2 - Reclaiming Finance as Urban Commons: The Perspective from Seoul, An Extremely Financialised City

Presentation Abstract
This study explores how finance has been reclaimed as urban commons in the grassroots movement against the process of housing financialization in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Contrary to the belief that the financialization of housing is a product of neoliberalism, the process commenced much earlier in Seoul, where ordinary citizens, including the urban poor, have internalized financial language and practices since the 1960s.
With the rise of housing financialization during the neoliberal era, a diverse array of social movements emerged in response. These movements contested the commodification of housing and sought to reclaim it as commons. This study meticulously analyzes 14 such movements, employing qualitative research methods, including document analysis and interviews. Despite differing objectives and strategies, these movements are loosely networked based on their belief that housing is more than a financial commodity; it is the essence of the urban commons. They stress the intrinsic social, communal, and physical dimensions of housing as a fundamental element of urban life while collectively trying to compose alternative ways of financing/building housing.
This paper traces how finance is practised differently from the language of capital, which aims to generate 'profit' and is imagined in the language of the commons in grassroots endeavours. Their practices imply that finance can be a key practice of the commons that organizes our everyday lives in alternative ways.