Pricing the Priceless Surgery
Professional Expertise and the Marketing of High-Risk Surgery in South Korea
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4564458 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anson Au (0000-0002-8180-5104, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 465-478 |
| Publication date | 2023-07-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Medical Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0145-9740 • E-ISSN: 1545-5882 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01459740.2023.2203392 |
| PMID | 37075224 |
| OpenAlex | W4366368753 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 29 |
Through ethnographic fieldwork in cosmetic surgery clinics in Seoul, South Korea in 2018, in this article I investigate how professional clinicians persuade consumers to purchase surgery during consultations. Enamored by the ascendancy of the Korean cultural industry, many non-Koreans are drawn to Korea for the storied, domestic brand of surgery believed to be inextricable from the aesthetic appeal of their idols. Clinical professionals capitalize on this Korean ascendancy by transforming the meanings of surgical success (as symbolic attainment of moral-existential satisfaction) and failure (as deficiency of its symbolic rewards) to trust in their moral authority and expertise
Appeal · Ethnography · Existentialism · Political science · Sociology · Anthropology · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Issues · Global Healthcare and Medical Tourism · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology
Talking Voices
Steven Polgar Prize Essay (1991). Medicalization of Racial Features
The Dubious Enhancement
The massifying consumption of embodied goods in an advanced capitalist state
Biopolitics of Beauty
Where Health and Beauty Meet
Pretty Modern
Aesthetic Citizenship in Istanbul
Becoming/Being a Cosmetic Surgery Patient
Gender, Globalization and Aesthetic Surgery in South Korea
Cultural gatekeeping in cosmetic surgery
Objects of Love
Gangnam-Style Plastic Surgery
The Sociology of Climate Change as a Sociology of Loss
Shining a light on the grey zones of gender construction
Competing Technologies of Embodiment
Cultural and Cosmopolitan
The poor have the right to be beautiful
Towards a Biopolitics of Beauty
Racialized Commodities
Plastic Paradise
Framing the Purchase of Human Goods
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |