The Review of Korean Studies
- Apply for Authority
- P-ISSN1229-0076
- E-ISSN2773-9351
- SCOPUS, ESCI
ISSN : 1229-0076
Ambiguous Agency and Change: Life Stories of Working Women in a Seoul Marketplace
- Downloaded
- Viewed
Abstract
This article explores the processes of self-formation among female street entrepreneurs (street vendors) and dressmakers (garment manufacturers) in the Dongdaemun Sijang (market) area in Seoul through an examination of their life stories. My aim is to delve deeply into the relationships of agency and change in the lives of women working in these marginalized sectors of the Korean economy. Through ethnographic research, I argue that the dominant notion of agency as resistance to constrictive structure cannot solely account for these women’s lives and experience of social change. They have enacted agency not only to resist structure, but also to enjoy pursuits of their diverse desires. This array of desires can be similar or differ among the women, coexist in a single woman’s life, and change according to life cycle and changes in broader society. The principal motors for, and effects of, their pursuit of desires are related to acquiring the capacity to do something in particular, and establishing relationships or relating to others in a particular way. I argue that even those actions taken without the aim of transforming constrictive gender and other social patterns can bring change over an extended period.
- keywords
- agency, change, street entrepreneurs, dressmakers, self-formation
Reference
Ahearn, Laura M. 2001. Language and agency. Annual Review of Anthropology Vol.30:109-137.
Chamteo (Chamyeoseongnodongbokjiteo), May 2008. Chamsinnaneun sosik (Wellexciting News) No. 55.
Chosun Ilbo, 10 July 2000. [Ingu tonggye] Pyeonggyun sumyeong nam 70.6se… yeo 78.1se ([Population Statistic] life expectancy: men 70.6 years… women 78.1 years), http://www.chosun.com/svc/content_view/content_view. html?contid= 2000071070401 (accessed 17 November 2008)
Chun, Jennifer Jihye. 2009. Legal Liminality: the gender and labour politics of organising South Korea’s irregular workforce. Third World Quarterly Vol. 30 (No.3): 535-550.
Chun, Sun-ok. 2004. Kkeunnaji aneun sidaeui norae (Never-ending factory-work trainees’ songs), Seoul: Hankyoreh.
Kim, Seung-kyung. 1997. Class Struggle or Family Struggle: the Lives of Women Factory Workers in South Korea. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kim, Won. 2006. Yeogeong 1970: Geunyeodeuleui banyeoksa (Female factory workers 1970: their counter history). Seoul: Imaejin.
Kim, Yung-Chung (ed. and tr.). 1976. Women of Korea: A History from Ancient Times to 1945. Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press.
Koo, Hagen. 2001. Korean Workers: The Culture and Politics of Class Formation. Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press.
KOSC (Korean Street-Vendors’ Confederation), 28 May, 2008, Nojeom Shinmun (Street vendors’ journal) No.142.
The Korea Times, 28 January 2008. “Street Vendors Oppose Seoul’s Facelift Plan,” http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/01/117_18144. html(accessed 25 January 2008).
McNay, Lois. 2003. Out of the orrey? Situating language, Journal of Political Ideologies, 8 (2), 139-156.
Noritake, Ayami. 2009a. Negotiating Space and Gender: Female street entrepreneurs and Tongdaemun Market in Seoul, Korea. In Development in Asia: Interdisciplinary, Post-neoliberal, and Transnational Perspectives, ed. Nault, Derrick M. (ed.), 75-106. Boca Raton, Florida: Brown Walker Press.
Noritake, Ayami. 2009b. Gender, ageing and agency: Street entrepreneurs and dressmakers in a Korean marketplace. Gender and Development Vol.17 (No.3), 403-415.
Ortner, Sherry B. 2006. Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting subject. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Yang, Sang Ick. 1973. Foreign Influence on the Traditional Culture of the Cheju Island: the Mongols. Nonmunjip (Cheju University Journal). Cheju University, Vol.5:99-123.
- Downloaded
- Viewed
- 0KCI Citations
- 0WOS Citations