• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.330-342
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• 2016

The aim of this article is to explore some issues on the uneven regional development in the Republic of Korea. Along with this, case studies on the United Kingdom and Italy are conducted in terms of their wealth, inequality and regional development. In the period of 1995~2003, the UK experienced the intensified uneven regional development and continuous increase of its index due in the main to the delayed revitalization of industrial decline regions, neo-liberalistic local labour market and industrial policies, and institutional instability of regional policies. In the case of Italy, it seemed to experience relatively stable regional convergence. However, this was caused by the continuous decline of major metropolitan areas such as large cities, Milan, Turin, Genoa, to name but a few. The Republic of Korea experienced 'economic growth with spatial and social disparities.' Since 2003 the uneven regional development has intensified. Towards regional convergence, new engines of regional development, the investment in the specialization of small and medium cities, and supportive policies for industrial restructuring regions are required.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.34-52
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• 2004

This paper aims to examine the construction of the new administrational capital planned by the current government in terms of uneven regional development, and consider important tasks and prospects of the development of the Capital Region. The over-concentration to the Capital region and thereby ever-increasing socio-spatial problems since the 1960s seems to be a crucial aspect of uneven regional development inherent in the process of capitalist development. The construction of the new administrational capital hence can be seen as a version of what Harvey calls 'spatio-temporal fix'. On the other hand, some tasks and prospects of the development of the Capital region can be suggested to become a world city-region. Therefore, it fan be argued that the construction of the new administrational capital would produce its maximum effects, when it will conducted with policies of regional decentralization to overcome or reduce the ongoing uneven geographical development and those of economic and spatial restructuring of the Capital region to resolve or mitigate its socio-spatial problems and lead to a further development as a world city-region as well as a systematic planning of the new administrational capital itself.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2015

The aim of this paper is to explore the formation of the Seoul-focused network city for technological commercialization compared with Seoul as a mega city. The growth of Seoul and subsequently, the Seoul metropolitan region as a mega city and mega region has led the uneven regional development in Korea since the 1960s. To reduce a huge gap between the Seoul metropolitan and the non-metropolitan region, the concept of network city can be suggested in terms of the functional and spatial division of labor. More specifically, such division of labour throughout the formation of the Seoul-focused network city concentrates on technological commercialization which is deeply concerned with R&BD (research and business development). For this network city, there are 4 axes such as the axis of South-North Korean cooperation (the axis of R&BD for complex technologies), that of the expansion of a mega city (that of R&BD for green growth technology), that of the linkage of small and medium-sized cites (that of R&BD for life science and technology) and that of megalopolis (that of R&BD for basic technology) with regards to the axis of urban development and technological specialization. It shall be argued that the formation of Seoul-focused network city can be an alternative to the contemporary uneven regional development between the Seoul metropolitan and non-metropolitan region in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.137-165
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• 1994

