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