[4] 질적 연구는 어떻게 사회과학적 가치를 확보하는가?: 신뢰성과 외적 타당성 논쟁의 결과와 함의 (How Does Qualitative Research Secure Social Scientific Value?: Debates on Its Credibility and External Validity and Their Implications)

⟪한국사회학 (Korean Journal of Sociology)⟫. Forthcoming.

한국 사회학의 방법론 논의는 질적 연구가 사례의 총체적 이해에 중요한 역할을 하기에 사회과학적 가치를 가진다는 점을 분명히 밝혔다. 하지만 그 발견의 내적 타당성을 어떻게 확인할 수 있는지에 관한 신뢰성 문제와 그 발견을 다른 사례의 타당한 설명에 어떻게 활용할 수 있는지에 관한 외적 타당성 문제는 심도 있게 논의되지 못했다. 본 논문은 이 쟁점을 분화시켜 논의한 근래 미국 질적 연구방법론 논쟁을 검토하고, 이를 통해 한국에서의 방법론 논의를 보강하고 진일보한 후속 토론을 촉진하고자 한다. 미국 사회학계에서는 질적 연구의 신뢰성이 재현이 아니라 양질의 질적 연구를 규정하는 기준의 정립과 활용을 통한 글의 설득력 향상 또는 원자료 공개를 통한 재분석 허용으로 획득될 수 있다고 논의되었다. 또한 외적 타당성은 기존 이론에서 예상된 경험적 발견의 통계적 일반화가능성을 추구하기보다는, 예상하지 못한 발견을 새롭게 이론화하여 다른 사례를 타당하게 해석할 가능성을 높이는 방식으로 확보될 수 있다고 주장되었다. 단, 절충적으로나마 질적 연구 결과의 일반화가능성을 증진하기 위한 여러 제안도 제시되었는데, 본 연구는 이들도 소개하되 이런 접근이 질적 연구의 강점인 이론화의 유연성을 제약할 수 있다는 평가를 덧붙였다. 이상의 논의에 기대어 본 논문은 질적 연구의 사회과학적 가치가 해당 연구가 사례의 총체적인 이해에 가지는 중요성만이 아니라 신뢰성과 외적 타당성에 근거해 주장되거나 평가될 수 있고, 이 경우 재현가능성과 일반화가능성보다는 질적 연구자가 선택한 독자 설득과 이론화 전략의 적절성에 주목해야 한다고 주장한다. (Methodological discussions in Korean sociology have clarified that the scientific value of qualitative research stems from its distinctive contribution in achieving a holistic understanding of studied cases. However, these discussions have not sufficiently addressed two key issues: credibility, referring to how the internal validity of findings can be confirmed, and external validity, referring to how findings can be applied to explain other cases. This paper reviews recent methodological debates in U.S. sociology, where these issues have been addressed more explicitly. By examining this literature, the article supplements and advances methodological conversations in Korea. American sociologists have argued that qualitative research can achieve credibility without replication, either by establishing explicit criteria for sound qualitative work and using them to craft convincing writing, or by making raw data publicly available to allow for independent reanalysis. The debates broadly agree that qualitative research enhances its external validity not by pursuing statistical generalization of theoretically expected findings, but by theorizing unexpected findings to generate new perspectives that support valid interpretations of other cases. While some scholars have proposed limited strategies to conduct empirical generalization, this paper argues that such approaches risk constraining the flexibility of theorizing, which is central to qualitative research. Drawing from these debates, the paper contends that the value of qualitative research should be claimed and assessed not only by its contribution to understanding specific cases but also by the credibility and external validity of its findings. This requires attention to the appropriateness of the researcher’s approaches to persuasion and theorizing, rather than a focus on replicability or generalizability.)

[3] Innocent Comrades or Blameworthy Foreigners: Transborder Ethnic Boundary Formation by South Korean Newspapers and Readers Amidst Anti-Asian Racism in the US

Sociological Inquiry . https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/soin.12595 (equal authorship, with Hyerim Jo).

Drawing on ethnic boundary-making literature, this study investigates how Korean newspapers and readers adjusted their ethnic boundaries towards Asian migrants in response to the evolving phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed the extent and nature of coverage in five major newspapers on anti-Asian racism in the US published between January 1 and May 24, 2020, along with associated reader comments. During the maintenance phase, marked by persistent concerns about the resurgence of infections, we observed the highest number of articles and the most significant disparities between the media's portrayal and reader reactions. Contrary to the newspapers, readers perceived the racist threat faced by Asian migrants differently depending on the pandemic circumstances, displaying a more flexible boundary-making. Despite the general description of Asian diasporas as “innocent comrades” in newspapers, readers viewed the Chinese and Korean diasporas as “blameworthy foreigners,” regarding them as potential threats to the nation. We discuss factors and conditions that might have influenced the formation of transborder ethnic boundaries among Korean newspapers and the public.

[2] The Mechanisms of Ethnoracialization and Asian American Support for Race-Conscious Admissions

Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. https://doi.org/10.1177/23326492231193399. SocArXiv version here. (first author, with W. Carson Byrd)

Recent studies on political attitude formations have developed the ethnoracialization framework, which emphasizes the roles of racial hierarchies and ethnic identities interconnected with national origins. However, existing research has not established analytical strategies to incorporate this framework, leaving a gap between theory and practice. We propose an alternative analytical model to examine ethnoracialized political attitudes using the case of Asian Americans’ support for race-conscious college admissions. Using data from the 2016 National Asian American Survey, our effect coding reveals how Asian Americans’ race-conscious admissions attitudes vary by ethnicity. Then, we investigate whether this variation can be attributed to theoretical predictors of such attitudes, including the mention of previously supportive Supreme Court decisions on race-conscious admissions, through regression modeling. Most ethnic groups’ mean support scores significantly vary from the grand mean of Asian Americans, and those gaps remain significant even after controlling for socioeconomic backgrounds and general predictors. As an exception, redistributionism accounted for some ethnic variations. Certain predictors such as individual experiences of the U.S. opportunity structure and the racial justice frame shaped overall race-conscious admissions attitudes but did not reduce ethnic variations. These findings highlight the need for increased attention to the analysis of ethnic communities when studying ethnoracialized political attitudes, as our current theories appear insufficient in explaining variations observed between ethnic groups. Thus, conducting research that explores the interplay between Asian Americans, racialization, and ethnic communities will provide a more comprehensive understanding of Asian Americans and potentially other ethnoracialized groups.

[1] COVID-19 and the Political Framing of China, Nationalism and Borders in the U.S. and South Korean News Media

Sociological Perspectives 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/07311214211005484. (co-author, with Angie Y. Chung, Hyerim Jo, and Fan Yang, equal authorship)

Using an inductive framing analysis of news coverage, we examine how the most popular liberal and conservative news media in the United States and South Korea mobilize different nationalist narratives on China in responding to social, economic, and political upheavals during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We identify three major areas of political cleavage in both Korean and U.S. media discourse on nationalist identities vis-à-vis the construction of the national or racialized “Other.” This includes (1) imagined solidarity against China as an adversary; (2) political disputes over boundary-making; (3) and the construction of ethnonational belonging and exclusion. Our research underscores how intrastate and interstate shifts during periods of crisis can heighten political cleavages along racial and ethnic fault lines and complicate dominant frameworks of civic and ethnic nationalism in both countries.