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In recent years, information and communication technologies (ICT) have become an integral part of our lives. A question that circulates recurrently in politics is whether or not the new ICT itself can act as an "agent of change." During the G7 Telecommunication Ministerial Conference In 1995, vice president of the United States, Al Gore, stated that “Movable metal type was invented in Korea 200 years earlier [than the one by Gutenberg], but conditions conspired to keep that first movable typeface from spreading.” Gore’s statement draws attention to the notion that the advancement of technology, far from being a material determinant of social progress, is instead very much tied to political and cultural power. In other words, the development of technology, such as the printing press, itself does not guarantee its influence in wider social systems; this is instead contingent on its attachment to socio-political power, which, in the case of early 14th century Koyro (Korea), was lacking.

In light of this, this research examined diverse historical conditions surrounding printing that were involved in limiting the influence of the metal type printing from Koyro, Jikji, through the popular measurement of ‘modernization’. The central question of this research is: What are the dominant assumptions about the role of technology?