• 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.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.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.150-160
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to introduce the new regional geography approaches that have been lively discussed in English speaking countries since 1980s. The discussion of the new regional geography is based on intellectual interchange between geographers and social theorists. The new regional geographers regard a space as a more active thing. A space is not a merely passive container. It is not a outer settings, but a essential dimention of the human being. The new regional geography has been discussed in four perspectives: structuration theory perspective, spatial division of lavour theory perspective, world-systems theory perspective, and post-poststructuralism perspective. The new regional approaches well provide a new direction to regional studies. However, it is so abstracted in concepts for the empirical examinations that it is necessary to introduce a meso-level of concept.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.464-480
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• 2012

This paper includes consideration for construction of Sejong City and seeking its alternative. Korean government has gone ahead with the relocation of 35 ministries of central government from Seoul metropolitan area to Sejong city for balanced regional development. But many specialists are worried about the spatial division of government function because such a spatial division would bring down the functional efficiency of central government. This paper proposes to make Sejong city the administrative capital city instead of the relocation of some ministries to Sejong city, and discusses the necessity and appropriateness to develop Sejong city as an administrative capital city.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.211-222
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• 2007

This paper aims to evaluate the new regional development policy which is entirely focused on the lagging rural regions in Korea. The new regional development, called the shin-hwal-ryuk policy is to reflect the radical change in the idea and philosophy of rural development. Although traditional rural development policies were top-down-based and physical infrastructure-centered, the new rural development policy idea is based on bottom-up and soft infrastructure which is related to the promotion of regional innovation capacities. However, it is revealed that the new rural policy involves a variety of problems in the process of establishing and making progress the policy plan in a local level. In the operating process of the policy plan, the central government has shown too quick-tempered for achieving visible outcomes, while many of local government suffer from the lacks of professional capabilities to carry out the plan. I see that as a result of the mixture of these problems the new policy is regarded as 'passively localized process' by the central government rather than 'actively localizing process' by the region for building regional innovation capacity.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.298-311
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• 2003

Building the new administration capital city, one of presidential candidate Moo-Hyun Rho's election pledges, is now listed as a priority national policy agenda of the Participation Government. However, so many people's negative attitudes ranging from cynical skepticism to firm objections against the national policy agenda may threaten its smooth policy actualization. At this juncture, this paper attempts to present persuasive arguments and discuss some critical issues to be considered for building the new administration capital city successfully. The paper begins with taking a look at the current state of hyper-concentration of Seoul agglomeration area and its harmful effects, paints a vision of 'an evenly developed country as a whole' via illustrating the vision from the Swiss case, and reviews the performance of the precedent governments' reform measures for rectifying the hyper-concentration of Seoul agglomeration area. And then, the paper argues for building the new administration capital city as a potent solution to the problem of excessive concentration of activities in Seoul agglomeration area, as well as a driving force to spur the government to realize the Participation Government' enthusiastic vision: 'a decentralized and evenly developed country as a whole' and 'the hub country in the Northeast Asia'. In addition, the paper discusses the location of the new administration capital city in connection with the forthcoming national unification. Lastly, the paper deals with the important issues such as the procedure of people's approval, the population size and legal status of the new administration capital city, the relationship between building the new administration capital city and decentralization reform, etc.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.486-505
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• 2011

The Korean miracle of economic growth or development has been quite well known across the world up to now, while being subject to theorization of its model. Compared with this, however, it is quite surprising to see how little about the spatial aspect of Korean development has been exposed in the field of development studies. In fact, for Korea, competent regional policy has turned out to be an important success factor for the spatial upgrading of a low-tech growth regime into a hi-tech one. This paper dissects Korea's regional policy experiences in three aspects from which it draws up a three-tier lesson. The first aspect is the conventional (overall) regional spatial upgrading policy of a developmental regime put in place since the 1960s onwards. The second is the new regional policy tailored to the regionalization of technological and industrial diffusion for new knowledge-based economy. The third is the prospective regional policy for the future advancement of the Korean economy.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.689-697
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• 2004

