How Generational, Aging, and Periodic Factors Influenced Older Adults’ Protest Participation: The Case of the Taegeukgi Rallies in South Korea

Abstract

Few studies have examined older adults' collective political activities in rapidly aging non-Western societies. To fill this gap, this study explored older Koreans' participatory motivations in the Taegeukgi rallies, an anti-impeachment movement that emerged in late 2016 and continued until early 2020. Our fourteen in-depth interviews with Taegeukgi protesters revealed that older citizens' unique generational and age-based experiences and some periodic contexts underlay their decisions to engage in the unprecedentedly massive protests. First, older adults' participation was driven by solid political grievances based on their generational experiences with the Korean War and the turbulent post-war society. It also reflected their nostalgia regime when they played a major role in rebuilding the country from ruins. Second, their participation was an attempt to cope with the damage to their social and personal values that people often face in old age. The Taegeukgi participants expressed other- and self-directed generative motivations in this collective coping. They were motivated to use their time, skills, and experience for future generations, whereas their participation was also motivated by more personal needs. Third, the success of the pro-impeachment candlelight movement triggered the Taegeukgi rallies as a form of countermovement, encouraging older people to express their feelings through visible actions.