PRODUCTION-CONSUMPTION POLITICS OF K-POP IDOLS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COMMODITY CHAIN

KONG Xiang; WU Jin-cao; ZHAO Yi-zheng

doi:10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2022.06.010

PDF(1490 KB)

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2022, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (6) : 81-87. DOI: 10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2022.06.010

CULTURE

PRODUCTION-CONSUMPTION POLITICS OF K-POP IDOLS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COMMODITY CHAIN

KONG Xiang^1,2, WU Jin-cao^1,2, ZHAO Yi-zheng^1,2

Author information +

History +

Abstract

The consumerism ideology characterized by individualism and romanticism covers up the structural factors behind the goods in the consumer society. Therefore, exploring the flow of local factors in the commodity chain's production, distribution, and consumption dimensions provide insights to reveal the root causes of social inequality. This study takes K-pop idols as research objects, introduces Sack's moral geography theory, and tries to investigate the interaction mechanism between production and consumption nodes in the K-pop idols commodity chain from the morality of production and consumption nodes. Research shows that: 1) The production space of K-pop idols is a positive instrumental geographic landscape. Natural, social relations and meanings under the construction of neoliberalism promoted the efficient operation of the K-pop idol industry but, to some extent, hindered the differentiated and diversified development of K-pop trainees. As a consequence, it is of negative intrinsic geographic characteristics. 2) Mass media construct post-modern K-pop idols' consumption scenes and promote consumption by satisfying consumers' demands for spatial context, seeking identification, and creating meaning, thus improving the commercial value of K-pop idols. However, the concealment of the fact of the production place makes the consumption space lose the local authenticity and complexity and presents the negative intrinsic geographic characteristics of monotony and fragmentation. 3) As a positive instrumental moral geographic landscape, K-pop idols' production and consumption landscape promote the efficient operation and circulation of the commodity chain. However, the interaction between production and consumption of K-pop idol's commodity chain has negative intrinsic moral geographical characteristics.

Key words

commodity chain / moral geography / K-pop Idol / consumption politics / production politics

Cite this article

EndNote

Ris (Procite)

Bibtex

Download Citations

KONG Xiang, WU Jin-cao, ZHAO Yi-zheng. PRODUCTION-CONSUMPTION POLITICS OF K-POP IDOLS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COMMODITY CHAIN[J]. HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. 2022, 37(6): 81-87 https://doi.org/10.13959/j.issn.1003-2398.2022.06.010

