Green Transition of Iron Cities: A Comparative Case Study of Kitakyushu and Pohang

• Author: Eungkyoon Lee,Eunkyoung Choi,Hanbee Lee
• Published date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/10704965211063708
• Date: 01 March 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

The Journal of Environment &

Development

2022, Vol. 31(1) 28–53

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/10704965211063708

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Green Transition of Iron

Cities: A Comparative

Case Study of Kitakyushu

and Pohang

Hanbee Lee

1

, Eunkyoung Choi

2

, and

Eungkyoon Lee

3



Abstract

This comparative case study explores why two cities similar in socio-economic factors

diverge in their pathways to environmental improvement. Our research looks at the

changing local economies and environmental pollution problems facing Kitakyushu in

Japan and Pohang in South Korea. Both cities drove their nations’rapid economic

growth as the main heavy industry hubs but have performed radically differently vis- `

a-vis

public demands for environmental improvement despite sharing much in common.

Employing the advocacy coalition framework as a main analytical tool, we examine the

unfolding of policy efforts to turn a manufacturing-oriented industrial city into

a“greener”city responding to environmental objectives and the respective outcomes.

The research reveals that variations in regulatory decentralization, external events and

coalition opportunity structures largely explain the observed discrepancy in green

transition between the two settings. Our findings contribute to expanding scarce case

study literature illustrating the mechanisms that can underpin environmental im-

provements in cities that have served as the location of heavy industries and offer

suggestions for advancing them.

Keywords

green transition, advocacy coalition framework, regulatory decentralization, external

events, opportunity structure

1

Department of Public Administration, Korea University, Seoul, Korea

2

Institute of Governmental Studies, Korea University, Seoul, Korea

3

Department of Public Administration, Graduate School of Energy and Environment, Korea University,

Seoul, Korea

Corresponding Author:

Eungkyoon Lee, Department of Public Administration, College of Political Science and Economics, Korea

University, 145 Anam-Ro, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea.

Email: elee@korea.ac.kr

Introduction

This research began with an empirical puzzle stemming from a striking difference in

environmental performance between two iron cities, Kitakyushu in Japan and Pohang

in South Korea. The two cities have performed radically differently vis-`

a-vis public

demands for environmental improvement despite sharing much in common. They

encountered nearly identical pollution problems and there were no notable differences

with respect to socio-economic circumstances. Nevertheless, in Kitakyushu we find

dramatic improvements in the air and water quality while in Pohang we see the op-

posite. These contrasting trends prompt us to grapple with underlying reasons for the

cities’moving toward or away from the desired goals.

An intuitive idea, perhaps, is that a pollution haven effect explains the better

outcome in Kitakyushu. However, this appears unlikely because Kitakyushu’s in-

dustrial structure has not shifted much even though their R&D centers were relocated.

Given that the observed disparity is not intuitively explained, our compelling puzzle is

more generally posed as “why do cities that are similar on key dimensions generate

different outcomes on environmental performance?”Addressing this question is ex-

pected to help us understand the factors that account for what distinguishes those that

succeed from those that fail.

Debates over effective environmental policy have long been pitched as a struggle to

counter the mounting challenge posed by the tension between ecological degradation

and economic growth. This tension is most evident in cities. As hubs of economic

activity, cities account for approximately 80% of GDP and 70% of energy use and

global greenhouse gas emissions (UN, 2019). In this regard, scholarship in environ-

ment and development circles has called for credible strategies for green transition in

urban settings.

Yet, despite efforts to introduce exemplificatory urban experiments, we still know

little about what facilitates their successful outcomes (Frantzeskaki et al., 2016).

Commentators point out that the paucity of our knowledge is attributable to limited

research that has focused largely on either the experience of one city or short-term

policy implementation that underappreciates a variety of strategies stakeholders pursue

over time (Frantzeskaki et al., 2014;Jenkins-Smith et al., 2014;Sheldrick et al., 2017).

Hindered by the aforementioned aspects, the literature falls short in depicting accu-

rately the factors that contribute to success and failure.

Against this background, the research presented here sets out to fill the gap left in the

extant literature by comparing the environmental performance of two cities over the

past decades. The two cities, Kitakyushu and Pohang, are leading industrial cities in

Japan and South Korea, respectively. Considering the exemplary position of Japan and

South Korea in the world history of economic progress, the comparison between these

two cities which drove rapid economic growth as bases of the nations’leading heavy

industries is expected to offer meaningful lessons for cities in the developing world

aiming to counter industrial pollution. Given the contrasting outcomes under com-

parable socio-economic backgrounds, our cases deserve scholarly attention and require

cogent explanations of what has happened on-the-ground over time.

Lee et al. 29