• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.700-717
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• 2012

This study aims to discuss the spatial issues of disaster recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake. Focused on tsunami-damaged regions, this study examines how major regional development issues have been dealt with. In the case study areas, the following ideal spatial methodologies have been suggested for tsunami recovery: building a compact city, intensifying fishing villages, and making a sustainable city. However, as the spatial restructuring have encountered practical barriers, reconstruction has been delayed, and the regional decline have been accelerating. To prevent regional decline which is inevitable after a disaster, this paper suggests that the area of disaster studies should be expanded to long-term recovery process beyond emergency response.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.218-232
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• 2013

One of the most interesting points in the era of globalization and transnationalism is the movement of people, namely migration. This research aims to explain the discourse of marginalization on Korean-Chinese by Korean merchants as the migrants expand their shops in the Chinese Food Culture Street. The Chinese Food Culture Street has been formed by Korean-Chinese restaurants and shops for the process of differentiation from the Garibong-Daelim area. Korean merchants in the street are not opposed to the influx of Korean-Chinese into Korea, however they do not want to the influx of them into the Jayang area. As the influx of Korean-Chinese into this street has increased, so the Korean merchants in the street have marginalized them as dangerous element for local security, as immoral beings cling to their business, and as the main reason for the regional underdevelopment. However, this marginalization of Korean-Chinese makes difficult to understand the real change of local area, because there has been some positive effects by the influx of them such as the improvement of surrounding environment and the elevation of local imagination. This research clearly suggest that the marginalization of migrants by major society is from the fixed idea and prejudice, and this research suggest the need to further study on the occupation and change of local by migrants.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.237-253
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• 2022

This article offers an account of how regional development policy in Korea has evolved under the influence of actor-networks comprising the cultural circuit of soft capitalism. In so doing, the roles played by transnational actor-networks forged between global consulting firms and national business media are emphasized. For this discussion, the waning of spatial Keynesianism in the country is contextualized in the first place, with particular attention to changing planning goals of key regional development policies including consultancies, influential policy gurus (e.g., Michael Porter and Richard Florida), and local business media outlet Maekyong are found to be key movers and shakers in the transition. These empirical findings call for striking a balance between dominant structuralist accounts and emerging actor-oriented approaches, and also help shed a new light on the dualistic conceptualization of managerialist and entrepreneurial governance in a way that the latter may be a new form of the former.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.522-540
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• 2012

The main aim of the paper is to identify the position or status of Korean economic geography in changing global economic geography by reviewing papers published in Korean geographical journals since the mid-1950s. Since the late 20th century as economic geography has developed significantly with the introduction of new research issues, methodologies, and theory and concepts, economic geography in Korea also has gone through rapid development in terms of both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The paper attempts to analyze trends in Korean economic geography by reviewing agricultural, industrial, commercial geographies, and others since the mid-1950s. The review of economic geography in Korea would be based on four periods classified by research issues and approaches; foundation (~1950s), positioning (1960s and 1970s), jump and rush (1980s and mid-1990s), and transitional period (late 1990s~). Agricultural geography in Korea has decreased due to increases of the interests in industrial geography since the 1980s. In particular, since the late 1990s industrial geography has undergone a significant transition in accordance with the emergence of new theories of institutional perspectives, centering around issues on value chains, innovative cluster, cooperative and competitive networks, foreign direct investment, flexible specialization and venture ecology. Along with this, there has been changes in the interest of commercial geography in Korea from researches on periodical markets, the structure of store formats, and distributions by commodity, to researches on producer services and retailer's locational behaviors and commercial supremacy according to the emergence of new store formats. Since the late 1990s, many researches and discussions associated with the new economic geography began to emerge in Korea. Various research issues are focused on analyzing changes of local, regional and global economic spaces and their processes in relation to institutional perspectives, knowledge and innovation, production chain and innovative networks, industrial clusters and RIS, and geographies of service. Although economic geography in Korea has developed significantly both in quantitative and qualitative perspectives, we pointed out that it has still limited in some specific scope and issues. Therefore, it is likely to imply that its scope and issues should be diversified with new perspectives and approaches.