• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.894-913
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• 2008

This study examines scale issues in the contemporary feminist migration literature. Scale appears as important, yet poorly understood concept in this field of study. The increasing attention to the feminization of migration requires not only gendered, but also scalar-sensitive approaches. Feminists criticize the conventional approach to the migration as a gender-blind approach that privileges national scale around which migration processes are organized. Claiming multiscalar and interscalar analyses, they propose investigations ranging from macro to micro processes which include globalized gendered division of labor, transnational family networks, and reproduction which takes place in and through the bodies and homes of migrant women. The migrant women, the major actors in recent transnational migration, cross various borders: the national boundaries and the public and private divides, in particular. This crossover can unsettle patriarchal gender relations which have been established based on the physical and symbolic division of nation-states and public/private spheres. Blurring these divisions accompanies social construction of various scales. The transnational family networks of migrant women, for example, show the construction of a transnational scale by migrant women as well as globalization from below. This paper points out misunderstandings of scale in the feminist migration literature and attempts to fill the gaps by introducing the meanings and implications of scales developed mostly by feminist geographers. In so doing, it promotes the interdisciplinary communication.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.676-694
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• 2012

This paper investigates the regional distribution of female transnational marriage migrants by nationalities in South Korea. In addition, this research explores the regional distribution by nationalities, migration processes, and socioeconomic characteristics of female transnational marriage migrants in Chungcheongbuk-do in South Korea. Regarding the regional distribution of female transnational marriage migrants in South Korea, using location quotient, this study seeks to categorizes cities and counties in South Korea into five groups. Furthermore, using Thomas method, this paper tries to stereotype cities and counties in Chungcheongbuk-do into six groups, in order to identify significant nationalities in each group. The concept of transnationalism refers to the recent phenomenon that transnational social networks are prominent, linking societies at the global scale, as international migration has been rapidly increasing due to the globalization. Transnationalism provides insight into the in-depth understanding of socio-spatial structure of international migrants, transnational social networks, transnational identities, cultural hybridization, and so on.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.289-303
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• 2015

This paper is an introductory research to theorize women migrants' positionality in the era of globalization and the feminization of migration. It particularly examines three recent theoretical approaches within feminist studies and their application to the feminist migration study. Migration means a process of continuous negotiations of one's social and material positions within ever changing relations and situations through crossing various borders including national boundaries. Women migrants face multifaceted oppressions due to gendered relation and greater challenges to transform their identities. They embody politics of location through migration. The paper revolves around theories that explore a potential of feminist subjectivation of marginalized women such as female migrants through their identity negotiation and transformation. The theories in questions are Borderlands and the New Mestiza introduced by Gloria $Anzald{\acute{u}}a$, Intersectionality of oppressions, and Transpositions and the Nomadic Subjects by Rosi Braidotti who borrowed the theories of Deleuze and Guattari through feminist critiques. These theories all represent power relations and subject transformations through spatial metaphors. rough spatialized understandings, the paper proposes interlocking relations among space, gender and migration, and explores conceptual tools as well as epistemological insights for Korean migration study.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.554-567
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• 2012

It can be suggested that social geography in the 2000s in Korea has achieved a considerable development, dealing with various theories and issues. This suggestion can be identified first of all with the publication of several texts of Social Geography in this period. For important theoretical discussions, the neoliberal glocalization process of capitalist economy has promoted geographical researches from the perspective of political economy, and the development of information and communication technology, increasing foreign immigrants, environmental problems such as the global warming, and social participation and empowerment of women in Korea have increased social geographical concerns with and theoretical discussions on informational society and city, multiculturalism and/or transnationalism, political ecology and environmental justice, and feminism. This paper provides a review on these major issues in recent theoretical discussions in social geography in Korea, and suggests a brief comment on its future development.