Korean Television Dramas and thePolitical Economy of City PromotionYOUJEONG OHAbstractThis article examines the ways in which urban processes are associated with theproduction of culture. It does so by exploring how Korean cities sponsor drama. Thehistorically conditioned and economically neglected status of regional cities, combinedwith elected local leaders’ desire to promote their own areas, has led to a strategy topublicize them by leveraging the popularity of Korean television dramas in Asia. Twodistinct types of drama sponsorship by cities — the construction of outdoor settings fordrama and ‘city placement’ — manifest the interactions between story-making andplace-making. The affective process that blends city sites with the characters, storylinesand emotional flows of TV drama imbues those sites with a dramatic quality thatstimulates the audience’s empathy and persuasively motivates them to actually visit theplaces they have seen televised. Thanks to the broad penetration of television drama,sponsorship by cities has strikingly boosted drama-driven tourism. Nevertheless,reflecting the speculative nature of TV drama, city promotion through this medium hashad limited stability and sustainability. In sum, this article demonstrates that theproduction of Korean television dramas is deeply associated with the material andspatial conditions in Korean cities