This ethnographic study of female North Korean defectors in the UK opens discussions on the notio... more This ethnographic study of female North Korean defectors in the UK opens discussions on the notion that agency and social navigation can countermand economic and political precarity to the point of...
This study is a qualitative analysis of the happiness of people living in big cities in Northern ... more This study is a qualitative analysis of the happiness of people living in big cities in Northern Europe, which are regarded as models of happiness and welfare. In the field of geography, calls for research into happiness have been increasing in recent years. This research responds to those calls, using qualitative and processual approaches to view specific contexts of happiness in a study of the interaction between life experiences and individuals’ strategies. The theoretical framework of this study is constructed around ‘human capability,’ the freedom to choose a different kind or another way of life, and ‘spatial capability,’ the capability in the areas of residency and mobility. Based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with younger adults in their 20s as well as adults in their 30s and older living in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Oslo, Norway, the results of this study are as follows. First, in answer to the
ABSTRACT Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Southern California, 2005. Includes bibliographical refer... more ABSTRACT Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Southern California, 2005. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 344-352).
This paper investigates how ethnic Koreans migrating to South Korea from the People’s Republic of... more This paper investigates how ethnic Koreans migrating to South Korea from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have learned to adapt to precarity, tailoring their strategies to cope with an increasingly uncertain South Korean job market. Using archival analysis, participant observations, and in-depth interviews, the findings of this study demonstrate that the in-betweenness of those migrants’ ethnicity and nationality gives them licence to slip into the South Korean job market. They find employment, albeit part-time or contract-based work, further upsetting an already precarious job market. This research argues that Chosŏnjok, KoreanChinese migrants, have developed strategies to navigate unstable situations and use precarity to their advantage as a tactic to survive, relying on their Korean ethnicity to give them a foot in the door. In this paper, I explore the three strategies they employ to survive in increasingly precarious circumstances. One strategy is their willingness to seek ...
ABSTRACT By exploring im/mobilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper theorizes its effect... more ABSTRACT By exploring im/mobilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper theorizes its effects on the interplay between mobility and governance as well as contributing to debates on the city, power, and spatial strategy. To explain governing power in the rearrangement of im/mobilities and urban life during the pandemic, the paper employs the concept of “governmobility.” The term refers to governing through (im)mobility, and the technological self-governance discussed is not only constituted by the internalized regulation of im/mobilities but more specifically those mobilities enacted through communication technologies facilitating collective relations. This paper argues that technological self-governance maintains governmobility by enabling people to adjust to their “new normal” and continue with their daily lives. Governing, norm-making, and places are interwoven in the city’s im/mobility regime, and resistance and criticism are intrinsic in the process of forming governance. The paper suggests considering place-(re)making at various levels as a proactive response to the new norm. Place-(re)making is constituted by governing activities of state and market as well as citizens to reshape their society and space.
Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2017
This article looks at how the territoriality of transnational enclaves is constituted by interact... more This article looks at how the territoriality of transnational enclaves is constituted by interactions among the lives and the discourses of three groups of ethnic Korean—South Korean, North Korean, and Joseonjok (Korean Chinese)—transnational migrants in New Malden, London. Based on longitudinal mixed ethnographic research, the article focuses on the power relations between longer settled South Korean migrants and newcomers, the latter of whom are disadvantaged in terms of legal status, linguistic abilities, and economic capital. By criticizing the concept of ethnic enclaves as bounded, homogeneous, and static areas, the research puts geopolitical approaches into focus, bringing concepts of transnationalism and territoriality geopolitics into conversation. The empirical findings demonstrate, first, that the geopolitical hierarchy and tensions among the origin societies of Joseonjok, South Korean, and North Korean migrants constituted part of the reterritorialization of the ethnic enclave of transnational migrants. “The home society” was extended into territories where these ethnic Koreans have resided in the past, particularly South Korea. Second, the transnational enclave is being constantly reterritorialized by conflicting and adapting interactions between longer settled South Korean migrants and newcomers. Third, the power relations of origin societies have penetrated through individual migrants' lives by means, in part, of different religious and ethnic organizations. This research demonstrates the importance of transnational practices and geopolitical relationships within and beyond transnational enclaves among migrant communities and how these create a territorialized and relational space within ethnic enclaves.
