• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.42 no.5
• /
• pp.691-709
• /
• 2007

This paper investigates the social and political construction of geographical scale in conjunction with Korean housing politics. Recently, attention has been drawn to the issue of the social and political construction of geographical scale. Spatial scales have increasingly been regarded as socially constructed and politically contested rather than ontologically pregiven or fixed. The scale literature has paid attention to how different spatial scales can be used or articulated in social movements, with an emphasis on 'up-scaling' and 'scales of activism' rather than 'down-scaling' and 'scales of regulation.' Furthermore, the scale literature has focused on the aspect of empowerment. However, it is worthwhile to examine how scale-especially 'down-scaling' and 'scales of regulation'-can be used not only for marginalizing or excluding unprivileged social groups, but also for controlling the (re)production of space, including housing space. Under a regulatory regime, the Korean central government gained more control over the (re)production of housing space at geographical multi-scales by means of 'jumping scales,' specifically 'down-scaling.' The Korean central government has increasingly obtained the capacity to 'jump scales' by using not only multiscalar strategies for housing developments, but also taking advantage of various scales of institutional networking among the central and local governments, quasi-governmental institutions, and Chaebols, across the state. Traditionally, scale has been regarded as an analytical spatial unit or category. However, scale can be seen as means of inclusion(and exclusion) and legitimation. Choosing institutions to include or exclude cannot be separated from the choices and range of spatial scale, and is closely connected to 'scale spatiality of politics.' Facilitating different forms of 'scales of regulation,' the Korean central government included Chaebols and upper- and middle-income groups for the legitimization of housing projects, but excluded local-scale grassroots organizations and unprivileged social groups as decision-makers.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.599-619
• /
• 2008

Korean peninsula has a long history and a geopolitical location as a buffer tone, which has provided the conditions for cultural dynamism and diversity across space and time. The changing processes of place names in Korea is considered to be better suited to the study on cultural politics that is interested in the culture wars over the meaning of culture among different social subjects. In order to ensure the legitimacy of cultural politics for the study of place names in Korea, this study attempts to make a theoretical construction based on the concepts of place identity, territorial contestation, and the politics of scale. Cultural and linguistic theories to be best applied to the study of place names in Korea are the theories on Angehm's and Castells' identity, $P{\hat{e}}cheux's$ identification, Hall's decoding, and Voloshinov's ideological sign. Power relations involved in the inclusion and exclusion are necessarily concerned with the process of constructing a place identity or territorial identity by means of a place name, which represents identity and ideology of a social subject. In the examination of this process, it is necessary to take the elements of identity, ideology and power relations into consideration. In this study, therefore, the politics of scale is experimented for its applicability in the study of place name in Korea, which is expected to accommodate concepts of boundary, territory, territoriality and territorialization. In the end, it is suggested in this study that a series of basic and interdisciplinary studies on the cultural politics of place names in a range of area should be undertaken along with the enough theoretical knowledge of cultural politics.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.110-122
• /
• 2010

This article is to study the characteristics of Chungju geographical names using the concepts which are the place identity, the politics of scale, and the competition of place names' territory for the diverse study methods of geographical names. According to this results, the new name of 'Suanbo-Myun' revealed the place identity, because it has not only the property of 'Suanbo hot spring' but also the three conditions called 'the numerical solitary', 'the qualitative identity', and 'the self-identity' which are the conditions for the place identity. In relation to the politics of scale through place names, the example of scaling up is 'Yian-Myun' which is former name of 'Chungju city Yiru-Myun', and the cases of scaling down are 'the up and down of Chungju Up Ho', the reductional change from 'Chungju-Gun' to 'Chungju-Myun' and the change of Chinese name of the 'Wolak Mountain'. Lastly, the examples of place names' territory change are two types. One is 'Chungju Yongdu-Dong' and 'Yiru-Myune Geumgok-Ri' for the cases that the place name and its territory were changed. The other is 'Dalchon river' that the place name's territory was only changed. In conclusion, this study suggested that place names are useful in order to represent and construct the place identity.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.1-27
• /
• 2014

