2022, Vol.15, No.2

탈경계인문학Trans-Humanities 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.57

pISSN : 2092-6081 / eISSN : 2383-9899
https://journal.kci.go.kr/eih

Is a city a technology? This study begins with the hypothesis that interesting insights can be obtained by comparing studies on technology and those on the city. Although technology and the city cannot be identified directly, one can find fresh ideas from applying respective ideas to each other based on their commonalities and connections. For example, various proposals and alternatives presented in urban studies regarding the future of the city lead to rethinking the subject of technological philosophy from a new perspective. After examining definitions of technology and the city in Section 1, Section 2 lists the features commonly presented in the philosophy of technology and urban studies. Section 3 reveals that even if one does not identify technologies and cities, there are reasons to compare the philosophy of technology and urban studies. Section 4 is a case study arguing Senet's idea of smart cities suggests a slightly different new path to the long-standing discussion in the philosophy of technology concerning pessimism, optimism, and control over the future of technology and technological society.

This study examines the gap between the idea of a "future city" and the reality that was advocated during the construction of Sewoon Shopping Center in Seoul in 1966. The construction of Sewoon Shopping Center, which was carried out as a "meeting" between Seoul Mayor Kim Hyun-ok and architect Kim Soo-geun, was linked to the city's urban development and at the same time to the exhibition effect on "economic development" advocated by the Park Chung-hee Administration. The words that modify Sewoon Shopping Center, which is a building with the largest, world's best, and advanced facilities, were also used in the Presidential election that followed the achievements of the Park Chung-hee regime's "modernization" at the time of its construction. However, the 'future' spatial characteristics of Sewoon Shopping Center, such as public walking decks, separation of pedestrians and cars, public gardens, and future schools, which were presented at the beginning of its construction, were transformed, abandoned, and became different spaces whenever faced with political, economic, and practical problems.

This study examines the disaster narratives that appeared in Korean literature around the 2010s and reveals the new posthumanistic sensitivity that appeared in these narratives. From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, many apocalyptic narratives dealing with disasters were created in Korean literature and popular culture. However, the disaster narratives of that period are filled with signs of despair and destruction for mankind, which have been foretold the end of the world. In recent Korean novels released around 2010, the disaster narratives have begun to change significantly. Among them, some writers have shown more dramatic changes and revealed new sensitivities to the end of history. These writers faithfully inherit the traditions of existing disaster narratives and the customs of the SF genre and deal with various global disasters that humanity will face. New disaster narratives reveal posthumanistic sensitivity by presenting new civilizations in which humans coexist with non-human beings.