• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.139-155
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• 2018

This study investigates the processes of the "Production of Nature" and the preservation and exploitation of nature in the local festival. The recent discussions in tourism geography address the neoliberalization of nature with its political-ecological interpretation. Yangyang-gun has been one of the main regions that have made efforts to make salmon back to the streams. Also, the Yangyang Salmon Festival was organized to celebrate and symbolize the successful restoration of nature. In fact, however, the festival focuses on the commercialization of salmon. Moreover, it is hard to consider Namdaecheon as the successfully restored ecosystem for salmon. As the returning number of salmon has not significantly increased and the festival itself has not been successful to attract many tourists, the local people show declining interest on the conservation of salmon. Contrast to the catchphrase of the festival to emphasize the conservation of nature and restoration of ecosystem, there are still many hurdles that jeopardize returning of salmon. This controversy leads diverse actors into conflict over the conservation of salmon and Namdaecheon. The players in the dispute encompass local people, local and national governments and international organization. Nature appropriated for ecotourism is selectively defined, used and emphasized by the interests of agencies at multiple scales. The findings of this study show that the concept of "Produced Nature" is more useful than intrinsic or original perspective on nature as long as we try to understand the commercialization of nature that is appropriated for the repertoire of local festival.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.358-375
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• 2012

Neoliberalizing nature spreads widely across diverse fields and areas. Commodifying water is the most frequent case conflicting with the stance, water as commons. This paper reviews the commodity versus commons debate in other countries leading to the importance of wider perspective considering regional contexts, and then examines the case of Jeju with that regard entirely depending freshwater on underground acquifer. In Jeju, the sale of bottled water by private corporation has been in confrontation with the declaration of water as commons by Jeju government. But, the commodity versus commons conflict over water hinders more important concerns such as the abundant use by tourism related hotels and golf courses, the free largest agricultural use, and the production and sale of bottled water by Jeju government itself. The real focus of concern should be given to the constraints on increasing water rate for tourism businesses, charging fees on agriculture, and the local development imperatives. The dual stance of Jeju government in promoting water as commodity as well as promulgating water as commons seems to be a case adding diversity to the geography of neoliberalizing nature.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.75-96
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• 2013

This paper is to conceptualize the urban social circulation of water from the social constructivism and political ecology, and to analyze the history of development of social circulation of water, that is, the modernization process of water in Daegu. The development of social circulation system of water in Daegu can be divided into 4 stages, that is, the beginning stage of modernization of water mainly during the period of Japanese colonization, the take-off stage from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, the stage of reflexive modernization from the late 1980s to the 1990s, and that of neoliberalization of water since the 2000s. It can be seen that the development of social circulation system of water in Daegu has contributed the increasing urban population and economic development, especially supporting the spatial expansion of the city and the way of modern way of urban life. But the social circulation system of water in Daegu seems to meet with a lot of problems such as relocation of the water intake station, over-equipment of filtration plants, distrust on tap water, inequality of water use, readjustment of water charge, liquid waste from industrial complexes within the urban area, creative destruction of waterfront environment, and privatization of water.