1990년대 후반 학생운동의 위기와 대응

The Crisis and Countermeasure of the Student Movement in the Late 1990s: The New Participants and the Changes in the Movement

이 연구는 1990년대 후반의 학생운동이 소멸과정에 있었다는 일반적 평가와 달리, 당시의 학생운동이 침체 속에서도 새로운 활로를 모색함으로써 지속적인 재생산을 꾀하고 있었음을 밝히는데 그 목적이 있다. 이 연구는 심층면접을 실시해 당시의 학생운동 지형 및 개인들의 의식과 실천을 추적하였다. 90년대 후반 학생운동의 위기상황에도 불구하고 운동을 지속하는 참여자들은 여전히 존재하고 있었다. 특히 당시의 학생운동에는 신 유형의 참여자들이 출현하기 시작했는데, 그들은 학생운동을 통해 개인의 이해 보전이나 소속 공동체의 소멸 방지와 같은 현실적인 사안들에 공동으로 대응하고자 했다. 아울러 학생운동에 대해 스스로 먼저 주체적인 탐색을 행했으며 현실적 비용을 고려하는 합리적 선택 과정을 거쳐 참여를 결정하고 있었다. 현실 감각과 유연함을 갖춘 신 유형의 참여자들을 중심으로 한 학생운동 일각에서는 침체된 운동의 위기를 극복하기 위해 다양한 변화들을 모색하기 시작했다. 그들은 운동의 폭력성을 지양하면서 보다 대상 존중적인 동원 방식을 도입했으며, 문화적 대중화 전략을 통해 학생들에게 다가서는 한편 내부적으로는 운동과 개인의 삶을 조화시키고자 했다. 또 시대적·개인적 필요에 따른 다양한 생활의제와 부문운동들을 발굴해 실천해가고 있었다. 참여자들의 그와 같은 자아비판과 위기 타개 노력들은 심각한 침체에 빠진 운동에 활력을 더하기에는 아직은 부족한 것이었다. 그러나 운동의 완전한 소멸을 방지하는 동시에 운동의 지형을 확장하고 보다 성숙하고 지속 가능한 운동으로 질적 도약할 수 있는 가능성을 제공하고 있었다.

This study aims to clarify that the student movement of the 1990s made continuous attempts to maintain and advance itself by finding a new way out from under its downturn, as opposed to the common belief that the movement was isolated and disappearing in the late 1990s. Despite the crisis and downturn of the student movement in the late 1990s, there were students who still participated in it. In particular, new types of participants appeared in the student movement in that period. Traditionally, the participants had joined the student movement through internalizing its ideology by direct and indirect persuasion of the movement camp. However, the student movement in the late 1990s was trimmed in its size and capability and its negative side was also being publicized, and thus different traits in participants were observed. That is, they already had sympathetic attitude to student movement before they join it directly. In addition, they actively explored student movement for themselves and made decisions regarding their participation based on their own rational considerations. Furthermore, it was observed that they participated in the student movement with practical purposes such as the maintenance of personal interest or the prevention of extinction of communities surrounding them personally. The student movement camp with a new type of participants in the late 1990s tried to overcome the downturn of the movement. Initiating a full-scale negotiation with the student body, they led various changes in the mobilization method, movement culture and movement proposal. The new participants of student movement were against the existing mobilization system that was one-sided and dogmatic. To persuade students to join, they tried to regain the justice that their movement had lost, and adopted a new method that was more flexible and respectful toward individual subjects. The excessively group-oriented and public-exclusive movement culture was a subject to be reformed. The new participants intended to balance movement and individual life by accepting different life styles and tastes of each. In addition, they searched for various agendas for periodic and personal necessity with a great devotion to political campaign, and promoted an independent practice for it. Although it did not derive a viable and prompt response, it seemed to lead the student movement to be revitalized gradually and improved its qualitatively despite the reduction in its size and capability.