A research blog on collective action, social innovation and resilient communities and cities

  • Community capacity building in marginalised neighbourhoods of Seoul*

    Three decades ago, South Korean director Kim Dong-won made two important documentaries about the struggles and everyday life of the people of Songhak Maeul. Yet Songhak Maeul remains little-known as a successful case of community capacity building in a marginalised neighbourhood in Seoul. This article provides a historical background and explains the impact of market-driven urban redevelopment on neighbourhood…

  • Fieldwork on community gardening in Singapore

    Fieldwork on community gardening in Singapore is coming to an end. During his stay, Blaž talked to more than twenty interviewees including gardeners, garden managers and community activists from Boon Lay Nature Garden, Clementi Woods Park Allotment, City Sprouts at Henderson and West Coast Park, Funan Urban Farm, Horts Park Allotment, Jalan Peletok Art Garden,…

  • Casie goes to Singapore!

    The time has come. For the next two months, the Asia Research Institute, ARI at the National University of Singapore will be hosting CASIE. The stay in Singapore aims to explore the importance of neighbourhood collective action and social innovation in building resilient communities in the city. In addition to the ethnographic fieldwork and research…

  • Korean neighbourhoods beyond Korea

    Neighbourhoods are known for their social networks and identities embedded in particular places. Blaž will present on a seminar on Korean neighbourhoods beyond Korea, comparing three Korean neighbourhoods with strong social networks and distinct identities based on social class and/or ethnicity. Of these neighbourhoods, only Haengdang-dong is located in Korea. It used to be one…

  • Education and the uptake of research in society

    CASIE aims to promote the uptake of research in society through knowledge exchange and collaboration between the academia, communities, civil society, and the public sector. Social learning and transformative education are important means to achieve this goal. In the coming weeks, Blaž will talk to the pupils of Primary School in Trnovo, architecture students at…

  • Changing scope of gentrification in Seoul

    Kim Kon and Blaž published an article in The Developing Economies journal on the changing scope of gentrification in Seoul that compares neighbourhood transformation and displacement in traditional industrial clusters in the city. After endless reviewing, revising and waiting, the article Changing scope of gentrification in Seoul? Neighbourhood transformation and displacement in Sangwangsimni and Changsin-Sungin…

  • The importance of knowledge and the university in society

    Blaž will be presenting CASIE at the Meeting Point session of the SMUL conference in Ljubljana, which focuses on the importance and value of knowledge and the university in today’s society. The research Neighbourhood Collective Action and Social Innovation for Resilient Cities in East Asia and Europe, CASIE, seeks to understand the importance of collective…

  • Neighbourhood improvement and displacement in Seoul*

    Displacement of residents and traditional industries used to be an integral part of neighbourhood improvement in Seoul. While direct displacement has recently declined, new forms of indirect displacement are emerging as a result of the residents’ feelings of powerlessness, emotional distress and alienation, caused by the ongoing neighbourhood transformation in the city. Introduction Displacement has…

  • Urban gardening in South Korea and Slovenia as neighbourhood collective action*

    Ieum and Onkraj gradbišča community gardens in Incheon and Ljubljana show that the social importance of urban gardening as a neighbourhood collective action is growing in South Korea and Slovenia, largely due to the engagement of urban gardening activists and civil society organisations. Introduction: Urban gardening as collective actionUrban gardening refers to non-commercial food production…