Presentation short abstract

This study examines the political dynamics surrounding the mountain paths commons within the framework of South Korea’s national park system, problematizing the noncritical notion of mountain environment and instead arguing for attending to concrescent encounters between human and nonhuman entities.

Presentation long abstract

In hilly, mountainous, or other uneven terrains, human locomotion typically follows the most efficient route of progression. This phenomenon aligns with what Cae Rodrigues (2018) terms “ecomotricity,” a mode of bodily movement in/with nature wherein the boundary between humans and nature becomes indistinct. Through ongoing interactions among human body parts, soil or rock substrates, and diverse flora and fauna encountered along the way, the ecomotor traversing of an undeveloped mountain trail engenders a process of concrescence—that is, a co-creative coming together of all these elements. Furthermore, such trails function as a form of commons, collaboratively and consistently shaped by the cumulative footsteps of all visitors.

This paper investigates the political dynamics surrounding such mountain path commons within the framework of South Korea’s national park system. Authorities at Seoraksan National Park classify those concrescent interactions during hikes as illegal, alleging them to be posing threats to what they call “mountain environment.” Hardly however, do environmental scientists mention the soaring number of park visitors and bother to calculate the amount of carbon emission induced from those visits. The paper argues that, though equally culpable in the broader scheme, the practices of concrescent hiking through an unauthorized path inside the park may engender an ethico-onto-epistemology that unsettles the solidified naturalness central to the spectacular management of natural monument, ultimately bringing attention to the potentiality of alliance between human and non-human entities.