Gendered time-space of digital workers : Ethnography from coworking spaces in Seoul, South Korea
Topics: Digital Geographies
, Feminist Geographies
, Urban Geography
Keywords: Feminist geography, digital work, entrepreneurs, coworking space, ethnography, South Korea
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 62
Authors:
Yoonai Han, London School of Economics and Political Science
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Abstract
Digital freelance and entrepreneurial works are flexible, precarious, and potentially liberative (De Peuter et al., 2017; Luo & Chan, 2021). In this research, I address (1) how women are situated at the frontiers of under-recognised economic areas in digital and entrepreneur scene. Further, I explore (2) how the gendered practices in coworking spaces, start-up incubating programmes, subsidy schemes, and on-demand works, not only manifest in everyday time-space and organisation of resources, but also shape the imaginations of future. In the session, I present findings from a 12-month ethnography on coworking spaces in Seoul, South Korea, conducted as part of ongoing dissertation project. Seoul provides an empirical setting where gendered entrepreneur/freelancer scene is constantly contested at the intersection of conventional and emerging expectations on women’s role revolving around compressed development and increasingly digitalised way of working/living. Empirically, I intend to provide a strongly grounded basis to discuss the gendered freelance and entrepreneur scene in Korea. Conceptually in the session, I hope to discuss how we can theorise the spaces and practices surrounding the production, maintenance and governing of (under)performing bodies, as well as how such social forces are understood and experienced in everyday life that we draw on from different geographies.
References
De Peuter, G., Cohen, N. S., & Saraco, F. (2017). The ambivalence of coworking: On the politics of an emerging work practice. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 20(6), 687-706.
Luo, Y., & Chan, R. C. (2021). Gendered digital entrepreneurship in gendered coworking spaces: Evidence from Shenzhen, China. Cities, 103411.
Gendered time-space of digital workers : Ethnography from coworking spaces in Seoul, South Korea
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract
Description
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