Spatial Proces and Cultural Territory of Islamic Food Restaurants at Itaewon, Seoul
- Authors
- 송도영
- Issue Date
- 25-Sep-2008
- Publisher
- Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
- Citation
- International Workshop on Migration & Diversity in Asian Contexts
- Journal Title
- International Workshop on Migration & Diversity in Asian Contexts
- URI
- https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/erica/handle/2021.sw.erica/42189
- 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.
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Collections - COLLEGE OF LANGUAGES & CULTURES > DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY > 1. Journal Articles
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