Struggles over Unlicensed Housing in Seoul, 1960—80

Erik Mobrand
Additional contact information
Erik Mobrand: Department of Political Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, 11 Arts Link, AS1, Level 4, Singapore 117570, emobrand@nus.edu.sg

Urban Studies, 2008, vol. 45, issue 2, 367-389

Abstract: What happens when an exceptionally strong state takes on an especially rapid expansion of squatter settlements? A dramatic struggle of such proportions—between the forces of fast industrialisation pulling rural people into the city and an effective, modernising state intolerant of squatting—was played out in Seoul, South Korea, in the 1960s and 1970s, when that city was one of the world's fastest-growing metropolises. This paper documents battles over unlicensed housing in Seoul and finds that leaders repeatedly failed in their endeavour to clear the city's shantytowns, despite the impressive coercive capacity of the South Korean state. Instead, the state was forced to accommodate other interests, including industrial employers, more-privileged urban residents, land investors and squatters themselves. The remarkable case of Seoul offers insight into broader questions about the politics of housing the urban poor in the developing world.

Date: 2008
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098007085968 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:45:y:2008:i:2:p:367-389

DOI: 10.1177/0042098007085968

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().