著者

縄倉 晶雄

出版者

北東アジア学会

雑誌

北東アジア地域研究 (ISSN:1882692X)

巻号頁・発行日

no.20, pp.1-16, 2014

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This paper analyzes how South Korea's pro-environmental policies in the 1990s worked on its bi-polarized rural communities. In the 1980s, South Korea's government pursued mechanization of agricultural works and extension of farmlands per family. While these measures succeeded in the improvement of agricultural performance nationwide, they were criticized to worsen income inequality among farmers and distort rural communities. In the 1990s, the government attempted pro-environmental agriculture with (1) organic farming, (2) direct payment to peasants and local groups of farmers, and (3) green tourism. The government aimed that farmers revitalize their local communities in the process of these measures. Despite the introduction of pro-environmental policies, however, Korea's rural communities were remained unequal and distorted. Because the introduction of new farming technology was complicated for less-educated peasants, the inequality among farmers sustained. And, more importantly, because the government's policies were void of concrete and exact steps of decreasing inequality and forming cooperation among farmers, the farmers had poor incentives to cooperate with their local neighbors.