History of Korean Urban Development

Synonyms

Joint redevelopment; Korean history; Urban development; Urbanization; Urban redevelopment; Urban regeneration; Urban renewal

Introduction

The concept of urban development is broad, encompassing the formation and expansion of urban spaces (urbanization) as well as the expansion and elaboration of urban society and economy (urban development), new development to replace old (urban redevelopment), making old urban spaces new (urban renewal), and the process of bringing dying urban spaces back to life (urban regeneration). A unifying element in urban development is the movement towards urbanism as a dominating value in society and the idea that development represents a sort of progress from less developed to more developed.

This chapter tries to see how that process has happened in South Korea. The nation has undergone a remarkable set of transformations in the past century, from the anti-Japanese independence struggle inaugurated 100 years ago through national liberation in 1945...