• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.331-352
• /
• 2016

This paper pays attention to the fact that not only Gangnam but also cities outside Seoul that attempt to follow the Gangnam model are deeply involved in Korean developmental urbanism. It examines discursive materials such as newspaper articles, newspaper advertisements and online debates as significant sources of information showing how certain districts are materially and discursively constructed by diverse actors in the national capital and in other cities. The result of in-depth interviews lasting up to two hours reveals local residents' imagined geographies. The article emphasizes that the so-called "Gangnam problem" should be understood as existing beyond the physical, symbolic and administrative boundaries of Gangnam, in cities that follow the Gangnam model. This study helps to provide an epistemological foundation for more equitable, sustainable and de-developmental urbanism.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.307-330
• /
• 2016

This article aims to explain how Gangnam, as a model and standard of compressed urbanization in South Korea, was created. Gangnam and Gangnam-style urbanization need attention not only because they contrast with Korea's urbanization in the past as well as urbanization in the West but also they provide an important model in contemporary Korea's politics, economy and culture. However, there are little studies of how Gangnam's peculiar urbanism was created. To fill this gap, this article will first capture Gangnam's peculiar urbanism as a material landscape and sociocultural lifestyle. Gangnam-style urbanism is (a) materially characterized by high-rise apartment complexes owned by the middle and upper class for dwelling and asset growth and (b) socio-culturally characterized by political conservatism, public indifference, competition over academic performance, appearance, and fashion, and nightlife. Then it will show Gangnam's archetype was created in a spatially and temporally compressed way in and through the spatial selectivity of Korean anti-communist authoritarian developmental state strategies: (1) anti-communism led to the diffusion and accommodation of the population through apartments in Gangnam in the context of its confrontation with North Korea and the fast-growing population of Seoul; (2) military authoritarianism excluded the low-income class and the urban poor from urban development; and (3) the developmental state adopted selective housing policy which treated construction companies and the middle class preferentially through exceptional zoning and price distortions, promoting the construction of apartment in Gangnam and its resultant uneven development.