Structural adjustment of industry (or industrial restructuring) seems to be inherent in the process of capitalist economic development, which tends to be proceeded with shifts from one stage to another in order to overcome structural crises generated in each stage. The structural adjustment of industry is necessarily accompanied with regional restructuring, since it is not only projected on spece, but also mediated by space. Such a restructuring necessitates industrial and uneven regional devlopment through which capital can seek excessive profits over the rate of socio-spatial average. The industrial restructuring and uneven regional development in the 1980s in Korea can be seen as a process in which capital attempted with a strong support of the govenment to overcome the crises in the end of 1970s and hence to go on rapid economic growth. In this process, capital, especially monopoly capital concentrated into few conglomerates, pursued both extensive expansion and intensive development of industry simultaneously. In results, the Korean economy could eliminate some of peripheral characters and maturate the Fordist accumulation system. The extensive expansion of the Korean industry in the 1980s was stimulated mainly through the enlargement and adjustment of investment for equipment facilities which was planned to exclude or rationalize traditional light industries on some places, and to continue rapid growth of key heavy-chemical industries, especially of fabricated metal industry, on other places. In this process, keeping mainly the existing developmental axis which polarized the Seoul Metroplitan region and the Southeast region in Korea, the enhancing spatial mobiiity of capital and the further differentiating division of labour enforced a tendency of concentration of all types of industry in the Seoul Metropolitan region, and at the same time provoked the diffusion of some industries over Jeolla and Chungchong regions in a considerable extent. The intensive development of industriai structure in the 1980s was pursued through the strategic encouragement of subcontracting small firms mainly which produced assembling components, the technical enhancement and factory (semi-) automation, and the enrichment of service industries for estate management, finance, distribution and retailing which supported and complemented the production of goods. In this process, enabling capital to extend and elaborate its domination over space through the reorganization of regulating systems, the Fordist division of labour generated a socio-spatial hierarchy in the nation-wide scale that characterized: the Seoul Metropolitan region as an overmaturated (or overarching) Fordist region performing the conceptive functions of management, research and development, in which all types of industry (including service industries) tended to be reconcentrated; Kyungsang region as a maturated Fordist region with excutive branches of large conglomerates and with subcontracting firms around them which produced standardized products through the automized production processes in secialized Fordist industries or rationalized traditional industries; and Jeolla and Chungchong regions as newly devloping Fordist regions with newly migrated branches and some subcontracting small firms-in relatively older Fordist industries or partly rationalized traditional industries. From these analyses, it can be argued that the structural adjustment of the Korean industry in the 1980s, which had carried out both through the extensive expansion and the intensive deveiopment, strengthened further uneven regional development process, even though it appears to have reduced apparently the economic and regional disparity by balancing numerically large and small firms and by extending the Fordist industrial space nation-wideiy. And it seems more persuasive to see that the Korean industrial structure in the 1980s maturated the Fordist system of accumulation, but not yet transformed towards the post-Fordist (or the so-called flexible) accumulation system, even though the Korean economy in the 1990s seems to be under a pressure of restructuring towards the latter system.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.23-42
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• 2000

This study is to investigate spatial patterns of urban labor market growth driven by marketization process and its implication for understanding regional uneven development in post-reform China. Using a shift share analysis, it shows that the geography of employment growth in China's industrial labor market has closely interacted with the space economy of industrial output, which in turn indicates a deepening of economic reform. By decomposing net employment growth into output and productivity effects, it is shown that the non-state sector holds rapid growth of both output and productivity and contributes to net employment growth through positive net shifts. On the contrary, this study also presents that the state sector with relative decrease in output and productivity holds employment decline effects during the reform period. Since there is a significant spatial dimension for the trend above, it is contended that labor market dynamics together with space economy of industrial production play an important role in determining regional patterns of economic development. In addition, through situating this investigation in the context of structural and institutional changes in the reform period, our understanding of regional patterns of labor market growth will be much furthered.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.359-374
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• 2023

The main purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the transformation of Chinese regional development policy and trends in spatial inequality in mainland China. More specifically, it has attempted to identify the effects of Chinese regional development policies on regional economic inequality by investigating the coefficient of variation and Gini coefficient with GRDP in the province level. Regional inequality in China had increased from 1979 economic reform, but has eased since the 10th Five Year Plan(2001~2005) due to large-scale state investments in the western, central and northeastern regions. However, the analysis is likely to be resulted from the national level. Trends in regional inequality are differentiated in accordance with the eastern, central, northeastern and western regions. For example, regional inequality in the central region has increased, whereas other three regions has decreased since the 10th Five Year Plan. It has played a role in cutting down regional inequality in the national level. In particular, the central region has kept inequality since the 12th Five Year Guideline. It has led to the convergence of the regional economies in the national level. It has stemmed from some limits to greater regional policies in the Central region enforced in the 11th Five Year Guideline(2005~2010).

