Urban Governance Change and Its Influence on Plan-Making Work in Seoul

Abstract

The change of governance form in a contemporary society has influenced on the social process through which collective affairs are managed. The aim of this paper is to articulate urban governance form and its influence on plan-making work in Seoul. In doing so, this paper seeks to both provide an account of governance context and explain how the governance change influence plan-making practices in a city. This work was made on the basis of institutional perspectives on urban governance which is necessary for both understanding and evaluating the level of plan-making exercises. As the result of this study, many changes of the planning system, institutional relations and plan-making styles were identified after the 1990s in Seoul. This paper concludes that urban governance change is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition for more democratic plan-making work. If plan-making had followed the changes in the governance context, it would have the following characteristics: 1) establishing more localized governance; 2) wiping out the authoritarian-style governance of the public sector; and 3) balancing power relations between plan-makers and other stakeholders in the production of a plan.