Silent deindustrialisation: a qualitative account of regional industrial decline in Gongju, South Korea

This paper introduces silent deindustrialisation to challenge evolutionary economic geography’s emphasis on large-scale, visible transformations. Using a qualitative approach centred on oral history in Gongju, South Korea, it explores how small and medium-sized towns decline through incremental erosion rather than by abrupt closure. Two cases within one municipality are treated as repeated instances of silent deindustrialisation, sharing policy invisibility and institutional neglect while diverging in their responses: one through path disappearance, the other through defensive continuity. Findings reveal how scale-dependent invisibility obscures peripheral decline from policy view, and highlight qualitative enquiry’s value in revealing economic change that escapes formal records.