How Did Gangnam Become the Utopia of South Korea’s Middle Class City Dwellers?

On April 17th, 2015, the ‘East Asian Urban Research Group’ in SNUAC hosted a colloquium called, ‘How did Gangnam become the utopia of South Korea’s middle class city dwellers?’ Dr. Kim Do-Kyun, SNUAC’s Visiting Researcher, and Director Yim Dong-Kun of the Mapping & Intuitive Modelling Institute respectively gave a presentation on ‘Gangnamization and the middle class based on real estate’ and ‘The Housing Site Development Promotion Act and spatial changes in Seoul metropolitan areas during the 1980s’.

This colloquium was held for the ongoing research on Gangnam, which the SSK East Asian Urban Research Group has been focusing on. Research on Gangnam, which is expected to have the greatest importance in the three-year SSK(Social Science Korea) project, aims to decompose Gangnam using a social science methodology.

Even though many scholars have researched on the Gangnam region, they hardly did empirical research in depth. Thus, it could not be properly evaluated how the spread of the Gangnam model gave influence on the Korean society. This reflection has become the background of this research. The presentations by both presenters are important links for this topic.

Firstly, Dr. Kim explained the creation of the ‘middle class based on real estate’ in Korea’s rapid growth period within the developmental state thesis. He mentioned that property ownership and the social welfare budget of the government are negatively related, and assessed that the Korean developmental state has established a asset-based welfare system, which is different from the Western Keynesian welfare state. Gangnam has been the stepping stone for moving towards this property-centered system.

Director Yim introduced Seoul metropolitan spatial structures produced by the Housing Site Development Promotion Act in the 1980s, using various maps. He introduced various schemes of land supply, which has been in force since the 1980s, and described how each scheme influenced the creation of Seoul’s brown field as he assessed Gangnam’s status in the apartment complex-centered urbanization. However, he denied giving too much significance to Gangnam, because Gangnam’s development greatly differs from that of new cities.

After the presentation session, a comprehensive discussion on Korea’s urbanization, apartment, and Gangnam was conducted. Various statements were made on Gangnam’s role and status in the creation of Korea’s new city model. In particular, the Research Group’s Professor Park Bae-Gyoon and Director Yim had a short argument on the way of ascribing meaning to Gangnam, which drew attention from participants.

As a result, we could share the importance of Gangnam while understanding that there are various ways to analyze it, and could acquire a theoretical guideline for conceptualizing the Gangnam model in the future. The Research Group will continue to introduce various research topics on Gangnam through colloquiums in order to provide opportunities for discussion.