resourceful homepage

Ended up at the homepage of Dr Chông Sôk (정석, Jeong Seok or something), a researcher at the Seoul Development Institute. Doesn't seem to have been updated very often lately, but still includes lots of downloaded material and links about urban policies, urban planning, community projects and so on. His research has the goal of making Seoul - or any other big Korean city - more walkable, enjoyable, more communal with village-like qualities. He has a lot of work to do... One good idea: downloading interesting articles on one's own homepage space for future reference (there are copyrights but...) Some thoughts: • "Making a community" campaigns are often done with apartment areas in mind, with the idea that community consciousness is lacking especially there (while the small housing areas [chut'aekka], apparently having village-like qualities, are already communities in themselves) • The idealized village; Dr Jeong (Chông) uses the image of village in his schemes of desirable urban living, but "village" is of course not that problematic; the nostalgy is in many senses strong, kohyang ideology is strong, so it takes guts to denounce the village imagery (for me as an anthro, with the origins of the discipline in the study of small clearly definable communities, that image is very enticing as well) • There are actually more village-like qualities in apartment blocks than in small housing neighborhoods; administrative responsibilities, clearly defined areas and in a sense non-voluntary belongingness Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: academic ∙ urbanspace ∙