FLEXIBILIZATION THROUGH METROPOLIS - THE CASE OF POSTFORDIST SEOUL, KOREA

Predicated upon a regulationist reformulation of postfordism, this pap er attempts to explore the political economy of Korea's recent industr ial restructuring which has led to a postfordist-like regime of accumu lation. To do this, this study takes the Seoul metropolis as a case st udy. The underlying assumption is chat the postfordism of Korea obtain s its specificity through the metropolis of Seoul where a host of enab ling conditions for postfordist regulation are concentrated. By lookin g into the process of Seoul becoming the locale of Korean postfordism, a more serious concern is to draw in the consequences which the metro politanization of postfordism creates for urban society. It is assumed that in the course of postfordist urbanization Seoul's social and pol itical life has been to a great extent enriched, but at the same time is deeply 'schizophrenic' due to its being exposed to two contrasting ultra (or post) modern and premodern socio-economic dynamics simultane ously. This urban schizophrenia (or bipolarity, in more common terms) derives from the processes in which Korea's postfordism operates withi n the context of 'semi-peripheral capitalist economy'.