September 24-26, 2015

The contributors to this workshop explored neo-developmentalism in Korea within the new millennium. Examples included the neo-liberal globalization of economic activities and social/civic movements (including the Sae-maa-eul movement), the transnational transfer of specific policies (e.g., the construction of Chinatown), the construction of global network hubs (e.g., airports), the inculcation of global citizenry (e.g., Jeju Educational City), and global city marketing through urban development that hinges on environmental friendliness. The workshop participants further explored:

• The changing relationship between the state, market, and civil/political society in Korea.
• The reterritorialization of developmentalism (at the scales of the national, sub-national, regional, urban, and local/global communities).
• The continuity/discontinuity between the spatiality of developmentalism in Korea during the 1960s through the 1980s, and the developmentalism of the contemporary period.
• A range of ruptures and fissures that were generated by developmentalist regimes in the past and present. This work provides an important intervention into discussions on Korean developmentalism and the developmental state among academics and in policy circles that have uncritically extolled the Korean developmentalist regime for generating an economic miracle in the country.

The end product of the workshop was a collection of manuscripts to be submitted to a journal for a special issue. This workshop was closed to the public with the exception of the opening keynote speaker’s session. In addition to the three organizers, six authors, two keynote speakers, and two discussants, the workshop invited Korean studies scholars and students whose research subjects were related to the workshop theme.

Workshop Schedule

Day 1 | Thursday, September 24 | 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto | 1 Devonshire Place, North House, Room 208N

• Lecture by Baegyoon Park (Seoul National University), “Developmental State and Politics of Industrial Complex Development in South Korea: A Multi-scalar Analysis of the Development of Masan Free Export Zone in the 1960s”

Day 2 | Friday, September 25 | 8:30am – 5:30pm

Kaneff Tower, York University | 4700 Keele Street, Room 857

• Session 1 (morning): Hyesun Jeong (Ohio State University), “Giving Like a Developmental State: South Korea’s Foreign Aid and Exportation of Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement)”
• Lecture (11:30am – 12:30pm): Jim Glassman (University of British Columbia), “Rostow’s fingerprints, Park’s boot prints: Transnational dimensions of South Korean developmentalism in the 1960s-70s.”
  Ross Building, York University, Room N120
• Session 2 (afternoon): Youjeong Oh (University of Texas, Austin), “Uneven Development and Aspirations in Jeju Global
  Education City”
• Session 3 (afternoon): Sujin Eom (University of California, Berkeley), “Enclave Urbanism: Transnational Transfer of Urban
  Knowledge and the Production of Chinatown”

Day 3 | Saturday, September 26 | 8:30am – 5:30pm

• Session 4 (morning): Alice Kim (Seoul National University), “The World-Class Globalism of Incheon Airport and Its
  Developmentalist History”
• Session 5 (morning): Hong Kal (York University), “DRP (Dongdaemun Rooftop Paradise) as Counter-Spectacle”
• Session 6 (afternoon): Seo Young Park (Scripps College), “Code Eco: Aspiration and Contraditions of Environmental
  Development”
• Session 7 (afternoon): General Discussion

Workshop Organizers: Hong Kal (Visual Art, York University), Jesook Song (Anthropology, University of Toronto), Laam Hae (Political Science, York University)

Sponsors: Centre for the Study of Korea, York Center for Asian Research (YCAR), Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) and York University
Co-sponsors: Asian Institute, Dr. David Chu Program in Asia-Pacific Studies