Reinventing Manhattan’s Koreatown as a Transclave for Nation Branding:Typology of Transnational Entrepreneurs

• In Event: 095 - Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Culture and Place Identity

Abstract

The transclave of Koreatown -- a transnational hyper-consumption space and the hub for Korea’s nation branding project -- is formed by the interaction between government agencies in Korea and on-the-ground efforts by transnational entrepreneurs in midtown Manhattan to bring Korean food and other cultural products to a transnational consumer market. In this article, I bring attention to the local businesspeople and Korean franchises that have expanded their businesses into the U.S. mainstream market in collaboration with the Korean government. By challenging past scholarship on immigrant entrepreneurship, I highlight the increasing desire for ethnic products on the part of non co-ethnic groups, and the prominence of transnational entrepreneurs in the making the consumer market a vehicle for nation branding efforts direct from the sending society which then become visible in the receiving society’s enclave economy.
Based on analysis of 40 national and local newspapers and reports by government and private institutions and 17 in-depth interviews with Korean entrepreneurs, and using the parameters of store location, ownership, generation/cohort, participation in or influence of Korea’s nation branding projects, and frequency of travel to South Korea, I typologize Korean entrepreneurs into four categories: traditional, new, franchise and innovative. I particularly emphasize the role of these transnational entrepreneurs as mediators, connecting top-down government policies and bottom-up participation by various customer groups; these transnational entrepreneurs construct the foodscape of Korean cuisine in New York City and the landscape of Koreatown by connecting themselves and their business practices to the homeland.

Author

• Jinwon Kim, City University of New York-Graduate Center