Political and Social Reality of the City of Seoul - Research Paper Example

Political and social reality of the city of Seoul Introduction Polarization refers to the process of grouping of two opinions into two extreme ends. Social polarization arises from the normal societal stratifications and depicts itself in nearly every aspect of life in the people habiting a particular geographical location. Polarization arises from conventions of life some of which people abide by naturally yet others follow economic capabilities and stratification mechanisms. Every community, including the modern day urban settlements, have different opinions among its inhabitants often resulting in either polarization or quasi polarization. The city of Seoul in southern Korea is therefore no exception and experiences one of the most radical extents of polarization evident in its pattern of habitation and the people’s way of life in the city. The special city of Seoul is the capital city of South Korea and arguably the largest modern day metropolis in the entire Korea. It is home to approximately fifty million people most of whom are South Korean nationals but also provides residence to more than ten million international business people (O'Loughlin 33). The city has an elaborate design, one that considers and showcases the economic growth of the country and its interesting history. The architecture of most skyscrapers in the city embodies the modernism in design and comfort but also imbed the rich cultural history of the South Korean people. The wide clean highways, the artistically tall building structures, and the every glaring subway stations among other interesting features such as Seoul’s nightlife all act as a unifying feature to the diverse people of the city. However, behind the glamor and the beauty, the truth of the city lies in a more analytical scrutiny of the residences’ way of life. It is conspicuous that the city has two extreme ends that find their way in virtually every aspect of life of the people in the city including the city design and its initial planning. River Han divides the city into two and the kind of life on each side of the river is distinct of Seoul economic stratification. Liberal markets have effective yet relatively concealed mechanisms of discrimination. While everywhere is accessible and every product available in the market, the price tag on the commodities and services in the market always ensure that the rich rarely interacted with the poor. Additionally, it provides for an effective mechanism of keeping the rich to their own society and possibly denying the poor access to such societies. Seoul is one such city. Being an industrial country, the South Korean economy grows very fast with international businesses giving rise to extremely wealthy businesspersons and business empires. The wealth disparity and economic imbalance influence the design since the city has to include all its residences despite their financial positioning. This has resulted in the birth of two residential regions namely the Gangnam and the Gangbuk. Gangnam resides the rich who therefore live more flamboyant lifestyles, a feature that influences the landscape of the Gangnam region on one side of River Hang. Their region exhibits unique features that specifically serve to portray their wealth and financial might (Munck 45). The Gangnam region therefore has better facilities most of which are resources to some of the residents of the region. These include better bigger high way and roads, better rail system coupled with luxurious substations. It is evident in the average life in the streets of Gangnam that life is more orderly here than in the other half of the city, the Gangbuk. In a split opposite, Gangbuk is residence to the city low income earner. Despite being nearly half of the entire city of Seoul, it resides more than seventy percent of the city’s population. As is always the case, the poor normally outnumber the rich in any normal society, Gangbuk is evidently more populated than Gangnam a fact which gives rise to most of its predicament. It is difficult to maintain law and order in a populous place. The high number of people makes it difficult to keep track. Furthermore, they stretch most of the resources thereby resulting in chaos on most occasions. Gangbuk therefore looks more populated and a lot less orderly than Gannam. In an attempt to capitalize on the high population, investors set up companies and factories on Gangbuk. This makes the companies nearer to the possible source of labor a feature that has resulted in the increasing number of companies on the side of the city (Dinnie 12). Such an arrangement invokes the attention of the city planners who in an attempt to regulate human accidents set aside specific regions on the side of the city specifically for industries. Industries pollute the environment through the production of carbon and excessive discharge of sewer, it is therefore adequately appropriate to allude that Gangnam is cleaner and more habitable than Gangbuk. The Gangnam neighborhood is therefore less populated and resources are capable of sustaining the human population of the region. The security apparatus provides an effective representation of the people most of who compliment the state security machinery with their private security detail. The Gangnum region is therefore more orderly. Owing to these factors and the lifestyle of its residents, most of the businesses in the neighborhood are hospitable in nature and comprise of airlines, banks and hotels. Descent human bases services that rarely pollute the environment. The schools and colleges in the rich neighborhood are qualitative; most of them pride themselves in dispensing high quality services and therefore charge exorbitant tuition and boarding fees. Such facilities are therefore inaccessible by majority of Guangbuk residents (Beachler 33). This ensures that the rich limit their interactions with themselves through the nature of the services they seek and the places they obtain such services. Both the societies are self-sustaining but the difference in the societal structuring is obviously different. The government could have planned for an equal city and thereby provided equal infrastructure for each of the two sides of the river but the subsequent settlement eventually elevated one side, the Gangnam into a high society with an obvious flamboyant lifestyle that reflect on its subsequent expansion plan . The Gangbuk side on the other hand after obtaining equal government consideration expanded to levels unimagined of by the city planners. In retrospect, Seoul city is economically polarized with the two opposing sides of the city having a distinct divider, which is the river. The two sides of the river exhibit different lifestyles arising and therefore depicting the two different economic classes of the people habiting the regions. However, the economic class mechanism of stratification does not limit the migration of the people from one region to the other and therefore residents with the ability to relocate do so freely. Works cited Beachler, Brigid K. Mind the Gap: Economic & Social Polarization & the Prospects for Labor Revitalization in London. , 2005. Print. Dinnie, Keith. City Branding: Theory and Cases. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire [England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Print. Munck, Ronaldo. Globalization and Social Exclusion: A Transformationalist Perspective. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2005. Internet resource. O'Loughlin, John V. Social Polarization in Post-Industrial Metropolises. Berlin [u.a.: de Gruyter, 1996. Print. Read More