Approaching neighborhoods and marketplaces ethnographically: an anthropologist with Korean shopkeepers

Nous aurons le plaisir d’écouter Antti Leppänen du Centre for East Asian Studies à l’Université de Turku (Finlande) dans le cadre d’une conférence en ligne.

Abstract :
This talk is based on my ethnographic fieldwork among Korean proprietors of small businesses – shopkeepers – in residential neighborhoods as well as marketplaces mostly in Seoul but also in its environs and some other locations in South Korea. I give an account of some of my main research findings in regards to neighborhood shopkeepers’ reciprocity and their sociocultural identity and the Korean culture of economy as evidenced in shopkeepers’ organizations, but the main frame of my talk is that of ethnography as a method of studying Korea. I discuss how I as an anthropologist have approached and conducted research with proprietors of small businesses over the years and consider what specific insights and analyses an ethnographer of Korea can provide.