PRODUCTION-CONSUMPTION POLITICS OF K-POP IDOLS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COMMODITY CHAIN
KONG Xiang1,2, WU Jin-cao1,2, ZHAO Yi-zheng1,2
1. The Center for Modern Chinese City Studies, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China;
2. School of Urban and Regional Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
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.
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.
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2022, Vol. 37 
