Dreams and Migration in South Korea’s Border Region: Landscape Change and Environmental Impacts

Abstract

The border region of South Korea has undergone dramatic social and environmental changes since the late 1990s with shifts in governmental regimes. Under the proliberal government (1997–2007) that enhanced economic ties between North and South Korea, the border region was open for introducing new people and industries. With a new conservative governmental regime in the past decade (2007–2017), social and environmental challenges emerged in the border region. Such challenges were not uniformly present throughout different areas, however. We examined the spatial transformation of the border region using sociodemography, economy, landscape fragmentation, and water quality data with a focus on two gateway regions (Paju and Goseong) as representative cases. Although these two regions are similar in size and served as central nodes of flow between the two Koreas, they experienced different trajectories under disparate national and regional policies. In Paju, a closer region to Seoul, the capital of South Korea, the landscape became more fragmented as a result of urban expansion, but different subcenters were formed to accommodate the growing population and industries that were less dependent on external shocks, contributing to the economic and environmental resilience of the region. In contrast, with continuous declining aging population, Goseong’s landscape became less fragmented with one remaining main urban center, but its economy, society, and environment became fragile after the closure of the Kumgangsan tour. These different patterns of regional resilience can be fully understood by considering various social, environmental, and institutional factors acting on multiple scales that helped shape the region’s stability. Key Words: border region, landscape fragmentation, resilience, scale, water quality.

大众环境主义若再生产社会秩序结构的话, 则可能产生有限的民主成果。本文通过检视公民认识论的分析架构, 补充政治生态学和科学与技术研究的环境叙事的当前使用, 寻求推进我们对于环境民主化的理解。公民认识论是先于国家及其他行动者企图维持不容挑战的政治秩序的存在面向。它们以还原的方式显示叙事形成的结构, 以及不同行动者的知识与政治主体如何共同生产, 因而扩充当前的分析。本文将此一分析运用至泰国的大众环境主义, 并特别关照1968年至今的社区森林与伐木。本文结合访谈与历史新闻报导的内容分析, 展现多样的行动者——包括国家、环境保育菁英, 以及农民运动倡议者——如何遵循适当的社区文化与行为的未受挑战之常规, 组织有关森林的政治倡议与生态宣称。近年来, 这些行动维护有关森林与社会的叙事, 同时反对对社区和森林而言可说更具培力远见的另类方案。本文主张, 揭露公民认识论, 能够较根据既有叙事涉入环境政治、抑或是单独分析叙事的限制而言, 对更深刻的环境民主化形式做出贡献。关键词：威权主义, 环境主义, 政治生态学, 科学与技术研究, 泰国。

La región limítrofe de Corea del Sur ha experimentado dramáticos cambios sociales y ambientales desde finales de los 1990, con los cambios de los regímenes gubernamentales. Bajo el gobierno pro-liberal (1997–2007), que mejoró los lazos económicos entre las dos Coreas, la región fronteriza estuvo abierta a la llegada de nueva gente e industrias. Con un nuevo régimen de gobierno conservador en la década pasada (2007–2017), en la región limítrofe surgieron retos sociales y ambientales, aunque tales retos no se presentaron uniformemente distribuidos en diferentes áreas. Examinamos la transformación espacial de la región fronteriza utilizando datos de socio-demografía, economía, fragmentación del paisaje y calidad del agua, concentrándonos en dos regiones de acceso (Paju y Goseong), como casos representativos. Aunque las dos regiones son similares en tamaño y sirvieron como nodos centrales de flujo entre las dos Coreas, experimentaron diferentes trayectorias bajo políticas nacionales y regionales discrepantes. En Paju, una región más cercana a Seúl, la capital de Corea del Sur, el paisaje experimentó mayor fragmentación como resultado de la expansión urbana, pero se formaron diferentes subcentros para acomodar la creciente población y las industria que tenían menos dependencia de conmociones externas, contribuyendo a la resiliencia económica y ambiental de la región. En contraste, con la continuada declinación de la población vieja, el paisaje de Goseong se hizo menos fragmentado, con un centro urbano que se mantuvo, aunque su economía, sociedad y medio ambiente se hicieron frágiles después de la clausura del tour de Kumgangsan. Tan diferentes patrones de resiliencia regional pueden entenderse cabalmente tomando en cuenta varios factores sociales, ambientales e institucionales, que actúan a múltiples escalas para ayudar a configurar la estabilidad de la región.

Palabras clave:

• calidad del agua
• escala
• fragmentación del paisaje
• región fronteriza
• resiliencia.

Acknowledgments

We appreciate Dr. Junghoon Lee of Kyonggi Research Institute who provided necessary documents used in the article. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped refine many points of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (IPET) through (Animal Disease Management Technology Development Program), funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) (grant number 315038-2).

Notes on contributors

Heejun Chang

HEEJUN CHANG is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography and a Fellow of the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University, Portland, OR 97201. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include combined impacts of climate change and urbanization on water resources, spatial analysis and modeling, and community resilience in coupled social and ecological systems.

Sunhak Bae

SUNHAK BAE is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography Education, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon-Si, Gangwon-Do, South Korea. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include disease epidemiology, the DMZ of North and South Korea, geographic information system–based space analysis methods, and machine learning.

Kyunghyun Park

KYUNGHYUN PARK is an Associate Research Fellow and a Manager of Research Planning and Evaluation Team at the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, Sejong, South Korea. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include urban and economic geography, industrial agglomeration, cultural and creative industries, and uneven development.