24 to 26 September 2015

The contributors to this workshop will explore neo-developmentalism in Korea in the new millennium. Examples will include 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. We will further explore:

  • 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 will provide 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 will be a collection of manuscripts to be submitted to a journal for a special issue.

Keynote Lectures:

Thursday, 24 September 2015 at the University of Toronto:  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 – Bae-Gyoon Park (Seoul National University)

Friday, 25 Septmeber 2015 at York University: Rostow’s Fingerprints, Park’s Boot Prints, Lee’s Rhetorical Imprint: Transnational Dimensions of South Korean and Singaporean Developmentalism in the 1960s-1990s –  Jim Glassman (University of British Columbia)

The workshop schedule is available here.

Organizing Committee: Hong Kal (Visual Arts, York University), Jesook Song (Anthropology, University of Toronto), Laam Hae (Political Science, York University)

Sponsors: Centre for the Study of Korea at the Unviersity of Toronto and the following York University units: Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Office of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation, and the York Centre ofr Asian Research (YCAR). The event is co-sponsored by the Asian Institute and the Dr. David Chu Program in Asia-Pacific Studies, both at the University of Toronto.

 

For more information: ycar@yorku.ca