The Configuration Of Daily Life Space For Muslims In Seoul: A Case Study Of Itaewon's "Muslims' Street"

Abstract

In focusing mainly on a particular neighborhood near the Islamic Central Mosque of Seoul, this paper presents examples of daily life trajectories collected from Muslims of several social categories, including merchants, students, and factory employees. The picture obtained from these cases demonstrates that Muslim migrants enact strategies for seeking various degrees of cultural inclusion or exclusion, partly according to the conditions relevant to their jobs, social classes, and regional cultures. For almost all categories of Muslim migrants, an intensive use of new media technology is found to serve as an important component of their life time/space patterns. These technologies help them to maintain their "transnational social space." Concerning their spatial strategies for operating as Muslims in the physical urban landscape, these migrants are found to develop a fine sense of cultural balance. This balance functions through a complex mixture of sharing and avoiding cultural influence within limited urban spaces. The picture we present of Muslims' space/time configurations also reflects the more general situation of all foreign religious minorities or migrant populations in the rapidly globalizing urban context of today's Seoul.