| This research investigates (1) geographical disparities in the changes in house prices and rent levels at spatial multi-scales (national, inter-urban, and intra-urban), (2) the impact of the financial crisis on Korean housing markets across geographical multi scales, (3) socio-economic and political processes influencing the geographical variations, (4) spatiality and configuration of housing submarkets, (5) the roles of housing agents in the (re)production of housing space in the Korean context and their interrelationships, and (6) the social and political construction of geographical scale in conjunction with Korean housing politics.; Using forty-one Korean cities at the inter-urban scale and Seoul at the intea-urban scale, as the study area, I examine how the financial crisis caused the reconfiguration of Korean urban housing markets. The contrasting spatial variations in the degree of vulnerability to the financial crisis differently redistributed real estate wealth at spatial multi-scales. The Theil index analysis demonstrates that the degree of spatial inequalities in house prices and rent levels not only across Korean cities but also within Seoul has increased during the last two decades, and was reinforced by the financial crisis.; Founded theoretically on both the institutional approach to housing markets and the politics of scale, this research conceptualizes how social actors operate across spatial scales by utilizing institutional networks, and how geographical scales have been politically constructed by contentious housing agents in order to gain more control over the (re)production of housing space at spatial multi-scales in the Korean context.; Under a regulatory regime, the Korean central government gained more control over the (re)production of housing space at geographical multi-scales by means of ‘jumping scales,’ specifically ‘down-scaling.’ The Korean central government has increasingly obtained the capacity to ‘jump scales’ by using not only multiscalar strategies for housing developments, but also taking advantage of various scales of institutional networking among the central and local governments, quasi-governmental institutions, and Korean mutinational corporations (Chaebols), across the state. Deploying different forms of ‘scales of regulation,’ the Korean central government included Chaebols and upper- and middle-income groups for the legitimization of housing projects, but excluded local-scale grassroots organizations and unprivileged social groups as decision-makers. |
