Moonlighting in the nightlife
From indentured to precarious labor in Los Angeles Koreatown’s hostess industry
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 18972762 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carolyn Choi (0009-0002-2072-9985, University of Southern California, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 446-462 |
| Publication date | 2017-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sexualities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1363460716651419 |
| OpenAlex | W2552054225 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 23 |
This article explores the emergence of precarious work within the hostess industry of Los Angeles Koreatown, an ethnic enclave cited as a hotbed of sex trafficking. Hostesses provide companionship, flirtation, and entertainment to male patrons in drinking settings. While hostess work in Koreatown historically relied on indentured migrant workers from South Korea, the 2008 recession combined with shifting US immigration laws transformed the occupational structure of the hostess industry to a contingency-based labor system, which increasingly depends on the labor of local US women. These women turn to hostess work in Koreatown because of their displacement from jobs in the dominant US labor market. I argue that the emergence of precarious labor in Koreatown’s hostess industry reflects larger economic shifts within the labor market and political economy of Los Angeles. Looking at hostess work in Los Angeles Koreatown’s sexual economy provides a window to the labor instability of young women in the USA and across borders
Casual · Economics · Economy · Immigration · Nightlife · Political science · Politics · Precarious work · Recession · Sociology · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Sex work and related issues
Servants of Globalization
Doméstica
Nightwork
The Precariat
Illicit Flirtations
Dealing in Desire
Immigrant Entrepreneurs
Sex at the Margins
Economies of Emotion, Familiarity, Fantasy, and Desire
Sexual Labors
Sex Work for the Middle Classes
Diasporic nationalism and the media
Loose women or lost women? The re-emergence of the myth of white slavery in contemporary discourses of trafficking in women
The Paradoxes of Neoliberalism
Prostitution in Five Countries
The Contested Nexus of Los Angeles Koreatown
Temporarily Yours
Precarious Changes
Stripped
Economic Crisis, Neoliberal Reforms, and the Rise of Precarious Work in South Korea
Sexing the Caribbean
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,6 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |