Building the world: Situating Pyongyang’s architecture between globalization, history, and inhabited space

The aim of this thesis is to analyze Pyongyang's changing architecture taking into account the North Korean regime's recent implementation of a market-oriented economy and the social and spatial effects of that. The analysis is based on the prediction of the book "Unprecedented Pyongyang", describing the transformation of the iconic monuments and the specific socialist morphology of Pyongyang to a more "functional" capitalistic city. By analyzing architecture, and the social production of such the thesis sheds light on the possible clash between the social and the political body in North Korea, explaining the mechanisms of cultural propaganda and especially advocating for the prevalence of agency in Pyongyang's inhabited space. The study is situated within the broader debate of globalization and modernization as possible external forces, being implemented in Pyongyang and represented in build form. The thesis questions whether the economic transitioning and a resulting spatial and...Show moreThe aim of this thesis is to analyze Pyongyang's changing architecture taking into account the North Korean regime's recent implementation of a market-oriented economy and the social and spatial effects of that. The analysis is based on the prediction of the book "Unprecedented Pyongyang", describing the transformation of the iconic monuments and the specific socialist morphology of Pyongyang to a more "functional" capitalistic city. By analyzing architecture, and the social production of such the thesis sheds light on the possible clash between the social and the political body in North Korea, explaining the mechanisms of cultural propaganda and especially advocating for the prevalence of agency in Pyongyang's inhabited space. The study is situated within the broader debate of globalization and modernization as possible external forces, being implemented in Pyongyang and represented in build form. The thesis questions whether the economic transitioning and a resulting spatial and social change also results in a temporal one, wherein Pyongyang "catches up" to the globalized and modernized world. Overall the conclusion shows that there are some major issues pertaining to how the processes of time and modernity are considered within International Relations.Show less

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Building the world: Situating Pyongyang’s architecture between globalization, history, and inhabited space