Urban commons and the state: critical reflections on Korean experiences

Abstract

Recently, urban theorists and activists have led debates on the urban commons in Korea. This study sheds new light on the possibilities and contradictions of the state’s role in constructing urban commons in non-Western contexts, specifically amid Korean developmental urbanisation. Alternatively, I employ the concept of the ‘more-than-local state’ as a way of approaching not only the local state per se but also its inter-scalar interactions with supra-local states, such as the central state and its affiliates, surrounding policy-making processes. I take a critical perspective on what I call the ‘local state trap’ tendency, in which the local state is regarded as the only option for building urban commons. To support my argument, I focus on the urban commons-based urban development research project of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation, an agency affiliated with the central government, from a more-than-local state approach. Although the research project seems to fail to realise its content in practice, it could be understood as a ‘partial success’ in that it broadens our epistemological horizon on the relationship between urban commons and the state for future struggles.