Public feeling for science: The hwang affair and hwang supporters

This ethnography investigates how the Hwang affair occurred, how Dr. Woo Suk Hwang attracted supporters, and how groups supporting Hwang evolved. Instead of interpreting Hwang supporters as abnormal people with psychological problems, this study situates them in concrete, messy, and ambiguous contexts in which they struggle to understand the Hwang affair. Distrustful of scientific authorities and official institutions, they have linked Korean nationalism with the hopes and dreams of stem cell research, created conspiracy theories to explain Hwang's fall, and criticized Korean elites. In particular, this paper emphasizes how Hwang supporters are motivated by admiration of a Korean scientist with humble beginnings (Dr. Hwang), the hope of curing disease through stem cell research, and the desire to build an advanced nation through science. In describing this process, I pay attention to how public feeling for science is produced and how it has evolved in the interactions among government, media, and the Hwang supporters' organizations. In addition, I argue that institutional incompetence deepens public distrust and as a result fuels the formation and activities of Hwang supporters.