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This paper presents an ethnographic study of the Changsin-dong neighbourhood in Seoul, specifically focusing on urban development issues in the area, in which small-scale sewing workshops are agglomerated in the heart of the city. Under the names 'community alive' and 'existing urban manufacturing area,' Changsin-dong was designated as a leading area for urban regeneration in Seoul, and urban regeneration was implemented in 2014. Consequently, urban regeneration has now become an indispensable moniker for Changsin-dong, and conflicts related to various interests and political interference have arisen. Despite urban regeneration's emphasis on bottom-up approaches to overcome the limitations of developmentalism, hierarchical power relationships between governmental administrations and local cooperatives still persist over the entire course of the project. In this research, I critically examine the background surrounding how urban regeneration was fuelled and what consequences have been identified to date, and ultimately look at the subtle complexities and practical constraints of urban regeneration. Through macroscopic review of urban regeneration as well as microscopic anthropological observations, I seek to reveal the multi-layered socio-political contexts surrounding urban regeneration in Changsin-dong and unpack the nature of inevitable conflicts and contrasting interests among residents.
Jae-Young Kim (Thu,) studied this question.