The developmental state, speculative urbanisation and the politics of displacement in gentrifying Seoul

Hyun Bang Shin and Soo-Hyun Kim
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Hyun Bang Shin: London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Soo-Hyun Kim: Sejong University, Republic of Korea

Urban Studies, 2016, vol. 53, issue 3, 540-559

Abstract: What does gentrification mean under speculative urbanisation led by a strong developmental state? This paper analyses the contemporary history of Seoul’s urban redevelopment, arguing that new-build gentrification is an endogenous process embedded in Korea’s highly speculative urban development processes from the 1980s. Property owners, construction firms and local/central governments coalesce, facilitating the extraction of exchange value by closing the rent gap. Displacement of poorer owner-occupiers and tenants was requisite for the success of speculative accumulation. Furthermore, the paper also contends that Korea’s speculative urbanisation under the strong developmental (and later (neo-)liberalising) state has rendered popular resistance to displacement ineffective despite its initial success in securing state concessions. Examining the experience of Seoul in times of condensed industrialisation and speculative urbanisation helps inform the existing literature on gentrification by resorting to non-Western empirics.

Keywords: developmental state; gentrification; Korea; Seoul; speculative urbanisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:53:y:2016:i:3:p:540-559

DOI: 10.1177/0042098014565745

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