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.23-43
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• 1995

This paper is the first part of a research which looks into the regional development process and the quality of life of Youngnam area, and which suggests a prospect and tasks for the future development of the region. Youngnam region has grown rapidly on the basis of labor-intensive light industries and standardized Fordist lage-scale heavy industries through the industrialization and urbanization of South Korea from the 1960s; but recently it has shown a relatively downward trend. The recent economic stagnation of Youngnam region can be seen as a result of uneven regional development in the national scale, which has brought out the increasing subcontracting relation within the region, the geographically excessive concentration of firms, the lack of growth potentiality of high-tech industries, the weakness of producer service, and the shortage of financial activities for capital flows. In addition, construction of physical and social infrastructures and management of urban central functions could not meet properly the rapid economic and urban growth of the region. Because of these problematics inherent in the economy of Yougnam region, the occupational status of regional dwellers is more or less unstable, and the wage level of employee as a whole in Youngnam region is lower than those of Seoul, although the wage level of labourers in manufacturing is relatively high. Moreover, the quality of life of dwellers in the region has some difficulties in the use of resources and ecological environment as well as the unequal provision of means of living and welfare facilities, even though it has been improved materially.

• World Technopolis Review
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.192-205
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• 2012

Globalization has fuelled the desire for simplicity and flexibility in rules and processes within nations. de Soto (2000) calls for the simplification of rules to enable people to join the formal economy. Friedman (2005) echoes the need for simpler rules, to attract business and capital. Market-based approaches to governing have been adopted in many nations due to globalization. Recent developments demonstrate that such approaches fail. Globalization may lead to impoverishment in the absence of proper forms of governance (Cooney 2000). That is why it has the tendency to become a "race to the bottom." Regulatory measures can be costly, and the costs of doing business are uneven across nations. This unevenness is being used as a comparative advantage. Others call this regulatory competition (Smith-Bozek 2007) or competitive governance (Schachtel and Sahmel 2000), which is similar to the model of Charles Tiebout. Collaborative governance is an approach that governments could use in lieu of the competitive method. Mechanisms that enable stakeholders to exchange information, harmonize activities, share resources, and enhance capacities (Himmelman 2002) are needed. Philippine public policy encourages a shift in modes of realizing labor market governance outcomes from command to collaboration (Sale and Bool 2010B; Sale 2011). Is labor market governance and regional development in the Philippines collaborative? Or is the opposite - competitive governance (Tiebout model) - more evident? What is the dominant approach? This preliminary research tackles these questions by looking at recent data on average and minimum wages, wage differentials, trade union density, collective bargaining coverage, small and bigger enterprises, employment, unemployment and underemployment, inflation, poverty incidence, labor productivity, family income, among others, across regions of the country. The issue is studied in the context of legal origins. Cultural explanations are broached.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.513-528
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• 2002

This paper aims to explore the recent economic restructuring and regional disparity after the IMF crisis in Korea in terms of uneven regional development. The so-called IMF crisis brought about changing Korean society and economy greatly. Although the Korean economy has been almost completely recovered from the IMF crisis, some structural problems remain. In particular, regional disparity has been deepening in the process of economic restructuring for overcoming the IMF crisis. While the Seoul metropolitan area including Kyunggi province has recovered from the crisis relatively fast and industrial production in the area has been kept active, the productive activities of local areas such as Pusan, Taegu, Kwanju and Ulsan province have shrunk significantly. On the contrary, the economic situation of Taejun province is not so bad in comparison with other local areas. The recent deepening of regional disparity after the IMF crisis can be seen as a process of economic restructuring to overcome the crisis. However, it is necessary to point out that production system has already been gradually transformed from Fordism toward post-Fordism since the early 1990s. In this context I argue that the IMF crisis, as an accelerating trigger of such spatial reconfiguration, has deepen regional disparity.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.232-242
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• 2021

The aim of this article is to examine the role of Gyeonggi Province in the industrial development in the Republic of Korea by taking a case study of the program of the national innovative cluster (NIC). In such program which has been for the purpose of the regional industrial development for non-Seoul metropolitan regions (N-SMRs) since 2018, the total firms' transactions were highly focused upon Gyeonggi Province and other Seoul metropolitan regions (SMRs). Especially, firms' transactions in 5 clusters of the total 14 clusters concentrated on Gyeonggi Province. Within this context, the future direction of this policy program for the regional industrial development and the national balanced development is more focused upon a win-win strategy between the SMR and N-SMRs rather than the dichotomy between them.