Space and Environment
- P-ISSN1225-6706
- E-ISSN2733-4295
- KCI
ISSN : 1225-6706
Vol.31 No.4
Abstract
This study examines the inequitable distribution of vaccines under the COVID-19 pandemic, and explores the context of the emergence of health inequality and restrictions on mobility opportunities, with a case of the African continent, in order to emphasize the need for a change in awareness and practical strategies to implement mobility justice. Under the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination status and the type of vaccine administered has become the standard for border management as new identity information, which (re)produces discriminatory and exclusive relationships. In the case of Africa, health inequality that has persisted since the colonial era has led to inequality in vaccine distribution in the context of COVID-19, which is again exacerbating socioeconomic vulnerability through reduced mobility opportunities and network capital. The exclusive vaccine approval and unequal vaccine procurement in countries around the world are restructuring border management methods and mobility, which represents the biogeopolitics of infectious diseases to achieve geopolitical goals based on biopolitical governance. Breaking the flow that leads to worsening health inequality, mobility reduction, and socioeconomic vulnerability in underdeveloped countries is primarily to practice distributive justice through equal distribution of vaccines. It ultimately requires contemplation and reflection on whether the way in which the human body is regarded as a boundary through vaccines leads to the differentiation of mobility rights and opportunities.
Abstract
Jeju Global Education City(JGEC) attracts educational migration to Jeju as an alternative space for overseas study and English education. This study aims to examine the placeness of JGEC formed by educational migration mobility and discusses the social and spatial implications. To this end, we investigate differential features and landscapes of JGEC compared to the existing Jeju. In addition, we examine how educational migration mobility is embedded to JGEC by doing so, how JGEC is perceived as a place by migrants. We found that educational migrants produced a heterogeneous site, practiced temporary embeddedness and relationships with other actors in JGEC, and lived with a sense of place as a passage to other spaces. As a result, JGEC constructs heterogeneity, temporality, and passageness of placeness through educational migration mobility.
Abstract
This paper is an attempt to explore the possibility of critical studies on logistics by examining the structural changes of the mobilities regime in Korean society, particularly the changes of logistics as knowledge/power system as well as logistical media technology, which emerged in the current Covid-19 pandemic. It aims to examine the meaning and importance of a critical approach to the logistic knowledge/power system and logistical media technology while looking at the recent changes in Korean society from the perspective of changes in the knowledge/power system and media technologies related to logistics. First, this paper will examine the concept and origin of logistics focusing on the power-ridden characteristics of the logistic knowledge/power system. Next, this paper will address the two characteristic aspects of modern logistics in the shifting mode of capital accumulation through the establishment of global supply chains: the articulation of modern logistics with the financial system and the use of digital technologies by the modern logistics. In conclusion, in the historical conjuncture of today's pandemic, the changes of the capital accumulation regime in the global supply-chain capitalism will be examined. It is also discussed how they are related to the core theme of critical studies on logistics. I will also discuss on the implications of today's pandemic situation for both critical studies on logistics and the existing media cultural studies.
Abstract
Agrophotovoltaics has emerged as a breakthrough in resolving both climate crisis and economic crisis of rural reality, such as aging and declining farm household income, by simultaneously carrying out agricultural production and power generation projects. However, they have not been welcomed by farmers and become subject to social conflicts. Thus, this study explored whether agrophotovoltaics have a possibility to be a strategic niche to achieve a ‘sustainable rural society’ and ‘energy transition’ and what factors are needed to expand the niche through three processes of strategic niche management, ‘expectation, social network, and learning.’ After conducting in-depth interviews with stakeholders surrounding agrophotovoltaics and analyzed the current issues concerning agrophotovoltaics, this study found that agrophotovoltaics are encouraging in that there is expectation of additional income increase for farmers and they are widely discussed through seminars and public hearings by stakeholders in various fields as a way of farmer-led energy transition. However, it was found that there are still unresolved issues and areas that need to be improved, so the stakeholders' continuous efforts are needed. In particular, it was confirmed that there were points of concern for the opposite side within the surface conflict arising from the policy-system and economic discussions of the learning process. As a result, local governments can set up small-scale projects on a trial basis to foster farmers' acceptance or form residents' participatory cooperatives to resolve difficulties through the management of joint project process. The true value of agrophotovoltaic lies in the continuous farming and generation of renewable energy power while preserving the farmlands environment. In order to become a strategic niche for energy transition, it should be clear that farmers are main agents of the project, fully considering the position of farmers in various situations including tenant farmers and clarifying the direction of energy transition, and space for farmers need to be opened to make them as innovative agents.
Abstract
While the argument that local policy or planning affects individual’s health is not new, it has yet to be further explored how effective it is and how fairly citizens benefit from diverse health-friendly policy or programs. This manuscript examines local policies’ health impact from two perspectives: effectiveness and equity. At the outset, we review relevant theories and practices, including health disparities and Korea’s health city initiatives. The issue of health equity embraces both academic and practical significance; this paper shows a different way to measure if the two values are compatible or mutually-exclusive, employing a new conceptual framework to analyze how the two can be reconciled. Possible measurements for both values are also examined. Future empirical analyses, based on a framework explored in this paper, would reveal more empirical evidence to explain the interaction between health effectiveness and health equity.
Abstract
This paper, considering the young unmarried women’s experiences of making their own space in Jeju Island, explores the ways of interpreting the hierarchical dualism of geographical center and periphery in South Korea. Our research question is how the young women who live in Jeju perceive and interpret their own life context, and then how they cope with spatial hierarchy between the urban and the rural, and between Seoul and the local. In some sense, their encounter with the spatial hierarchy cannot but help break through the effects of intermingling social forces such as locality, gender and class. The deepening gap of material (economic) opportunities and of symbolic power between the central and peripheral region is a big challenge to the young generation in Jeju. We define their practices of making their own living spaces as ‘processive’ and regard these as ‘remaining’ in their living context. Their practices are neglected in the cultural circumstance that forces the young generation to sacrifice the present for the future. That sacrifice is justified as an investment. It looks like an structurally imposed obstacle. Nevertheless, the young women, particularly unmarried women try to reclaim new places through negotiating between their position within the structure and their own strategic choice. It can be their detour through which they rethink the spatial hierarchy.