著者

大前 悠

出版者

JAPANESE ASSOCIATION FOR RURAL STUDIES

雑誌

村落社会研究ジャーナル (ISSN:18824560)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.19, no.2, pp.37-48, 2013

被引用文献数

1

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This paper aims to clarify the characteristics of urban to rural migration in South Korea and discuss the perspectives on studies of rural migration.<br> In Korea, after economic crisis in 1997, many urban residents, especially young workers moved rural areas.This phenomenon was called"kwinong", meaning return to nature.<br> The kwinong movement has experienced another increase since 2005, mainly occupied by people over the age of 40, including retirees and those taking early retirement.<br> Previous studies that discussed rural migration in developed countries focused on the rurality of inmigrants because their behavior in rural life is supposed to depend on their rurality. So rural migration has been explained under the context of Post-Productivism, that consumptive gaze at rural space prompts urban residents to move to rural area.<br> Analyzing 33 individual cases, people over the age of 50, rural migration is motivated by a search for well-being life that resembles that depicted in the literature.<br> But for those in their 40's, their motivations deeply reflect an excessive competitive society that rapidly formed after the economic crisis in 1997. The labor system force many employees to retire from their companies while in their 40's and continue to work overtime, while their children are suffered from more competitive educational environment.<br> The urban to rural migration in recent Korea may be best described as resulting from a direct urban push factor than a rural pull factor.<br> Simply analyzing this case from a Post-Productivist perspect would omit the impact that changes in social conditions under rapid Neo-liberal policy implementation have upon rural migration.<br> To better understand rural migration, it is important to properly examine the socio-economic conditions generating rural migration.