The Main results of this paper about the river channel of Shincheon(river) are as follows: First, the argument that Shincheon had a different river channel from existing one before 1778 would be wrong. Second, the origin of the place name, Shincheon has been traced up to the year of 1778 also would be wrong. Third, Daegucheon(river) regarded as a distributary of Shincheon would be the different stream originated from Samjeong valley and near by hills. Forth, Daegucheon had mostly dried up and disappeared during the Japanese colonial times while part of Daegucheon had changed its channel into Icheoncheon(river). Fifth, the river channel of Shincheon since the historic age has been unchanged.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.638-647
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• 2011

Since 2008 the administration of the President Lee Myung-bak is pursuing a new regional policy which differentiates from that of the last administration. It focuses on the maximizing the growth potential of the national territory and suggests the three-tiered regional development system. The paper aims to review the main contents and characteristics of the macro-economic region policy as a representative strategy in a new regional development policy and examine its achievements and the future tasks. Although it is limited to evaluate the accomplishments of the macro-economic region policy due to the short period of time (3 years), it has been successfully recognized that it would be more competitive if regional governments are supporting and connecting each other with neighboring regional governments. In addition, investments to each macro-economic region continue vigorously as planned. In order for the policy to be more successful in the future, however, it is necessary to substantially expand the development project, to systematically construct the governance structure, and to effectively process the industrial plans.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.295-308
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• 1996

1. Retrospect of Political Geographic Studies since Liberation, 1945 : 1) Period from 1945 to mid 1960s : There was not political geography as a science in Korea at the time of liberation from Japan 1945. At that time were not pure political geographers in Korea. In 1947, Moon-Hwa Pyo, economics professor, published a book titled Outline of Korean Geopolitics. This book was a first one in the field of political geography and available at that time in the logical descriptions. Bok-Hyon Choi was a first political geographer who in 1959 wrote a book titled Political geography for the collegians of Seoul National University. Professor Choi introduced American-style political geography through the book above mentioned. In 1963, Kie-Joo Hyong published an article titled "Korean Unification: Possibility from the Geopolitical Viewpoint" which was a first article published by Korean young scholar who studied geography in this country. 2) Period from late 1960s to late 1980s : Both Yoon Cha and Duck-Soon Im published frequently several articles of political geography or geopolitics respectively in 1968-1969. And they issued geopolitical disputes on Korean geopolitical structure and an application of rimland theory to Korean peninsula in 1969 through a magazine named Joung-Kyong Younku (the political and economic researches). The disputes played an important role of showing political geography (or geopolitics) to political sciences especially international political Science. Active researches still continued in 1970s. In that atmosphere the first Korean book of political geography written by a post-liberation scholar (Duck-Soon Im) titled Principles of Political Geography was published in 1973. This book was influenced much by American political geography after Second World War. In 1980s, the researches continued more actively. Especially administrative districts, capital cities, and sub-capital cities were frequently studied during this period. 3) Period from late 1980s to Present: Recent Studies : 1985 was a year of much production of articles of political geography. The first Ph.D thesis of political geography published in the same year in our country. And since 1985 produced many M.A. articles. Several categories of esearches of political geography was made in the period from late 1980s to present. Capital cities, Korean unification, administrative districts, urban politics, elections, sub-capital cities, and defense walls were important research categories. Reviewing the researches from 1945 to present. I found eight categories of political geography in Korea: capital cities, administrative districts, geopolitical structure of Korean peninsula, division and unification of Korea, sub-capital cities, defense walls, elections, and urban politics. Each category includes several scholars respectiveiy. 2. Study Tasks and Prospects in Korean Political Geography: In relation to Korean circumstances there are three study-tasks. The first task of Korean people is unification of two Koreas. Political geographers of Korea must al survey titled Survey Methods of Human Geography for collegians. This book was first one on survey part in Korea. The book however, is insufficient in comprehensiveness in aspects too. I think that the important tasks of general-synoptic human geography in Korea are \circled1 publication of comprehensive books of human geography in the aspects and methodologies for collegians and \circled2 acceptance of academic world of human geography in Korea of variety in methodologies of human geography for future progress. progress.