"I first came to Seoul in the summer holidays of 1989. It was the year after the Seoul Olympics, 1988. That's where I'd heard about Korea. I was living here in Shinchon and decided to walk into the city centre one day. It was scorching hot. I was sweating like a pig. I just had to have shade and something cold to drink." Starbucks with iced macchiatos on every street corner was still some years off. In the late 1980s coffee had arrived, but in powder form and without a hint of strength. "I spotted some buildings that looked like they'd have shade and something cold to drink. They turned out to be the Seodaemun Prison museum. The prison was built by the Japanese during the colonial period (1910–1945) and tells the story of that era. I knew nothing about Korea's history at the time, but my interest was sparked here. It wasn't only my experience at the Seodaemun Prison museum that summer day in 1989 that gave me a real interest in South Korea, but also the fact that the country had only recently (1987) become a democracy. As a Japanese colony, the country and its people had been massively abused, and just a few years after Japan was finally defeated came the Korean War (1950–1953) with tremendous destruction. And not only would South Korea achieve a considerable improvement in living standards over the following decades — what's known as the Miracle on the Han River — but the country also went from being an authoritarian state to a democracy in the later 1980s. It was how this had been achieved that was very interesting to me." Here, 36 years later, it's essentially the same question that fuels Calle's teaching and research. Calle took to the streets during and after the martial law in those days in December 2024, when it seemed to balance on a knife's edge whether South Korea was heading toward authoritarian rule or would remain democratic. Heading right or left. But he wasn't there to support the opposition, the 1980s student activists and the younger generation of progressives. Nor was he there in sympathy with the president's conservative supporters, who believed he was fighting to save South Korea from a left-wing plot. Calle was there to observe the political event and interview the participants.

It was far from the first time Calle took on that role in Seoul's streets. As an exchange student in the early 1990s, he was an observer to one student demonstration after another, but he finds that university students today, and the universities they're educated at, increasingly focus on quick and efficient career orientation. And that young people often have a weaker sense of belonging to the university and their fellow students. Everyone is deeply buried in their mobile phones. To a large extent this is the story of South Korea having experienced dramatic economic growth, the consolidation of democracy, and great international recognition for its music, film, literature, and TV series. But Calle is a little worried that the country he's spent the majority of his adult life in has become so rich, democratic, and internationally recognized, while young people at the same time seem to have lost interest in the political — whether right or left, progressive or conservative. For Calle it's less about direction than about engagement.