Where Others Have Failed
Korean Immigrants and the Reinvention of Entrepreneurship in 1970s and 1980s America
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12469726 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shelley Sang-Hee Lee (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 341-366 |
| Publication date | 2018-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Asian American Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1096-8598 • E-ISSN: 1097-2129 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/jaas.2018.0023 |
| OpenAlex | W2898135154 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 20 |
This essay examines sociological research about immigrant entrepreneurship during the 1970s and 1980s as a facet of how people explained the new immigration and economic restructuring that were transforming life in America and the prospects for mobility. As questions about modernity and growth waned and concerns about deindustrialization and scarcity came to the fore, sociologists confronted the diminished promise of immigrant entrepreneurship while trying to explain phenomena such as the Korean store owners. Expanded perspectives about race and diversity also meant they could no longer assume that white ethnics were templates for other minorities, and more expansive and critical approaches to the study of inequality stressed the structural forces that skewed everything from labor markets to access to capital. Dislodging the once common notion that small businesses were an equal opportunity path to mobility, sociologists showed how—particularly in urban areas—they could be sites of inequality and precarity, where owners barely made ends meet, employees were exploited, and customers and their communities were disempowered. The 1970s and 1980s thus saw the humble immigrant entrepreneur reinvented as a deeply ambivalent figure. Still part of American life, it evoked a dream not entirely extinguished, but increasingly symbolized the strife and uncertainty of an era of malaise
Deindustrialization · Diversity (politics · Economics · Economy · Entrepreneurship · Immigration · Political economy · Political science · Precarity · Reinterpretation · Shadow (psychology · Sociology · Solidarity · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy
Toward a Theory of Minority Group Relations
Street Corner Society
"A Fascinating Interracial Experiment Station"
The Economic Basis of Ethnic Solidarity
Ethnic Enterprise in America
The Social Costs of Immigrant Entrepreneurship
The Role of the Petite Bourgeoisie within Capitalism
The Role of a Social Scientist in Social Change
Immigrants and Minorities
The Social Costs of Immigrant Entrepreneurship
A Theory of Middleman Minorities
A Theory of Ethnic Antagonism
Koreans in Los Angeles. Prospects and Promises
Disadvantaged Minorities in Self-Employment
Koreans in business
America's Melting Pot Reconsidered
Socioeconomic Gains of Asian Americans, Blacks, and Hispanics
Immigrant Enclaves
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |