This Special Lecture Series is designed to deepen the themes of Rural Revitalization in Contemporary South Korea. It is for participants of FU-IKS Summer School 2025 as well as for general audience interested in this topic.

Creator-Driven Urban Development for Regional Revitalization

Prof. Dr. Jongryn Mo (International Political Economy, Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei University)

Lecture

As regional population decline accelerates across Korea, we must look to innovative urban development strategies for solutions. This approach begins with a fundamental shift in thinking: instead of merely injecting resources into declining regions, we need to first establish vibrant urban environments that naturally attract and productively engage new participants in the local economy.

The key to regional revitalization lies in creating neighborhoods where people want to live and spend time. Architecture and thoughtful urban design serve as the essential foundation for this transformation. When the built environment is carefully crafted first, it naturally attracts people and economic activities.

This pattern is evident in Korea's most successful alleyway commercial districts, which have predominantly emerged in areas featuring distinctive architectural character—traditional hanok neighborhoods, Japanese colonial-era buildings, and clusters of unique detached houses. These physical environments facilitate meaningful interactions and creative activities, generating a virtuous cycle of regional revitalization.

The most successful urban environments provide integrated living conditions where diverse populations—local residents, visitors with personal connections to the area, creators, young professionals, small business owners, and startup entrepreneurs—can all thrive with convenient access to work, living spaces, and leisure activities. Such environments are crucial for addressing Korea's regional crisis.

This lecture examines specific regional revitalization strategies through creator-focused urban development, with particular emphasis on local content towns and creator towns that harness the power of place-based identity and creative communities.

About the lecturer

Mo Jongryn is Professor of International Political Economy at the Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei University. His research focuses on creator-driven urban development, specifically studying neighborhoods and districts where local creators thrive and build distinctive ecosystems.

He is the author of "The Rise of Creator Society" (2024) and "Alleyway Capitalism" (2017). His work demonstrates how cities that foster communities of startups, artists, and small businesses generate both cultural and economic value—a model he identifies as crucial for regional development in Korea. His research shows that recent shifts in lifestyle preferences and technological advancements have both increased demand for such creative urban environments and made them more feasible to establish.

Professor Mo holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Stanford University. His professional experience includes positions as Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and Research Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. At Yonsei University, he has served in several leadership roles, including Dean of Underwood International College, Vice President of International Affairs, and Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies.

Vacant Homes in Germany and South Korea

Dong-in Kim (Journalist at SisaIN)

Lecture

This special lecture compares the issues of vacant houses, urban regeneration, and revitalization policies in local cities in Korea and Germany. The speaker is a journalist who has long covered topics such as the housing market, regional disparities, polarization between global metropolises and small to mid-sized cities, and social mobility of the population. In particular, the lecture will explore the growing challenges of youth mobility and examine the differences in urban issues between Europe and East Asia.

About the lecturer

Kim Dong-in is a journalist at SisaIN, a leading Korean weekly news magazine, where he serves as the team leader for the Economy & International Affairs team. As a staff writer, he covers economic and urban issues including the housing market, mobility, urban regeneration, and demographic trends. He has a particular interest in reporting on regional disparities and economic polarization in South Korea.

Modernizing the Countryside, Managing the City: Korea’s Developmental Challenge

Dr. Changkeun Lee (Associate Professor, KDI School of Public Policy and Management)

Lecture

During Korea’s rapid industrialization, large-scale migration to cities—particularly Seoul—created serious urban challenges, including overcrowding and poverty. At the same time, the government faced the pressing need to modernize underdeveloped rural areas. In response, it launched ambitious initiatives like the Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement) to transform rural communities, while also tackling urban poverty through housing and welfare policies. This lecture will provide students with a deeper understanding of these dual efforts, situating them within Korea’s broader development context and exploring concrete policy examples.

About the lecturer

Changkeun Lee is an associate professor at KDI School of Public Policy and Management. His research combines techniques and perspectives of economic history, labor economics, and applied microeconomics. Specifically, he investigates firm behaviors and their association with technological and macroeconomic changes, focusing on the technology-institutions-labor market nexus. Regarding time and area, his research covers the United States during the Great Depression, South Korea since its independence, and Vietnam since its opening.

He has also engaged in numerous policy projects commissioned by the Korean government. His research includes evaluating various policies, such as active labor market policies, factory digitalization, cultural policy, and Korea's official development assistance (ODA) strategy. Before joining the KDI School, he worked for Yonsei University Mirae Campus (2018-2020) and Korea Development Institute (2015-2018). He earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2015). He is also a reserve Navy officer.

Crisis of Non-Seoul Metropolitan Areas in South Korea

Dr. Yunmi Park (Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University)

Lecture

South Korea is facing an unprecedented demographic shift marked by rapid aging and declining populations, particularly in rural and provincial cities. This lecture explores how past urban planning approaches failed to anticipate or respond to these trends, often emphasizing growth even in the context of long-term decline. In recent years, however, some municipalities have begun to incorporate “smart decline” strategies—an emerging paradigm in planning that recognizes population loss not as a temporary crisis but as a condition to be actively managed. Drawing on an evaluation of 55 comprehensive plans from depopulating municipalities in Korea, the lecture presents a Decline Strategy Score (DSS) developed using 39 criteria grounded in the international literature. Findings reveal that although some cities like Busan have adopted a more strategic approach, most plans lack concrete actions such as land use adjustment, service downsizing, and vacant housing management. The lecture highlights the need for more adaptive and context-sensitive planning tools, offering lessons for other nations grappling with urban shrinkage.

About the lecturer

Dr. Park is an associate professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Seoul National University. She earned her Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Science from Texas A&M University and has six years of professional planning experience in South Korea, which led her to become a certified planner in both South Korea and the U.S. (American Institute of Certified Planners). Prior to joining Seoul National University, she taught and conducted research at Texas A&M University, Auburn University, and Ewha Womans University.  Her specializations and research interests include smart city planning and policy, urban shrinkage and revitalization, land use planning, and spatial analytics. 

History and locality in Korean Studies: the case of Andong

Prof. Dr. Vladimir Glomb (Freie Universität Berlin)

Lecture

The lecture will explore the rise of Andong region into prominence in modern Korean humanities and its place in narratives concerning traditional Korean society. Andong region currently serves as an emblematic example of traditional Korean culture and its rural infrastructures. The purpose of the lecture is to provide a detailed analysis of various elements merged into a picture representing the current perception of Andong region as a „typical Korean rural community.“

About the lecturer

Vladimir Glomb is a researcher in the fields of Korean philosophy, North Korea and Korean language and thought. Since 2021 he has been lecturing as a guest professor in the Institute of Korean Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. His recent publications include, together with Eun-Jeung Lee and Martin Gehlmann, Confucian Academies in East Asia (Brill, 2020), together with Miriam Löwensteinová The Lives and Legacy of Kim Sisŭp (1435–1493) (Brill, 2023) and together with Martin Gehlmann Beyond the State Examinations: Evaluations of Knowledge in Premodern Korea (Harrassowitz, 2024).