This ethnographic study of female North Korean defectors in the UK opens discussions on the notio... more This ethnographic study of female North Korean defectors in the UK opens discussions on the notion that agency and social navigation can countermand economic and political precarity to the point of...
This study is a qualitative analysis of the happiness of people living in big cities in Northern ... more This study is a qualitative analysis of the happiness of people living in big cities in Northern Europe, which are regarded as models of happiness and welfare. In the field of geography, calls for research into happiness have been increasing in recent years. This research responds to those calls, using qualitative and processual approaches to view specific contexts of happiness in a study of the interaction between life experiences and individuals’ strategies. The theoretical framework of this study is constructed around ‘human capability,’ the freedom to choose a different kind or another way of life, and ‘spatial capability,’ the capability in the areas of residency and mobility. Based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with younger adults in their 20s as well as adults in their 30s and older living in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Oslo, Norway, the results of this study are as follows. First, in answer to the
ABSTRACT Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Southern California, 2005. Includes bibliographical refer... more ABSTRACT Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Southern California, 2005. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 344-352).
This paper investigates how ethnic Koreans migrating to South Korea from the People’s Republic of... more This paper investigates how ethnic Koreans migrating to South Korea from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have learned to adapt to precarity, tailoring their strategies to cope with an increasingly uncertain South Korean job market. Using archival analysis, participant observations, and in-depth interviews, the findings of this study demonstrate that the in-betweenness of those migrants’ ethnicity and nationality gives them licence to slip into the South Korean job market. They find employment, albeit part-time or contract-based work, further upsetting an already precarious job market. This research argues that Chosŏnjok, KoreanChinese migrants, have developed strategies to navigate unstable situations and use precarity to their advantage as a tactic to survive, relying on their Korean ethnicity to give them a foot in the door. In this paper, I explore the three strategies they employ to survive in increasingly precarious circumstances. One strategy is their willingness to seek ...
ABSTRACT By exploring im/mobilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper theorizes its effect... more ABSTRACT By exploring im/mobilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper theorizes its effects on the interplay between mobility and governance as well as contributing to debates on the city, power, and spatial strategy. To explain governing power in the rearrangement of im/mobilities and urban life during the pandemic, the paper employs the concept of “governmobility.” The term refers to governing through (im)mobility, and the technological self-governance discussed is not only constituted by the internalized regulation of im/mobilities but more specifically those mobilities enacted through communication technologies facilitating collective relations. This paper argues that technological self-governance maintains governmobility by enabling people to adjust to their “new normal” and continue with their daily lives. Governing, norm-making, and places are interwoven in the city’s im/mobility regime, and resistance and criticism are intrinsic in the process of forming governance. The paper suggests considering place-(re)making at various levels as a proactive response to the new norm. Place-(re)making is constituted by governing activities of state and market as well as citizens to reshape their society and space.
Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2017
This article looks at how the territoriality of transnational enclaves is constituted by interact... more This article looks at how the territoriality of transnational enclaves is constituted by interactions among the lives and the discourses of three groups of ethnic Korean—South Korean, North Korean, and Joseonjok (Korean Chinese)—transnational migrants in New Malden, London. Based on longitudinal mixed ethnographic research, the article focuses on the power relations between longer settled South Korean migrants and newcomers, the latter of whom are disadvantaged in terms of legal status, linguistic abilities, and economic capital. By criticizing the concept of ethnic enclaves as bounded, homogeneous, and static areas, the research puts geopolitical approaches into focus, bringing concepts of transnationalism and territoriality geopolitics into conversation. The empirical findings demonstrate, first, that the geopolitical hierarchy and tensions among the origin societies of Joseonjok, South Korean, and North Korean migrants constituted part of the reterritorialization of the ethnic enclave of transnational migrants. “The home society” was extended into territories where these ethnic Koreans have resided in the past, particularly South Korea. Second, the transnational enclave is being constantly reterritorialized by conflicting and adapting interactions between longer settled South Korean migrants and newcomers. Third, the power relations of origin societies have penetrated through individual migrants' lives by means, in part, of different religious and ethnic organizations. This research demonstrates the importance of transnational practices and geopolitical relationships within and beyond transnational enclaves among migrant communities and how these create a territorialized and relational space within ethnic enclaves.
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Papers by HaeRan Shin