도시 비공식성은 어떻게 유지되는가?: 부산 영도 포장마차거리를 사례로

Abstract

This study examines the case of Yeongdo Pojangmacha Street in Bongnae-dong, Busan, to reveal that urban informality is not merely a deviation or subsistence practice outside institutions, but a spatial practice conditionally sustained and strategically reconfigured through its intersection with state and administrative power. To this end, literature review, field surveys, participant observation, and in-depth interviews were conducted to analyze the interactions between formality and informality within and beyond the planning system. The findings are threefold. First, Yeongdo Pojangmacha Street represents a space where informality, conditionally permitted under the institutional device of a “provisional tolerance zone,” has been selectively maintained. Second, the space has transformed from a survival-oriented area into a tourist-oriented consumption space, creating policy contradictions and conflicts for local administration. Third, the street functions as a “governable exception,” sustained not outside but within the planning system through administrative silence and selective intervention. These results show that urban informality is not simply subject to regulation but persists through state strategies and changing social perceptions. Accordingly, this study highlights the possibility of coexistence between informality and the planning system and points to the need for concrete institutional measures such as cooperative governance and regulatory flexibility. By presenting an empirically grounded analysis in the Korean context, this study provides an empirical foundation for urban informality research and contributes to expanding its alternative meanings and policy implications in urban planning discourse.