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Choi, Byung-Doo
- Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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- v.45 no.1
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- pp.26-48
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- 2010
The current government tries to pursue a series of energy plans and strategies which have been recently established under the banner of 'green growth'. Although there have been several critical comments on the energy policy, the structural background under which the energy policy has been established and implemented has not yet been scrutinized. This paper understands the current government's strategy for 'green growth' and energy policy as a process of neoliberalization. In particular, the energy policy is characterized as industrialization, marketization, technologization, and financialization of energy, which bring about a lot of detailed issues. This kind of 'green growth' strategy is far from the model of sustainable development, and rather seems to be well interpreted in terms of what Harvey calls 'accumulation by dispossession'. As the government's strategy for 'green growth' and energy policy denies the roll of citizens and civil society which would mediate and arbitrate the contradiction between environment preservation and economic growth, and conflicts between market mechanism and state intervention, so alternatives to the 'green growth' strategy should be orientated to a citizen-participating and civil society-led energy policy.
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Kwon, Sang-Cheol
- Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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- v.15 no.3
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- pp.358-375
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- 2012
Neoliberalizing nature spreads widely across diverse fields and areas. Commodifying water is the most frequent case conflicting with the stance, water as commons. This paper reviews the commodity versus commons debate in other countries leading to the importance of wider perspective considering regional contexts, and then examines the case of Jeju with that regard entirely depending freshwater on underground acquifer. In Jeju, the sale of bottled water by private corporation has been in confrontation with the declaration of water as commons by Jeju government. But, the commodity versus commons conflict over water hinders more important concerns such as the abundant use by tourism related hotels and golf courses, the free largest agricultural use, and the production and sale of bottled water by Jeju government itself. The real focus of concern should be given to the constraints on increasing water rate for tourism businesses, charging fees on agriculture, and the local development imperatives. The dual stance of Jeju government in promoting water as commodity as well as promulgating water as commons seems to be a case adding diversity to the geography of neoliberalizing nature.
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