Urban Movements and the Genealogy of Urban Rights Discourses: The Case of Urban Protesters against Redevelopment and Displacement in Seoul, South Korea

Abstract

Despite significant contributions made to progressive urban politics, contemporary debates on cities and social justice are in need of adequately capturing the local historical and sociopolitical processes of how people have come to perceive the concept of rights in their struggles against the hegemonic establishments. These limitations act as constraints on overcoming hegemony imposed by the ruling class on subordinate classes and restrict a contextual understanding of such concepts as the right to the city in non-Western contexts, undermining the potential to produce locally tuned alternative strategies to build progressive and just cities. In this regard, this article discusses the evolving nature of urban rights discourses that were produced by urban protesters fighting redevelopment and displacement, paying particular attention to the experiences in Seoul that epitomized speculative urban accumulation under the (neoliberalizing) developmental state. Method-wise, the article makes use of archival records (protesters' pamphlets and newsletters), photographs, and field research archives. The data are supplemented by the author's in-depth interviews with former and current housing activists. The article argues that the urban poor have the capacity to challenge the state repression and hegemony of the ruling class ideology; that the urban movements such as the evictees' struggles against redevelopment are to be placed in the broader contexts of social movements; that concepts such as the right to the city are to be understood against the rich history of place-specific evolution of urban rights discourses; and that cross-class alliance is key to sustaining urban movements.

尽管当代有关城市与社会正义的辩论, 已对激进的城市政治做出显着的贡献, 但仍需充份捕捉人们在与霸权形构的斗争中, 如何理解权益的概念之在地历史与社会过程。这些限制, 成为克服统治阶级对从属阶级施加的霸权之限囿, 并限缩了对非西方城市脉络中的城市权概念的脉络性理解, 且有损生产建立激进与正义城市的在地化另类策略之潜能。因此, 本文探讨由对抗再发展和迫迁的城市抗争者转变中的城市权论述, 并特别关注首尔——一个象徵着在 (新自由主义化的) 发展形国家中的投机性城市积累之地。研究方法上, 本文运用档案纪录 (抗争者的宣传手册和通讯) 、照片与田野研究档案。这些数据, 由作者对于先前与当下的居住倡议者所进行的深度访谈补充之。本文主张, 城市中的穷人, 具有挑战国家压迫和统治阶级意识形态霸权的能力; 诸如被驱逐者反抗再发展的斗争之城市运动, 必须被置放在更广泛的社会运动脉络中; 诸如城市权的概念, 必须相对于城市权论述在特定地方的丰富演变历史进行理解; 跨阶级的结盟, 则是维系城市运动的关键。

Pese a las contribuciones significativas que se aportan a la política urbana progresista, los debates contemporáneos sobre las ciudades y la justicia social claman porque se involucren también los procesos locales históricos y sociopolíticos acerca de cómo ha llegado la gente a percibir el concepto de los derechos en su lucha contra los establecimientos hegemónicos. Estas limitaciones actúan como obstáculos para vencer la hegemonía impuesta por la clase dominantes sobre las subordinadas, y restringen un entendimiento contextual de conceptos como el del derecho a la ciudad en contextos no occidentales, debilitando el potencial de producir estrategias alternativas localmente afinadas para construir ciudades progresistas y justas. A este respecto, este artículo discute la naturaleza evolutiva de los discursos sobre derechos urbanos que se originaron desde acciones de manifestantes urbanos contra el redesarrollo y el desplazamiento, prestando particular atención a las experiencias de Seúl que encarnaron la acumulación especulativa urbana bajo un estado desarrollista (neoliberalizador). En términos de método, el artículo hace uso de registros de archivo (panfletos de los manifestantes y boletines informativos), fotografías y archivos de investigación de campo. Esos datos fueron suplementados con entrevistas a profundidad del autor con activistas enfrentados al problema de vivienda, anteriores y actuales. El artículo arguye que los pobres urbanos están en capacidad de desafiar la represión estatal y la hegemonía ideológica de la clase dominante; que movimientos urbanos tales como las luchas de los desahuciados contra el redesarrollo deben ser ubicados dentro del más amplio contexto de los movimientos sociales; que conceptos por el estilo del derecho a la ciudad deben entenderse contra la rica historia de la evolución específicamente relacionada con lugar en los discursos sobe derechos urbanos; y que la alianza entre clases es clave para mantener los movimientos urbanos.

Key Words:

• displacement
• rights discourses
• Seoul
• urban movements
• urban protests

关键词：:

• 迫迁
• 权益论述
• 首尔
• 城市运动
• 城市抗议。

Palabras clave:

• desplazamiento
• discursos sobre derechos
• Seúl
• movimientos urbanos
• protestas urbanas

Acknowledgments

I thank the participants and audience at the following events where various versions of this article were presented: the Centre of Korean Studies seminar, SOAS, London, February 2016; the Seoul Institute Conference on Seoul as a Model of Progressive City, Seoul, October 2015; and the 2016 Annual Conference of the American Association of Geographers, San Francisco. I would like to express my gratitude to Tim Butler, Paul Waley, Jaeho Kang, Chai-Kwan Lee, Soo-Hyun Kim, Jesook Song, Nik Heynen, my interviewees who kindly shared their valuable time with me, and the journal's anonymous reviewers for their encouragement, constructive comments, and helpful suggestions. I take sole responsibility for any possible errors in this article.

Additional information

Funding

The author acknowledges financial support from the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2017S1A3A2066514).

Notes on contributors

Hyun Bang Shin

HYUN BANG SHIN is Associate Professor of Geography and Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London WC2A 2AE, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. He is also Eminent Scholar at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea. His research centers on the critical analysis of the political economic dynamics of urbanization, the politics of redevelopment and displacement, gentrification, housing, the right to the city, and megaevents as urban spectacles, with particular attention to Asian cities.