• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.554-567
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• 2004

Since the 1980s, the academic interests on the regional geography have been renewed. This trend is usually called 'Renaissance' of the regional geography. Given this context, to explore diverse theories and methodologies in the regional geography is of much significance. Particularly, to examine the regional geography in Germany widens the understanding of not only the history, strength, and weakness of the regional geography, but also the discipline's status in the field of geography. This paper discusses the regional geography in Germany before World War II, focusing on varieties of theories and methods as well as the historical trajectory of the German regional geography. This discussion may well be significant in that 'Laenderkunde' became an important paradigm in the discipline of geography in Germany during the pre-World War II period.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.131-149
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• 2002

Geography has been defined traditionally as a discipline on regions, that is, as chorography, which means regional geography. Regional geography, which once withered up with the development of positivist geography, has gained recently its vitality. In particular, as social theories have been introduced actively into geography since the 1980s, new methodologies for regional geography have been suggested through a series of debates, for example, on spatiality, locality, restructuring, and post-modernism, though there remain still some important conceptual issues which have not yet settled down. On the other hand. new regional geography has made its development and significance for regional development in the age of the so-called globalization in the reality. That is, new regional geography has been required for a systematic conceptualization of region and for a theoretical consideration on the dynamic change of regions in the process of globalization. Furthermore, an emphasis can be given to geography education for new regional geography in order to understand new strategies for regional development.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.25
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• pp.70-74
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• 1982

이 글에서는 다음의 내용을 다루었다. 1. 지리학과 지지학 2. 지지에 있어서 지역구분의 문제 3. 지역구분론에 있어서 결절지역의 원리 4. 일본열도의 지역구조와 지역구분

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.527-540
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• 1997

이 글에서는 해외지역연구에 있어 세계와와 관련한 여건 변화, 지리하계의 동향, 그리고 21세기의 새로운 지역연구에 지리학의 역할이 어떠하여야 할 것인가를 살피고자 한다. 해외지역연구는 2차대전 이후 미국을 중심으로 발달하였다. 냉전기에 세계적 우위를 유지하고 국익을 보호하기 위하여 외국 현지어 구사 능력을 포함한 해외 정보 수요가 늘어 지역연구의 발달을 보게 된 것이다. 이러한 배경 때문에 지역연구는 개성기술적(ideographic)성격을 띠게 되었다. 요즘에는, 지역연구가 주로 초국적기업, 국제 경영대학원 등을 중심으로 이루어 지고 있다. 새 지역연구는 해외시장정보 수집 등 경제적 동기로 이루어지고 있어, 경제적으로 편향되는 취약점이 있다. 세계화는 요즘 하계의 화두(話頭)로, 세계 경제와 사회에 일고 있는 이 변화를 바로 이해하는 것은 향후 지역연구의 방향을 정립하는데 매우 중요하다. 세계화는 세계 어디서나 똑같이 일어나는 동질적인 현상이 아니라, 매우 다양하고 여러 의미가 담긴 현상이다. 마치 동전에 양면이 있듯이, 세계화는 수렴과 분화를 동시에 일으키고 있는 것이다. 따라서, 국경을 개방하고 장애를 없애 하나의 동질적인 세계시장환경을 지향하는 신자유경제 논리에 바탕한 지역연구는 설득력이 약하다. 지리학이 지역연구에 기여하기 위해서는 다음과 같은 노력이 계속되어야 한다. 첫째, 해외지역을 이해하려면 공간(space)과 장소(place)연구가 필수적이라는 점을 인식하고, 둘째, 인간과 환경의 상호작용 관점에서 지리적 차이를 파악하려는 노력이 필요하다. 셋째, 지리학은 이론정립 노력을 계속해야 하며, 넷째, 그 이론들은 해외지역의 현장답사와 정보수집을 통하여 검증되어야 한다. 지리학은 일찍부터 도시, 농촌 등 미시적 수준의 연구를 수행해왔기 때문에 경험적 연구에 강하다. 다섯째, 정부와 기업 등 조직에 대한 지리학적 연구가 이루어져야 할 것이다. 경제활동 분포에 대한 조직의 역할, 소유권에 대한 정부의 규제, 생산 조직의 환경 영향 등의 연구가 그 예이다. 여섯째, 지리학의 발달을 위하여 국가, 국제적 학술 기구를 활용하는 전략이 필요하다. 국제지리학연합(IGU)에서 개발한 지리교육과정, 미국National Research Council에서 세계지리에 밝지 못한 국민을 대상으로 펴낸 지리서 등이 그 사례이다. 지역연구는 사회과학 이론과 문화연구가 서로 접목되도록 새롭게 방향이 설정되어야 하며, 지리학의 인간-환경 연구 전통이 여기에 기여할 수 있을 것이다. 그러나 지리학의 역할이 효율적이기 위해서는 지리학 자체의 담론을 다시 확립해야 한다. 지리학계에서 지난 20여년간 추구해왔듯이 일반적 법칙을 지향(nomothetic)하는 접근법을 활용해야 하며, 여타 사회과학 및 환경과학과도 긴밀한 관련을 유지할 필요가 있는 것이다.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2014

