Seoul, Korea's Global City A New Urbanism for Upward Mobility

Seoul, as one of Asia?s rising global cities, has been a place where enormous changes in politics, industry, and culture have taken place over the last five decades. This book explores the new urbanism in Seoul from the perspective of global political economy, focusing on the contexts in which the city has witnessed the transformation of its population structure, such as the rise of the global urban middle class and the city?s increased nodal function in commodity chains. The burgeoning signs of Seoul?s status as a global city are discussed in terms of transnational tourism and the frequency of study abroad, the immigrant community, and cross-border cultural flows. Examining the labour structures within the city, economic growth policy, the role of advanced information technology, and neoliberal urban development, the authors also examine the local response in the city to its emerging status. A study of the development of the Korean capital and its deep embeddedness in the world economy, Seoul, Korea?s Global City will appeal to scholars of sociology, geography and economics with interests in political economy, urban studies and Asian studies.

Introduction 1. Seoul in the Global Economy: (Re)conceptualizing a Political Economy of Urban Development 2. Government’s Economic Growth Policy and Labor Structure in the city 3. A New Global Urban Middle Class? Gangnam Area 4. Transnational Communities in Seoul Metropolitan Area 5. New Town Project in Seoul: Neoliberal Urban Policy at Crossroad? 6. Hallyu in Global Culture Flow: Moving Cultural Products Between Cities

Kyoung-Ho Shin is Professor of Sociology at Northwest Missouri State University, USA and the editor of Multicultural Education in Global Era.

Michael Timberlake is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology at the University of Utah, USA. He is the editor of Urbanization in the World-Economy and the co-editor of What are Cities?