Urbanization, residential property, and the constitution of space. Spatial refiguration in South Korea between familialism and queer communities

Abstract

From the perspective of spatial and refiguration theory as well as gender theory, the article explores the question of who owns the city. Focusing on the restructuration of housing following extensive urbanization in South Korea, the heterosexual nuclear family living in apartments and institutionalized familialism are identified as the fundamental dimensions of this refiguration. The article explains the structure of the South Korean housing market, addresses questions of social inequality in the housing sector, and, on this basis, describes and interprets housing practices of queer people. The analysis is based on problem-centered interviews and diary entries by lesbian study participants collected as part of the DFG Collaborative Research Center 1265 “Re-figuration of spaces” and its sub-project “Smart people – queer everyday life in digitalized spaces”. In addition, ethnographic data on the spaces of queer people were collected during field stays in Seoul. Focusing on individual life paths and living spaces, the article analyses the interviewees’ practices of lodging and the way they constitute space. The results show how the social transformation towards heteronormative and small-family-centered housing is also making queer communitization, with its own spatial concepts or deviant spatial appropriation, more relevant. Thus, the continuous tensions of social change are assessed from a spatial perspective.