Between the cosmopolitan and the parochial

The immigrant gentrifier in Koreatown, Los Angeles

Bibliographic Data

ID3977787
AuthorsGeoffrey Deverteuil (0000-0003-3036-9303, Cardiff University, corresponding author), Geoff Deverteuil (Cardiff University), Ohsoon Yun (0009-0005-3787-7564, Seoul National University Asia Center, Seoul, South Korea), Carolyn Choi (0009-0002-2072-9985, University of Southern California)
Year2019
Volume20
Issue1
Pages64-86
Publication date2019-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649365.2017.1347955
OpenAlexW2726984406
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited64

This paper questions the currently lopsided relationship between the cosmopolitan and the parochial, in which the former is favored both conceptually and empirically. In response, we propose a relational framework for bringing them into conversation, simultaneously recasting and re-animating longstanding debates via three framing devices – the process of relationality/territoriality, disposition, and spaces of encounter – embedded in and through the subject of the immigrant-gentrifier in Koreatown, Los Angeles, itself a novel category that has hitherto eluded systematic research. We present the results of 25 interviews of Korean immigrant-gentrifiers and 10 key informant interviews. The results constitute a parochial critique that emerges as a series of conflicted paradoxes but also productive tensions: between an ostensibly transnational process compromised by a profoundly homegrown, parochial set of investors and outlooks; between a set of dispositions that seek inner-city diversity and density, yet simultaneously sheltered from its spillover costs; and spaces of encounter marked by a gap between the promise of truly open spaces and the reality of guarded and self-segregated ones. Ultimately, this paper does double duty – conceptually rebalancing the cosmopolitan-parochial relationship, but in doing so empirically elevating the emergence of the understudied immigrant-gentrifier category

Conversation · Cosmopolitanism · Duty · Framing (construction · Immigration · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · History · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy