Consuming [in] Koreatown

• In Event: 563 - Section on Community and Urban Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Cultural Events and Activities

Abstract

An examination of the relationship between race, consumption, and power, this paper is a preliminary exploration of a larger project regarding transnational visual spaces of Koreatown. For the purposes this paper, I explore the sites and forms of consumption of and in Koreatown through its production and the connection to the struggle for representation and political voice. Through a series of images that I have photographed or collected from various sources regarding Koreatown, I juxtapose these images to the events of 4.29 as well as recent discourse of the formalization of Koreatown boundaries as well as of the redistricting of city council districts. I will divide the paper into two sections, mirroring the types and spaces of consumption, prior to critically examining the effects of these shifts for the area and its communities.

Author

• Soo Mee Kim, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign