2022
DOI: 10.1002/symb.623
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Framing the Purchase of Human Goods: Cosmetic Surgery Consumption in Capitalist South Korea

Abstract: Sociological and cultural research on market participation has been preoccupied with creative markets and traditional labor markets, overlooking alternate types of markets, particularly those of human goods which have proliferated in Asia. This article analyzes South Korea's cosmetic surgery market to examine how and why consumers participate in markets of human goods on the microlevel vis‐à‐vis macrolevel social structures in an advanced capitalist economy. This article theorizes two cognitive frames (normati… Show more

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Cited by 10 publications
(8 citation statements)
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References 59 publications
(69 reference statements)
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“…This article builds upon, yet advances the competing tensions of distinction and conformity immanent to Shilling's theorisation by observing how they unfold in the high‐risk purchase of cosmetic surgery and by taking stock of the macro‐level political economic contexts in which micro‐level decisions are embedded. Indeed, micro‐level cultural phenomena like schemas are cognitively stabilised by macro‐social structural contexts or “frequently recurring causal chains, sequences and combinations of mechanisms” (McAdam et al ., 2001, p.27; Au, 2023).…”
Section: Rationalising the Consumption Of Embodied Goods: Risk Networ...mentioning
confidence: 99%
See 1 more Smart Citation
“…This article builds upon, yet advances the competing tensions of distinction and conformity immanent to Shilling's theorisation by observing how they unfold in the high‐risk purchase of cosmetic surgery and by taking stock of the macro‐level political economic contexts in which micro‐level decisions are embedded. Indeed, micro‐level cultural phenomena like schemas are cognitively stabilised by macro‐social structural contexts or “frequently recurring causal chains, sequences and combinations of mechanisms” (McAdam et al ., 2001, p.27; Au, 2023).…”
Section: Rationalising the Consumption Of Embodied Goods: Risk Networ...mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In other words, consumers whose social ties matter a lot to them, particularly true of East Asian social networks like South Korea's that have greater density and collectivistic tendencies (Au, 2023), are more easily influenced by and pressured to please alters. In this way, like with embodied goods in the workplace, participants rationalised purchasing surgical modifications as a way to distinguish themselves in what they saw as a social arena of competition for friends.…”
Section: Embodied Goods In the Workplace: Advantages For Job Security...mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This article focuses on peer groups as a site where these moral codes of the institutional culture interlock with those of the Korean networking culture to inform this conflict management strategy. In South Korea, social relations are embedded in yonggo , a networking culture that stresses a moral obligation to serve ties, to the extent that personal network reputation depends on their ability to do so (Au, 2022; Bian and Ikeda, 2018). Peer groups thus comprise a significant social space where statuses are judged and, more importantly, where the networking culture’s emphasis on reciprocity is enacted – to the effect of reinforcing the institutional code of conflict avoidance.…”
Section: Theorizing Cooperation As Professional Conflict Management: ...mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This article uses the case of clients interested in non-surgical cosmetic procedures, such as Botox, fillers, and other forms of injections, in South Korea’s cosmetic surgery scene. South Korea is home to one of the fastest rates of cosmetic surgery consumption worldwide, making it an ideal context to examine the concomitant expansion of professional activity within the sector (Au, 2022; Holliday et al, 2017).…”
Section: The Case: Cosmetic Surgery In South Koreamentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In this manner, future research in sociology, economics and health might examine the repercussions of cosmetic surgery for inequality in social capital (e.g. others willing to connect and help you) and policies that enable this inequality, such as the practice of attaching headshots to resumes that might introduce appearance biases or prematurely disqualify surgically unmodified individuals (Au, 2022b;Hakim, 2010;Verhaeghe et al, 2013). Note 1.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%