Journal of the Korean Geographical Society ISSN:1225-6633(Print) 대한지리학회지

This paper is to consider the developmental process of Korean geography on the context of socio-spatial transformations of Korea, and then to suggest briefly its alternative visions. The development of knowledge including geography seems to be made under imperatives of social functions and structure in a given period, and knowledge in turn gives power for a further development of society. Modern geography in Korea has progressed on the context of capitalist development of Korean society which can be divided into two phases, that is, the period of developmentalism and that of neoliberalism. Korean geography has been developed under influence of ideologies of developmentalism and neoliberalism, and in turn has made some contributions to socio-spatial policies. Korean geography in the future, it can be suggested, should go beyond both developmentalism and neoliberalism, and put socio-spatial welfare, civil society or community, and environmental justice into its central issues.