Paper short abstract:

This presentation looks at the popularization of walking, a new keyword in the urban lifestyle of Seoul, South Korea, and shows how certain modes of everyday-life walking get influenced by a broad range of socio-material processes.

Paper long abstract:

The presentation discusses the case of Bukchon, a district in Seoul that has not only been attracting international and local tourists since the turn of the millennium, but also been turning into an increasingly attractive residential area - an alternative to high-rise apartment blocks in the rest of much of the city. In the context of city tourism, the community building program by the Seoul metropolitan government, and the growing need for an alternative living environment, I will argue that the narrative construction of walking "as a fundamental component of a good life" is central to upvaluing the Bukchon area. Empirical works in architecture and urban studies, which have emerged as widely read popular scientific literature in Korea, support this narrative by introducing methodological knowledge about walking: from associative walking or "flanerie" - in terms of Walter Benjamin, where this and other American and European writers such as Michel De Certeau, Joseph A. Amato, Rebecca Solnit, and David de Breton are actively cited - to walking with a GPS tracker, an accelerometer, to using a walking diary. It is shown that anthropological theories of place-making, embodiment, and walking get further applied to and instrumentalized in related areas such as urban planning and the fostering of city tourism. In this regard, this presentation also touches upon the constitutive moment of ethnography - that an ethnographic work always co-produces the field of research.