began by reconsidering the traditional studies on causes of division and responsibility theory before the 1980s. It was closely related to the efforts to find a solution to overcome the division of two Koreas. The early research of contemporary history, which began after the democratization of the 1980s, aimed to restore Korean history after liberation. And it mainly focused on big discourses such as nation, unification, class, and concentrated on the period of 1945- 1948. This was related to the current interest in properly grasping the reality of division. Since the late 1990s, 'new' positions have emerged in contemporary history. They proposed a "new" view on the establishment of the government of the Republic of Korea after liberation. In particular, they criticized the existing researches on establishment of the government and the first president Rhee syung man and tried to evaluate actively them. Their study can be called New Light. The researchers of the New Right emphasized that the Soviet policy after liberation was so aggressive that it was inevitable for Rhee to establish the sole governemt. They positively evaluate that the Republic of Korea has chosen "iberal democracy" and a market economy system and concluded a Korea-US alliance. Post-liberation research requires a lot of historical facts, which can elucidate the complex international relations of this period and the nature of the establishment of the state of domestic political forces that interacted and act in tandem. And interdisciplinary studies is required for sharing research and research perspectives in the fields of political economics and sociology.

For the past several years, there has been a huge political fluctuation regarding the nation’s response to rising U.S. immigration crisis. Since Donald Trump assumed Presidential Office on January 20th, 2017, this political turmoil has gotten even more controversial. For instance, President Trump signed an executive order (“Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States”) on January 27, 2017, which was then halted by a federal judge, James Robart. On March 6, 2017, Trump signed a new and improved executive order, blocking citizens of six Muslim-majority countries (Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan) from entering the U.S. for 90 days. President Trump’s executive orders on immigration also include other controversial plans such as building a border wall, deporting more people, and cracking down on sanctuary cities. The political turmoil on the legal status of the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program is the most recent crisis in the U.S. in early 2018. The purpose of this paper is to engage in an interfaith dialogue and cooperation between Christianity and Buddhism concerning the current political devolvement with a view to promoting a broad-based political coalition, which I call “lifeworld politics.” I argue in this paper that Christian and Buddhist communities should appropriate the forgiveness model of hospitality when they approach the current immigration crisis out of their shared belief in the solidarity with others. The specific goal of lifeworld politics is to provide an interreligious support in the spirit of hospitality to those who have long been waiting for immigration reform.

The Akoko are a sub-group of the Yoruba ethnic group in Southwest Nigeria. Despite sharp linguistic variations, the indigenous political system of Akoko towns is akin to the monarchical system in other Yoruba towns. However, between 1897 and 1960 Akokoland fell under British colonial rule, like many other Nigerian territories. The new political system brought far-reaching consequences upon the nature and operations of the pre-existing government and politics in Akoko territory. While certain British colonial policies subverted the power and authority of traditional rulers in Akokoland, some others created conflict within the traditional authorities and institutions of Akoko kingdoms. Therefore, using the chieftaincy crises in Ikare, Oka, and Akungba kingdoms as case studies, this paper shall evaluate the impact of British colonial policy on Akoko traditional political institutions and authorities, particularly with respect to change and conflict during the period 1897-1960. The Indirect rule system introduced by the British administration created far-reaching changes in Akoko traditional institutions, authorities, and society, especially as it substantially undermined the power and authority of Akoko traditional rulers, chiefs and other indigenous institutions in favour of the British colonial administrators and administration. In addition, British colonial policy created disaffection, tension and conflict within and between Akoko traditional institutions and authorities during the study period and left enduring legacies in some kingdoms. Data comprise both primary and secondary sources.

There are two types of transhumanists. Those, who affirm a utopian perspective as a realistic goal, and others who do not. The fantasy, dream or whatever you wish to call it that there will ever be a world without suffering, full of high jinks and without any fear concerning not even being able to survive on an everyday basis, is one which I regard as highly dangerous, because it has been abused too often to justify limitations, violent actions and paternalistic attitudes concerning currently living human beings. As a counter suggestion, I have sketched the outline of an anti-utopian version of transhumanism, which functions on the basis of some basic guidelines. These could help us detecting morally problematic current structures so that we can try to get rid of them. The wish to long for a utopia often arises, due to a discontentment with the presence which again is very often associated with too high expectation for one’s own life. Permanently doing pottery in Tuscany, or a life in the Land of Cockaygne are no realistic options. By focusing on the manifold achievements we have already been able to realize, it might be easier not to be tempted into following a life of silly daydreams. I think that by embracing an anti-utopian stance, we can achieve more, lead more fulfilled lives, and decrease the likelihood of being doomed.