CAUS_Eng
Seeking Post-Developmental Urbanism
The Center for Asian Urban Societies (CAUS) seeks to answer the critical urban questions East Asian cities face today.
We explore East Asia from an urban research perspective and strive to carve out alternatives to the current developmental, territorial, and cold-war urbanization model.
Ultimately, we aim to become a platform for groundbreaking research on Asian cities that combines academic rigor with practical problem-solving abilities.
Since September 2017, the Center has conducted research on the following four topics in East Asia, through the post-developmental urbanism lens:
- Inclusive, Commoning Cities
- De-Growth, Resilient Cities
- Sustainable Transition Cities
- Post-Cold War Cities of Peace
- Urban Transition Lab
The Center plans to propose an alternative post-developmental urban paradigm in East Asia through: 1) seeing the urban in terms of multi-scalar relationality, 2) emphasizing residential communities, communication, encounters, and practices of commoning that challenge notions of exclusive territorial ownership deriving from speculative urbanization, and 3) examining de-growth urbanization initiatives that overcome growth-oriented productivism.
Making Gangnam, Following Gangnam (in Korean) is our feature publication, in which the authors conceptualize Korea’s urbanization process as “Gangnam-ization.” The book analyzes the urbanization process, interspersed with 22 life histories gathered in Gangnam (Seoul), Bundang (Gyeonggi), and Haeundae (Busan). A subsequent analysis with more data and insights is in progress for a book to be published in 2018.
In Spaces of Exception in East Asia (in Korean), we examine special economic zones in East Asia. Living in Risky Cities (in Korean) explores “riskscapes,” including nuclear power plants in East Asia. For Public Spaces (in Korean) highlights the uneven, eroding public spaces resulting from compressed urbanization. Cold War Division and Urbanization (in Korean) comparatively analyzes urbanization in North and South Korea, and was awarded the Korean Sociological Association’s 18th Award for Academic Books.
Co-researchers are presenting and publishing their works in renowned international conferences and journals, including a special issue on “Urban Developmentalism in East Asia” in Critical Sociology by Director Bae-Gyoon Park and Co-researcher Jamie Doucette, and articles in Annals of the American Association of Geographers.