This study aimed to investigate the research trend in relation to ‘cultural welfare’ and to
explore how the concept of cultural welfare was defined in Korean research articles by
employing content analysis. The first article that studied cultural welfare was published in
1986. From then until January 2013, a total of 47 research articles were published. There
were only eight articles from 1986 to 2000; however, since 2001 the number of research
articles has increased dramatically. The two most dominant academic disciplines of the
journals published the articles were the department of social welfare and of the public
administration or public policy. The research topics of 47 articles were divided into six
categories: cultural welfare services for social minorities, history of cultural welfare policies,
arts education for social minorities, development of cultural environment in rural areas,
definitions of cultural welfare, and cultural rights. Based on the content analysis on definitions
of cultural welfare, this study found three criteria in defining cultural welfare; first,
professional scholars showed different definitions of cultural welfare depending on either a
broad definition of social welfare or a narrow definition of social welfare. Second, scholars
presented different definitions of cultural welfare based on the preference between ‘cultural
democracy’ and ‘democratization of culture.’ Third, the definitions of cultural welfare
were differed based on the target groups: social minorities (a narrow definition of cultural
welfare) vs. all of the people (a broad definition of cultural welfare). In general, most of the
researchers employed a broad definition of cultural welfare; however, they used a narrow
definition of cultural welfare in mentioning specific methods to achieve the goal of cultural
welfare. Thus, it was found that there was the discrepancy between when scholars mentioned
goals of cultural welfare and when they showed how to achieve the goals.