References

[1] 让·鲍德里亚.消费社会[M].刘成富,全志钢,译.南京:南京大学出版社, 1970: 120-155. [Baudrillard J. Consumer Society[M]. Liu Chengfu, Quan Zhigang, trans. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 1970:120-155.]
[2] 林耿,李锐文,宋佩瑾,等.商品链视角下的消费与空间：经济与文化的对话[J]. 现代城市研究,2018(9):2-10. [Lin Geng, Li Ruiwen, Song Peijin, et al. Understanding consumption and space from the perspective of the commodity chain: Engagements between economic and cultural geography[J]. Modern Urban Research, 2018(9): 2- 10.]
[3] 林晓珊.重返消费政治：消费不平等研究的历史逻辑[J].广东社会科学, 2016(3): 203-212. [Lin Xiaoshan. Returning to consumption politics: The historical logic of the study of consumption inequality [J]. Social Sciences in Guangdong, 2016(3):203-212.]
[4] Bridge G, Smith A. Intimate encounters: Culture-economy-commodity[J]. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 2003,21(3): 257-268.
[5] Hartwick E. Geographies of consumption: A commodity-chain approach[J]. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 1998, 16(4):423-437.
[6] Cook I. Follow the thing: Papaya[J]. Antipode, 2004,36(4):642-664.
[7] Gregson N, Crang M, Ahamed F, et al. Following things of rubbish value: End-of-life ships, "chock-chocky" furniture and the Bangladeshi middle class consumer[J]. Geoforum, 2010,41(6):846-854.
[8] 周尚意,成志芬.关于“乡愁” 的空间道德和地方道德评价[J].人文地理,2015,30(6):1-6. [Zhou Shangyi, Cheng Zhifen. On the morality of nostalgia[J]. Human Geography, 2015,30(6):1-6.]
[9] Sack R D. A sketch of a geographic theory of morality[J]. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1999,89(1):26-44.
[10] Pow C P. 'Good' and 'Real' Places: A geographical-moral critique of territorial Place-making[J]. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2009,91(2):91-105.
[11] 周尚意,许伟麟,成志芬. 胡同乡愁的空间道德与地方道德评价——以北京西四地区为例[J].当代中国价值观研究,2017,2(1):95- 101. [Zhou Shangyi, Xu Weilin, Cheng Zhifen. On the morality of nostalgia: A case study of Xisi area in Beijing[J]. Chinese Journal of Contemporary Values, 2017,2(1):95-101.]
[12] Harvey D. Between space and time: Reflections on the geographical imagination[J]. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1990,80(3):418-434.
[13] Hopkins T K, Wallerstein I. Commodity chains in the world-economy prior to 1800[J]. Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 1986,10(1): 157-170.
[14] Gereffi G. Beyond the producer-driven/buyer-driven dichotomy the evolution of global value chains in the internet era[J]. IDS Bulletin, 2001,32(3):30-40.
[15] Cloke P. Deliver us from evil? Prospects for living ethically and acting politically in human geography[J]. Progress in Human Geography, 2002,26(5):587-604.
[16] Massey D. Geographies of responsibility[J]. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2004,86(1):5-18.
[17] Sack R. Place, Modernity, and the Consumer's World: A Relational Framework for Geographical Analysis[M]. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992:51-90.
[18] Barnett C, Cloke P, Clarke M, et al. Consuming ethics: Articulating the subjects and spaces of ethical consumption[J]. Antipode, 2005, 37(1):23-45.
[19] Hughes A. Retailers, knowledges and changing commodity networks: The case of the cut flower trade[J]. Geoforum, 2000,31(2): 175-190.
[20] Leslie D, Reimer S. Spatializing commodity chains[J]. Progress in Human Geography, 1999,23(3):401-420.
[21] Hartwick E R. Towards a geographical politics of consumption[J]. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2000, 32(7): 1177-1192.
[22] Barnett C. Geography and ethics III: From moral geographies to geographies of worth[J]. Progress in Human Geography, 2013,38(1): 151-160.
[23] Sack R D. The consumer's world: Place as context[J]. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1988,78(4):642-664.
[24] Sack R D. The geographic problematic: Moral issues[J]. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift-Norwegian Journal of Geography, 2001, 55(3): 117-125.
[25] 朱璇,苏提雅.西方道德地理研究述评——基于CiteSpace和人工检索的对比分析[J].人文地理,2021,36(4):9-20. [Zhu Xuan, Su Tiya. Literature review on Western moral geography studies: A contrast based on CiteSpace and manual retrieval[J]. Human Geography, 2021,36(4):9-20.]
[26] Lee G T. De-Nationalization and Re-Nationalization of Culture: The Globalization of K-pop[D]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 2013.
[27] Ho S L. Fuel for South Korea's "global dreams factory": The desires of parents whose children dream of becoming K-pop stars[J]. Korea Observer, 2012,43(3):471-502.
[28] Shim D. An essay on K-pop: Korean wave, idols, and modernity[J]. Social Studies Education, 2013,52(2):13-28.
[29] Shin S I, Kim L. Organizing K-pop: Emergence and market making of large Korean entertainment houses, 1980-2010[J]. East Asia, 2013,30(4):255-272.
[30] Messerlin P A, Shin W. The success of K-pop: How big and why so fast[J]? Asian Journal of Social Science, 2017,45(4/5):409-439.
[31] Sack R D. Homo Geographicus[M]. London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1997:1-292.
[32] Schudson M. Advertising, the Uneasy Persuasion: Its Dubious Impact on American Society[M]. New York: Basic Books, 1984:145- 176.
[33] Harvey D. Consciousness and the Urban Experience: Studies in the History and Theory of Capitalist Urbanization[M]. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985:1-63.
[34] Mansvelt J. Geographies of consumption: Engaging with absent presences[J]. Progress in Human Geography, 2010,34(2):224-233.
[35] 赵弋徵,陈品宇,孔翔.新物质主义视角下的消费地理研究进展与反思[J]. 地理科学进展, 2021, 40(8): 1419-1429. [Zhao Yizheng, Chen Pinyu, Kong Xiang. Progress and reflection of geographies of consumption from the perspective of new materialism[J]. Progress in Geography, 2021,40(8):1419-1429.]