Constructing Social Movement Actorhood: Resident Koreans' Activism in Japan Since 1945

Abstract

This study proposes to examine how the emergence of global human rights ideas has changedframing in local social movements and construction of social movement actorhood, using the case of resident Koreans' activism in Japan. Theoretically, we combine the world society approach and framing theory in social movement literature to evaluate the impact of global models on local construction of social movement actorhood. Examination of the history of resident Koreans' social movements with archival data reveals that activists in the movements used nation-state-based citizenship rights frames in the early post-war period but increasingly used universal human rights language since the 1970s. The first period was characterized by a deep chasm between North and South Korean residents in Japan, while in the second period, use of universal human rights vocabularies transformed their movement actorhood and enabled collaborative social movements by North and South Koreans as well as other international activists, leading to some key policy changes in their favor.