The geography of greenbelt agriculture in Seoul and conflicting policies over land use for sustainable urban development

The geography of greenbelt agriculture in Seoul and conflicting policies over land use for sustainable urban development

During the course of the last four months, this study involved a political geographic analysis of Seoul’s urban farming policies within the greenbelt of the Seoul Capital Area (SCA). As such, it investigated not only the implications of these policies for local residents and urban farming advocates, but also how these policies fit within the changing objectives of land use regulation and deregulation within Seoul’s kaebalchehan’guyŏk (development restriction zone), or ‘greenbelt.’ The study incorporated the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. More specifically, ethnographic participant observation at urban farming sites within Seoul, interviews with non-governmental urban farming advocates and governmental actors and policy makers, surveys of urban farming participants in Seoul, and quantitative analysis of urban farming and recent regional land use and development trends with geographic information systems (GIS) technology. Through these approaches, the study examines the ways in which the everyday politics and practices of SCA urban farming negotiate recent government agendas seeking to reorganize urban farming as a sustainable development strategy. More broadly, the project has interrogated the position of urban farming within patterns of structural inequalities (Reynolds, 2015), examining how the policies and practices of urban farming reflect a localized process of ‘neoliberalization’ in Seoul (Choi, 2012; Park & Lepawsky, 2012; Peck & Tickell, 2002). Moreover, the research explores how the current status of urban farming in Seoul fits within growing worldwide support for urban farming as a fundamental component of urban environmental security, resilience, and sustainable development (De Zeeuw, Van Veenhuizen, & Dubbeling, 2011; Lee, Lee, & Lee, 2015; UN-Habitat, 2014; US Department of State, 2013). While many studies have attempted to quantify the relative benefits and disadvantages of Seoul’s greenbelt through economic or ecological modeling, this project implemented an ethnographic approach to provide political insights into how the people using this space perceive, negotiate, and are impacted by an increasing number of influential urban farming policies.