Slope Matters: Anti-Sprawl and Construction of Urban Nature in Yongin, South Korea
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The work is timely and interesting. However, there are still a few aspects that should be improved. I focus here only on a few major points, which are hopefully easy for the authors to take into account in the revision.
- The current introduction section is too short without adequate background information. The authors should identify the research gap(s) and research question(s) more clearly in the Introduction.
- The representativeness of the case study areas should be further explained. Why is Yongin an important case to study? How can the lessons learnt from the case study area be extended to the other regions/countries? The authors need to justify the case representativeness to attract a wider audience without local knowledge.
- In addition, the authors should build on the existing literature and specifically highlight what’s new in this research. In this case, the conclusion section should be expanded to emphasize both the theoretical contributions and policy takeaways.
Author Response
Point 1: The current introduction section is too short without adequate background information. The authors should identify the research gap(s) and research question(s) more clearly in the Introduction.
- We made it cleat that this paper aims to show the uneven power relations in urban development, especially anti-sprawl movement. More specifically we thought it is noteworthy that the role of residents has dramatically changed over past 20 years, which might contribute to the understanding the dynamic aspects of agents in environmental politics in urban area.
Point 2: The representativeness of the case study areas should be further explained. Why is Yongin an important case to study? How can the lessons learnt from the case study area be extended to the other regions/countries? The authors need to justify the case representativeness to attract a wider audience without local knowledge.
- As addressed, Yongin is the epitome of urban sprawl in Korea, which was emphasized in the paper.
Point 3: In addition, the authors should build on the existing literature and specifically highlight what’s new in this research. In this case, the conclusion section should be expanded to emphasize both the theoretical contributions and policy takeaways.
- The contribution of this paper is reemphasized in the conclusion
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper put forwards an interesting story on urban political ecology and elite informality which are prevalent in Asian urbanisation context. While it is worthwhile to unpack the dynamics and actors role in Korean context – the paper is not in a condition to be considered for publication. I have the following observations:
Title: the authors should include the case study in the title.
Abstract: Theoretical alignment is missing. The authors need to highlight the research gap and key findings. It ends up with telling what they have explored throughout this paper. I would suggest to comment on drivers of change in ordinance time to time; conflict between city government and local residents and message to guide future development in ecologically sensitive areas.
Literature review: A modest effort to shade light on critical concepts but the authors have skipped some highly relevant theoretical understandings. The literature on urban political ecology is a key area to be investigated particularly to establish the increasing conflicting co-existence of human and nature. The role of politics and drivers contributing to such conflicts are required to explore.
Urban informality is another angle needs to relate to the role of the city authorities due to rolling out development at the cost of nature. There is vast literature on elite informality and the coalition between urban elites and the government to manipulate planning practice.
Methods: quite scattered and do not relate back to how each objective was addressed. Need to clarify case study and document analysis – how do they support each other.
Findings and Discussion: the findings are poorly portrayed. There is lack sequential order to deliver the key findings. A well explained historical timeline is essential is critical to understand how development practice was transformed. There is no narrative provided on the changes made to the ordinance – what were the drivers? What is the political influence to create such undesirable planning guidelines that promote non-responsive planning practice? The authors did not shade light on housing demand and role of the pressure groups (e.g., developers)
A more detailed discussion is required to explain the political landscape in this context.
It is very difficult to separate various role of each actor. The proponents and opposition should be counted with justification. There is some reporting at the end on citizen/NGO protest, but it is unclear if they were heard.
The overall discussion is very generic and descriptive and lacks in critical thoughts and appropriate justification.
Language: The paper will be benefited from proof-reading: there are some reference style issue
Author Response
Thank you for the constructive suggestion.
We have tried our best to accommodate your comments.
Point 1: Title: the authors should include the case study in the title.
Response 1: We changed the title and included the case study in the title.
Point 2: Abstract: Theoretical alignment is missing. The authors need to highlight the research gap and key findings. It ends up with telling what they have explored throughout this paper. I would suggest to comment on drivers of change in ordinance time to time; conflict between city government and local residents and message to guide future development in ecologically sensitive areas.
Response 2: We highlighted the research focus and took out the redundant sentences about the development history of Yongin.
Point 3: Literature review: A modest effort to shade light on critical concepts but the authors have skipped some highly relevant theoretical understandings. The literature on urban political ecology is a key area to be investigated particularly to establish the increasing conflicting co-existence of human and nature. The role of politics and drivers contributing to such conflicts are required to explore.
