Experts’ Social Responsibility in the Process of Large-Scale Nature-Transforming National Projects: Focusing on the Case of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project in Korea

This paper is concerned with the social responsibility of experts in the fields of scienceand technology in the process of large-scale nature-transforming national projects. Thispaper took the case of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project in Korea.which has beenadmired internationally as a Korean-style Green New Deal on the one hand, and hascaused domestic controversies especially among experts on the other hand.in order to dealwith the issue of experts’ social responsibility. The research questions raised in this paperinclude why and how experts should take social responsibility and to what extent they haveto be responsible. Through exploration of the case of the Four Major Rivers Project, thispaper argues that experts have to claim social responsibility when national policies andprojects are associated with scientific and technological elements, since these events hugelyimpact the daily lives of the public and the condition of the environment and demand largeinvestments of public money. It also underscores the necessity of having socially responsibleexperts reveal their values and stances based on verifiable evidence and giving the public achance to determine which set of experts are working for the public good. Experts should beallowed to contest their arguments and positions under conditions where free speech isrespected so they can practice social responsibility. Whether this is allowed or not canreveal the level of democracy of a society. The Four Major Rivers Project identifies theimportance of experts’ social responsibility and the conditions for its realization.