Rethinking the DMZ as the commons: the affective possibilities of the DMZ

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study provides a critical analysis of the representation of the DMZ in South Korea as an eco-peace area in the post-Cold War era, shedding light on how to deconstruct the Eco-Peace-Oriented Discourses (EODs) and to unveiling the marginalized nature of the DMZ and border society. Challenging how the current academic discourses distort the nature of the DMZ as a mythological space, this article aims to provide an alternative perspective to the DMZ border society by focusing on the affective relationality of landmines with environment and humans in the border area. In particular, it argues that we should rethink the DMZ as the marginalized border society by paying attention to the following three aspects: (1) the main features of EODs; (2) the gap between the mythology of the EODs and the marginalized reality of the DMZ border society; and (3) the slow violence of landmines and the internalized, invisible, and affective marginalization of the border society.