This paper aims at exploring the multi-scalar processes through which the Gumi Industrial Complex was developed in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. Existing studies, influenced by the "Developmental State Thesis", tend to see the industrialization processes of South Korea either by focusing on the socio-politico-economic processes at the national scale or in terms of the plan rationality of the national bureaucrats. This paper, however, denies this perspective on the basis of the strategic relational approach to the state and the multi-scalar perspective. In particular, it argues that the state actions for national industrialization have been the outcome of complex interactions, conflicts and negotiations among social forces, acting in and through the state, and at diverse geographical scales. This paper attempts to empirically prove this argument on the basis of a case study on the construction processes of Gumi Industrial Complex. The development of Gumi Industrial Complex cannot be solely explained in terms of either the plan rationality of the national bureaucrats or the political motivation related to the fact that Gumi was the hometown of President Park Jung-Hee. This paper argues that the development of Gumi Industrial Complex was heavily influenced by the role of the following actors; place-dependent local actors in Gumi and the multi-scalar agents, such as the Korean-Japanese businessmen and the national parliament members elected in the Gumi electoral district.

• Proceedings of the KGS Conference
• /
• 2006.06a
• /
• pp.47-49
• /
• 2006

• Proceedings of the KGS Conference
• /
• 2006.06a
• /
• pp.45-46
• /
• 2006

• Proceedings of the KGS Conference
• /
• 2006.06a
• /
• pp.37-38
• /
• 2006

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.139-159
• /
• 2014

This study problematizes the dominance of developmental state theory and its negative influences in the field of Korean studies, in particular, dealing with the industrialization during the developmental era, 1960s~70s. As is generally known, the theory has been in a position of unchallenged authority on the industrialization experience of East Asian countries, including South Korea. However, at the same time, it has also misled us into overlooking strategic relations that had articulated the state forms at multiple scales. This study aims to reconstruct the historical contexts by the theorizing prompted by recent work on state space. I shed light on the multiscalar strategic relations that had shaped the Ulsan refinery plant as a representative state space of the South Korean industrialization during two decades after liberation. Specifically, the study illustrates the features and roles of Cold War networks and multiscalar agnets such as Nam Goong-Yeon. By identifying the plant as a result of sequential articulations between Ulsan and other scales, this study concludes by suggesting to reframing the strategic relational spaces, beyond the view of methodological nationalism, in the perspective of multiscalar approach.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.178-199
• /
• 2014

Changwon Industrial Complex is commonly framed as the best example of strong initiative of the Korean developmental state. And this explanation has been given in the theoretical frame of 'neo-Weberian accounts' i.e., strongly 'national-territorial' and state-centric terms of the predominant. I argue that a geopolitical economy approach focusing on the historical background of the development of Changwon Industrial Complex will shed light on crucial sociospatial dimensions of the Korean developmental state's industrial complex success. I examine, in particular, the multi-scalar processes through which the changes of the industrial complex building plans for the promotion of machine industry in 1960's have been influenced by the complex and dynamic interactions among social actors acting at diverse geographical scales. I show that the formation of the industrial complex in Korea was more heavily influenced by the interactions, contestations, and collaborations among social actors, acting in and through the state, rather than by the state initiative.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.474-488
• /
• 2015

Conflicts in the construction of large public facilities carried out as national projects are crucial issues we have to deal with. There are growing concerns for and oppositions to large construction projects in terms of environmental deterioration and the dissolution of local communities. In the case of projects that promise the creation of jobs and investment, the competition and disputes are increasing and being intensified. Therefore, there is a considerable amount of study on the competitions and conflicts between regions. Previous studies have focused on the procedures of public policy, governance structure, the role of local media. Contrary to the previous studies, this study investigates the spatial ways of constructing conflicts. Based on the analysis of the project of "Southeastern New International Airport", there is a mismatch between the spatial boundary of cost/benefit and agents (regions) of disputes. The agents of conflicts also show the politics of multiple scales by constructing alliances and breaking the network in the process of the airport project. The findings suggest that the conflicts on regional development should be understood as the construction of dynamic regional politics on regional development rather than as the by-product in the practice of policies.