This study aims to analyze empirically the scale of region that has been covered in "The Journal of the Korean Geographical Society(대한지리학회지)" and "The Journal of the Korean Association of Regional Geographers(한국지역지리학회지)" over the last 20 years. Generally speaking, it was found that "The Journal of the Korean Geographical Society" has published a relatively more number of articles with larger scale of region and "The Journal of the Korean Association of Regional Geographers" has published more articles with smaller scale of region than the counterpart journal. Also, this study has revealed that the ratio of the studies in both journals utilizing both town/village scale(읍 면 스케일) and city/county scale(시 군 스케일) has increased continuously with marginal fluctuations. On the other hand, the ratio of the studies in both journals combining single metropolis/province scale(시 도 스케일), multiple metropolis/province scale(시 도보다 큰 스케일), and state scale(국가 스케일) has decreased continuously in general. In sum, this study is expected to offer useful data as well as future research direction to the Korean geographers.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.189-201
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• 2006

The aim of this paper is to examine the development of regional geography (including regional studies) in Germany since 1945 in the context of its traditions and changes. From 1945 to the end of 1960s, in spite of many hies of renovation regional geography has faced critics and fall into a serious crisis. After the 1970s many geographers intensively have searched for the new conception and broadly accepting methodological way of regional geography, and in the advent of 1980s regional geography is regarded as a special form of collecting and presenting spatial informations in terms of the addressee. But in the after-era of german unification and through the new establishment of the Institut for the Regional Geography in Leipzig, a discussion on the research aim and future of regional geography was resumed, and its future direction is open.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.357-378
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• 2014

The concern on new regional geography in Korea has emerged in the 1990s under the influence of paradigm shift of Western geography, that is, the withering of positivist geography and the introduction of grand social theories into geography. New regional geography in Korea also seems to have developed in the rapidly changing process of glocalization of capitalism which has accompanied with the transformation toward post-Fordism with high-tech innovation, development of transportation and communication technology with time-space compression, and increasing social and cultural mobility with change of identity. But it can be pointed out that discussion on methodology for regional geography in Korea has been shrunken since the mid 2000s, and there has been relatively little empirical research with synthetic approach to region. But more concern on methodology in terms of place, territory, network, scale, etc. rather than the concept of region itself has increased, and empirical researches on regions in specific fields of human geography have been promoted. It is argued that the traditional distinction between synthetic and analytic approaches seems no longer significant. But geographers need to extend the concept of region in relation to other diverse spatial concepts, and to purse simultaneously structural analysis on glocalization process and practical strategies responding positively to the process.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.184-198
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• 2002

Since the mid-1980s there has been an intensive debate on a regional geography in abroad, and its renaissance has been widely expressed. Under the influences of these academic circumstances, many Korean scholars have tried to introduce this trend and at the same time to propose new development lines of the Korean geography with a critical perspective. However, the empirical study of Korean regional geography including area studies is characterized by a quantitative deficit on the one hand and by its peripheral position on the other. The main reasons of this marginalization of Korean regional geography that we can find include a undifferentiated import of new systematic/nomothetic geography in the 1960s and 1970s, a historical interruption with a tradition of old Korean geography, and the practical difficulties of regional geographical approach itself. Now we face with the fundamental changes including globalization/regionalization and an increasing actual demand for the information on different scales of space and place. In order to cope with these challenges, we inevitably need to revitalize various forms and modem characteristics of regional geographical approaches and try to reexamine the basic concepts, methods, and frameworks of regional geography.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.288-302
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• 2013

This paper aims to compare and analyze the undergraduate geography curriculums of Korean and American universities. is rarely offered as an undergraduate geography subject in both Korean and American universities. This may be due to the fact that the four fields of geography(human geography field, physical geography field, regional geography field, and other geography field) are not easily able to be integrated and taught as an independent geography subject. The ratio of the subject number of human geography field(39.4%) is greater than that of physical geography field(24.5%) at the geography departments of Korean universities, but the ratio of the subject number of physical geography field(32.8%) is a little more greater than that of human geography field(29.4%) at the geography departments of American universities. The ratio of the subject number of regional geography fields at the geography department of American universities(18.1%) is greater than that of Korean universities(13.8%), so more stress seems to be laid on the field of regional geography in American universities than in Korean universities. Although the geography curriculums of Korean universities seems to follow generally those of American universities, this paper reveals that there is also differences between the geography curriculums of Korean and American universities in terms of their emphasis on four fields of geography. The differences could be explained by the historical context of the geography departments of Korean universities during the last half a century.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-24
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• 2016

This paper is to consider trends and issues of regional research in major sub-fields of human geography in Korea, following the previous one which dealt with contexts and general trends of new regional geography in Korea since the 2000s. They include historical and cultural geography on place and landscape, economic geography on industrial districts or agglomerated regions (i.e. clusters) and urban (and social) geography on urban networks and differentiation. Even though researchers in sub-fields have used different terms and concepts to identify region, they are in common to relate specificities of region to general processes such as (de)modernization, (de)industrialization, and globalization, to understand region as social and discursive constitution as well as substantive reality, and to give more attention to socio-spatial networks and relationality than territoriality of regions. These common points seem to reflect the emerging trend of new regional geography, and to get rid of existing traditional concept of region. It is suggested that major tasks for conceptualization of region in future research are to overcome dichotomy of speciality and generality, of substantive reality and discursive constitution, and of territoriality and relationality, and that important issues for empirical research on region include regional synthesis from new perspectives, uneven regional development as relational process in and between regions, and producing practice for alternative regions.