From Commodities to Community Engagement: Localities and Urban Development in Seoul, Korea

Abstract

Engaging citizens in localities is considered a major goal of sustainable urban development. In South Korea, however, localities used to be considered as commodities, which often resulted in the demolition of urban areas, displacement of residents, destruction social relationship networks, and decline of communal life. Yet, localities were also sites of grassroots struggles, which not only resisted their commodification but also tried to address larger social and economic problems. Community engagement in localities became a way to alleviate poverty, address unequal division of labour and gender inequalities, protect housing rights, improve childcare, education, food safety and environmental degradation, as well as to restore communal life. Seoul is the case in point. In the first part of the chapter, the authors explore the improvement and commodification of localities in Seoul, as well as grassroots struggles and community movements. In the second part, Songhak Maeul and Seowon Maeul are compared to better understand localities as sites of community engagement. The comparison shows that the state used to consider localities as commodities and facilitated property-led urban development rather than community engagement. Recently, the state has acknowledged the negative consequences of this approach and recognized the importance of community engagement for improvement of deprived residential areas. The authors argue that grassroots struggles not only paved the way to the recent surge of community engagement but should also be considered an integral part of the Korean urban development, which has been otherwise praised for apparently successful collaboration between the state and markets.