ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Between Fear and Opportunity: Local Makers, the Corporate Laboratory, and Knowledge Exchanges in the South Korean Cosmetic Industry

• In Event: Better Living through Chemistry

English Abstract

This paper examines the interactions between local makers, including farmers or self-made inventors, and in-house company laboratory scientists in the development and commercialization of locally sourced materials and self-made inventions in cosmetic industry in South Korea. It focuses particularly on the exchange of knowledge and materials between local makers and the company: Pacific Chemical (now Amore Pacific). Challenging the dominant narrative—shaped by corporations and cosmetic industry associations—that portrays the development of the cosmetic industry as a linear progression from homemade production to factory-based manufacturing, this research demonstrates that Pacific Chemical depended not only on its own researchers but also on the creativity of consumers and independent makers, as well as on locally sourced natural ingredients and informal methods of developing cosmetics. The company’s in-house laboratory tested techniques, prototype products, and raw materials that came from these local actors. At the same time, many independent makers approached the laboratory hoping to commercialize their ideas. Although they often feared that a large company might appropriate their inventions, they nevertheless shared parts of their ideas and engaged with the company. By uncovering these hidden interactions between the cosmetic company and local actors who sought to develop new cosmetic materials and products, this paper contributes to existing criticism of linear narrative in the history of the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry in the East Asia context (Lean, 2020). In doing so, this paper sheds light on vernacular knowledge exchanges hybridized between local-independent activities and mainstream scientific activities.

Author

• Byeongwoong Min, Seoul National University