Parking Space as the Connecting Space of Immobilities and Mobilities

Korean society’s perception of parking spaces as immobilities has remained in the realm of inefficient, incidental, and fixed spaces. The rise of automobiles in the wake of rapid modernization has influenced a growing interest in mobility, but the discussion of parking spaces has been slow to develop. With the enactment of the Parking Lot Act in 1979, the demand for parking space began to be reflected, but the chronic shortage of space still causes various social conflicts. Examining parking space as a case study, this study emphasizes the expansion of the view of immobilities beyond the mobility bias, and moves away from the way immobilities has been explained in terms of human behavior to address the spaces where immobilities is realized and the institutions and historical aspects that define those spaces. It reveals the spatial nature of immobilities, as well as mobilities, to be relative and active.