Rearranging Mobilities and Immobilities and Place-Remaking During COVID-19: Governing the Pandemic Situation Through (Im)mobilities in South Korea

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how ‘governmobility, ' governing through (im)mobilities, is a factor in South Korea’s efforts to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and contain its spread. The case of South Korea articulates the practices of governmobility and technological self-governance without recourse to the extreme measure of a lockdown to protect its citizens. The technological self-governance discussed here, unlike social and political governance, is not only constituted by an internalized regulation of im/mobilities but more specifically those mobilities enacted through communication technologies facilitating collective relations. This chapter argues that the technological self-governance that enables people to adjust to their new reality and continue with their daily lives is instrumental to maintaining governmobility. The discussion also demonstrates that, though communication technology supports the technological self-governance, compliance would have proved inadequate without the ingrained mentality to rally during national crises. The South Korea government, assured that its citizens would cooperate, adapted that same technology for surveillance to trace individuals conceivably exposed to the virus in their campaign to isolate only those people at risk. The chapter concludes by discussing place-remaking strategies including flexible places and smart city planning.