Mapping the Distribution Pattern of Gentrification near Urban Parks in the Case of Gyeongui Line Forest Park, Seoul, Korea

Abstract

Abstract:The objective of this study was to map the distribution pattern of gentrification, showing the adverse effect of urban parks. The study adopted the perspective that urban parks, which have thus far been featured in urban planning without much criticism, may actually bring about unintended effects. This study employed a theory of gentrification that has received increasing interest in urban sociology to investigate the other side of the gentrification phenomenon. We identified urban parks as the cause of the gentrification from the start, and verified and visualised the phenomenon in the case of the Gyeongui Line Forest Park. We determined that the area with the higher possibility of gentrification was that within 600 m of the park. Big data accumulated over the past decade were used to prepare a proactive, systematic procedure to address gentrification, which is materialising in diverse forms. Through this study, we contribute to debates on the environmental justice of urban parks. Small changes in urban space can strongly affect our healthy lifestyles and urban sustainability. From this perspective, our study's research process and its results could provide indications of how to structure and manage new urban planning projects in the future.

Added value? Denaturalizing the “good” of urban greening

“…Research on urban greening remains spatially and socially narrow (Wachsmuth, Cohen, & Angelo, ) and disproportionately focused on large, post‐industrial cities in Europe and North America. Questions remain regarding how greening plays out in non‐Anglo contexts, smaller cities, and broader operational landscapes of urbanization (Kwon, Joo, Han, & Park, ; Sze, ; Zezza & Tasciotti, ), about the about actual democratic politics of greening, especially the role of social movements (Cohen, ), and “greening's” relationship to real ecological problems and natural science knowledge (Clement & York, ; Sze et al, ). But as the field expands, one clear way to strengthen research on urban greening is by providing explanations for the sources and variable effects of green's “added value,” and a social analysis that matches the sophistication of its spatial and political economic one.…”

Progress of Gentrification Research in China: A Bibliometric Review

“…Tiny changes in urban space can affect residents' healthy lifestyle and urban sustainability [38]. As a relatively significant social phenomenon in urban renewal, gentrification, with its positive and negative effects, has gained more and more scholars' attention.…”

“…This story is in fact a sign mirroring the controversies in gentrification research in China. Furthermore, gentrification often involves inequitable development in addition to its positive effects [37], and it has provoked considerable debates and controversies about its effects [38], therefore usually appearing as a negative concept in China. Despite these controversies, Chinese scholars did not stop embracing gentrification.…”

Urban sustainability experiments in their socio-economic milieux: A quantitative approach

“…The second analytical perspective on urban agriculture within urban geography focuses on its entanglement in capital accumulation (Checker, 2011;Dooling, 2009;Gould and Lewis, 2017). A body of research on so-called 'environmental gentrification' has examined the co-option of 'community gardening' by profit-driven actors, such as real estate developers (Quastel, 2009); rising property values and rents fuelled by urban green infrastructure (Kwon et al, 2017); and the commodification of urban green spaces (Desfor and Keil, 2004). In regard to socio-cultural and consumption-related aspects of gentrification, urban agriculture is sometimes seen as a manifestation of gentrifiers' 'eco-habitus' -a "set of practises and dispositions undergirded by green values"…”