Response 3: We tried to make it clear that this paper aims to show the dynamic aspect of actors in urban politics. Existing research well addressed that there are various actors and power relations (especially uneven relations). Naturally the power structure changes. However, the snapshot style of case studies has shown the relationship between actors. The residents in this study dramatically changed their position. The early and late stage of sprawl make significantly different ground for residents, which would be the main contribution of this paper. To deal with this, we tried to highlight the emphasis on actors in the previous studies.
Point 4: Urban informality is another angle needs to relate to the role of the city authorities due to rolling out development at the cost of nature. There is vast literature on elite informality and the coalition between urban elites and the government to manipulate planning practice.
Response 4: We believe the wrong word choice of “unplanned development” would create misunderstanding. The unplanned development in the suburb of Seoul Metropolitan Area does not mean the creation of informal economy or sectors. Rather it should be compared to the rise of suburb in the US and other Western cities. As noticed in the Western cities, suburbanization is for middle income families in Korea too. The lack of infrastructure does not mean that there is no water, sewage, and local road. Rather it means the lack of express highway to Seoul, shopping center, big hospital and so forth. Thus, we replace the “unplanned development’ with urban sprawl despite that we think urban sprawl or suburbanization in Korea is somewhat different from those of the U.S.
Point 5: Methods: quite scattered and do not relate back to how each objective was addressed. Need to clarify case study and document analysis – how do they support each other.
Findings and Discussion: the findings are poorly portrayed. There is lack sequential order to deliver the key findings. A well explained historical timeline is essential is critical to understand how development practice was transformed. There is no narrative provided on the changes made to the ordinance – what were the drivers? What is the political influence to create such undesirable planning guidelines that promote non-responsive planning practice? The authors did not shade light on housing demand and role of the pressure groups (e.g., developers)
A more detailed discussion is required to explain the political landscape in this context.
It is very difficult to separate various role of each actor. The proponents and opposition should be counted with justification. There is some reporting at the end on citizen/NGO protest, but it is unclear if they were heard.
The overall discussion is very generic and descriptive and lacks in critical thoughts and appropriate justification.
Response 5: We reorganized the text a little bit. We believe the change of literature review and manifestation of research question would make the case study more readable.
Point 6: Language: The paper will be benefited from proof-reading: there are some reference style issue
Response 6: The paper was edited by English native speaker. We examined and corrected reference style according to the Journal editorial guideline.
Reviewer 3 Report
It deals with timely topics.abstract: It should be presented in more detail where Yongin is.
Overall, more specific information is needed on the name of the region in the text such as 'suji' or 'Giheoung'. "...were opposed to further development They tried...." - please correct the typo. It is believed that an appropriate analysis method was used. Although the theoretical contribution of this study is recognized, if possible, is it possible to add suggestions related to urban residents' leisure perspectives and urban development and protection?Author Response
Thank you for the constructive suggestion.
We have tried our best to accommodate your comments.
Point 1: Overall, more specific information is needed on the name of the region in the text such as 'suji' or 'Giheoung'. "...were opposed to further development They tried...." - please correct the typo. It is believed that an appropriate analysis method was used. Although the theoretical contribution of this study is recognized, if possible, is it possible to add suggestions related to urban residents' leisure perspectives and urban development and protection?
Response 1: We make it clear that Suji and Giheung is the district of Yongin. Also, we double checked the typo and style. According to other reviewer, we reorganized the text and added a few discussion points, which we believe, touches upon what you pointed out.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have addressed most of the concerns. However, there is one minor issue. The theoretical contribution to the research field of sustainability should be better highligthed.
Author Response
Thank you for the review.
Your comments make us to rethink the research question and the contribution of this paper.
We added several sentences to highlight the theoretical points to understand sustainability in urban fringe. The points are summarized below and further explained in the draft.
This paper has attempted to clarify the constructive aspects of the complex and dynamic urban politics through an investigation of the amendment process of slope regulations in Yongin. The environmental discourse against urban development has been developed according to the nexus of interests of various actors. In this process, several points can be highlighted to understand the urban politics around urban sprawl, anti-sprawl or increasing environmental sustainability. First, socio-nature is a useful frame to examine the discussion on the development and environment in the urban fringe. As addressed, residents successfully redefined urban nature to be preserved as a forest close to apartment complexes, which leads to the restoration of slope regulation. Second, the role and position of actors in urban politics should be examined in a very local context. The trajectory of urban development in Youngin has a significant influence on the attitude to development and environment. The people in Suji and Giheung, beneficiaries of urban sprawl in the past turned into advocates of anti-sprawl to protect their economic interest and organized a series of political actions to thwart further development and sprawl.
Also, we reexamine the manuscript.
Thank you so much for your review.
