“牛肉风波”是韩国2008年发生的影响较大的事件。本文认为，“牛肉风波”不单纯是韩国人保护本国农产品市场的问题，它反映的是社会深层存在的各种结构性矛盾，如“进步”与“保守”之间的矛盾，有不同世代之间的价值观差异，人们对代议民主的失望以及对街头政治的热衷，等等。此次社会运动也充分体现了互联网在民主运动中的威力。这些因素将继续影响韩国社会运动的未来走势。但短期来看，受金融危机的影响，韩国国民可能会暂时搁置争议，团结起来，共渡难关。
Social movement to protest resuming imports of U.S. beef sent new Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s approval ratings into a nosedive in mid 2008. This article believes that the Beef Issue was not only an issue for Korean to protect its domestic market of primary goods，but also reflected structural conflicts in Korean society，such as conflicts between the progressives and the conservatives，value difference between generations，losing confidence in representative democracy and rising interests on street politics and so on. It also showed the power of internet democracy movement. All these factors will affect the patterns of Korean social movement in the future. In the short term，because of the financial crisis，Koreans will temporarily lay aside these disputes and tide over the difficulties.
