We launched a new project titled "Archiving Oral History on the Democratization Movement: The Urban Poor Movement in 1980s South Korea" initiated by the Korea Democracy Foundation. The project will run from May to November 2025. The project focuses on gathering life histories and first-hand testimonies from individuals who played a key role in organizing and leading grassroots movements among the urban poor during the 1980s. In particular, it will document the formation, development, and eventual fragmentation of mass-based coalitions formed by the urban poor themselves—capturing the lived experience of a historically marginalized population.

Through this project, IIUD aims to shed light on the grassroots activism led by urban poor communities during Korea’s democratization era, ensuring their voices are properly recorded and recognized as part of the nation’s modern history.

Project Overview

• Title: Archiving Oral History on the Democratization Movement: The Urban Poor Movement in 1980s

• Commissioned by: Korea Democracy Foundation

• Duration: May–November 2025

• Key Components:

  • Oral history interviews on the urban poor movement in the 1980s

  • Documentation of mass-based coalition building, activism, and internal developments led by the urban poor

  • Testimonies from six individuals, totaling over 25 hours of recorded material (including video, audio, and photographs)

    
    

Background and significance

Since 2002, the Korea Democracy Foundation has been building a comprehensive archive of Korea’s democratization through oral history, with a focused effort on the 1980s beginning in 2018. While earlier phases of the project have largely covered key political actors and well-documented movements, the voices of the urban poor—who often lacked the means to record or preserve their own stories—remain underrepresented in both historical literature and public memory.

This project seeks to address that gap by documenting the stories of those who not only experienced poverty but also organized and resisted from within their communities. By preserving these accounts, we hope to contribute to a more inclusive and accurate narrative of Korea’s path to democracy and lay the groundwork for further scholarly research and public engagement.