韓國都市地理學의 硏究動向과 都市理解의 方向

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review and to discuss the trend and evolution of geographical research in cities during the last two decades in Korea.

Since a monograph on the geographical study of a single city appeared in 1959, urban geography has attracted more attention among Korean geographers than any other branch oh the discipline, with realation to a rapid transformation of Korean society. In the 1960s, the research on the geography of the city was concerned with the urbanization, the functional classification of cities and its characteristics, and the definition of a city.

In the early 1970s, the geographical interest of the cities was awakened by a new stimulus which is imported by the western research trend and the geographical theory in the urban studies. Special Attention was given to the central place theory and some urban geographers conducted empirical case

studies on the concepts of centrality and hierarchy. In the intraurban scale the focus was given to the delimitation and internal structure of the city center, the process of nrbanization, the intraurban popnlation densities, and the consumer behaviour. Studies of the interrelationships between cities and

their hinterlands was also conducted in the same period.