Spatial Proces and Cultural Territory of Islamic Food Restaurants at Itaewon, Seoul

Abstract

This article studies a newly emerging urban spatial process with the growth of foreign population and the expansion of their spaces in Seoul. As Korea has been a relatively closed country to foreigners, development of foreigner`s district was more or less limited in its capital city Seoul, too. Itaewon area of Seoul was, in this sense, just one exceptional case with the existence of U.S. military camp nearby for last 60 years. But the new phenomenon appeared since the end of 1980s: a new kind of spatial organizations started to develop with arrival of diversified foreign population in Seoul. Besides diplomatic people and western businessmen, migrant laborers from South-East Asia, South America, and other parts of the World were added to this growing foreign population who frequent Itaewon area. And Itaewon area itself became a kind of multi-ethnic district, even though being still small and limited, at the center of Seoul. And people from Islamic World are among the less familiarized ones to Korean people and culture. But we could observe fast growth of the number of `Islamic food`(or Halal food) restaurants at Itaewon. As a case study of spatial re-organization process and cultural territory development, we try to analyze the process of emplacements and cultural interpretations about `Islamic restaurants` in Itaewon, Seoul. This study was conducted using participant observation, general fieldwork with interviews, and documentation research as well. We start with a short history of the area, and we advance to the phenomenon of Islamic food restaurants in Itaewon. Strategies and discourses of shop owners will be interpreted side by side with clients` perception and cultural consumption of the urban place and food with their historical and symbolic meanings, including religions connotation and national identity. And certain ideas of cultural territory are also employed there. We could observe some tendency of emplacement for halal food restaurants and their networks in historical, religious, and commercial sense. And their commercial strategies employed concepts of national identity, religious identity, or some other `image consumption` of the clients. For clients, interpretation on the meaning of their food consumption can also vary with different settings. For one example, a kind of hierarchy among foods had been decided with the image of prestige and power of the national origins for foods. But a new trend of perception concerning the cultural capital with exotic knowledge also emerges, especially with the development of tourism and on-line spaces. Spatial territoriality including internet space, and the very meaning of the space of power are showing more flexibility with the arrival of multiplied means of global communication network on every level. This aspect again conditions new organization of cultural network and territoriality in today`s urban space.