The Tussle between Kwak Ro-Hyun and Park, Myoung-Ki, two candidates in the election for superintendent of the year 2010 in Seoul, is analyzed by how two different logics of appropriateness control the interactive disintegration of social construction. The analysis is based on data that exist with paradoxes, such as news from mainstream media; broadcasting editorials and articles about and interviews with Kwak and Park by main press outlets; a letter Park wrote while in prison; and numerous précis shown on the Internet with various sensemaking phenomena that constantly form, change, and break down. The results of this analysis indicate that it would be worthwhile to further pursue the role of micro-macro linkages in institutional dynamics by examining how organizational dynamics interact in institutional processes. On a larger scale, the sensemaking systems are homogeneous, while on a smaller scale, they are heterogeneous. The arguments between Kwak and Park are extreme examples of this. In terms of their presentations of internal desires, formed from their past socialization processes, the two candidates appear identical.
I. Introduction
II. Data Collection, Methodology and Theoretical Review
III. The Background of the 2010 Superintendent Election
IV. Different Legitimacies of Two Leaders
V. Ongoing Legitimization from Idealism to Eclecticism: Sensemaking
VI. Dialectic Conclusion: Sensegivers Exist, but Where are Sensemakers?
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