The Korea Local Administration Review

This article aims to examine research trends in the study of South Korea’s localfestivals and suggests diversification of the ways in which local festivals are interpretedand studied academically. More specifically, it analyzes 252 articles published in thefield of social science between 2002 and 2014, focusing on an overall research pattern,various roles of local festivals, levels of analysis, and research methods. The resultsof this analysis are summarized as follows. First, the most prevalent purpose of researchup until 2010 is to analyze local festivals per se while many works published thereafterstress policy recommendations, showing both diagnosis and prescription with regardto local festivals are presented. Second, unlike previous works on trends in the studyof local festivals that find most works emphasize their economic functions, this articlefinds that papers in social science overall stress both economic value-creation andsocial meaning-formation of local festivals in well-balanced ways. Third, it also findsthat a typical article published in social science employs a survey method to examinesatisfaction of participants in one or two local festivals. It suggests that future researchneeds to diversify levels of analysis and research methods, adopt inter-andmulti-disciplinary approaches, and learn from failed cases, which positively contributesto the development of South Korea’s local festivals.
□ Keywords: local festival, regional festival, research trend, trend analysis