ISSN : 0023-3900
Since the 1990s, the number of fare-exempt elderly people using the subway has greatly increased. The younger generation views the elderly male passengers known as kkondae (slang for old, annoying people) with contempt. On the subway, one can often witness the elderly male passengers scolding the young people for not offering their seats to the elderly, or for their naive attitude towards security—thereby disrupting the peaceful atmosphere of the subway. This study thus examines the pattern of subway usage by elderly men, the insults that they experience from the younger generation, and how they respond to these insults by asserting a higher moral stature. Through this, rather than merely understanding these conflicts as a case of “cantankerous older men,” it investigates how male elder passengers’ efforts to recuperate a damaged sense of self constitute a struggle for recognition within a “non-place,” the subway.
Augé, Marc. 1995. Non-places: Towards an Anthropology of Supermodernity. Translated by John Howe. New York: Verso.
Augé, Marc. 2002. In the Metro. Translated by Tim Conley. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Chung, Gene-Woong. 2008. “Stigma, Lifestyle, and Self in Later Life: The Meaning and Paradox of Older Men’s Hang-Out Culture at Jongmyo Park.” Korea Journal 48.4: 93–114.
Davidson, Robert A. 2003. “Spaces of Immigration ‘Prevention’: Interdiction and the Nonplace.” Diacritics 33.3: 3–18.
De Certeau, Michel. 1988. The Practice of Everyday of Life. Translated by Steven Rendall. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Durkheim, Emile. 1965. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Translated by Joseph Ward Swain. New York: Free Press.
Ekerdt, David. 1986. “The Busy Ethic: Moral Continuity between Work and Retirement.”Geornotologist 26.3: 239–244.
Fisch, Michael. 2013. “Tokyo’s Commuter Train Suicides and the Society of Emergence.”Cultural Anthropology 28.2: 320–343.
Foucault, Michel. 1976. The History of Sexuality. Vol. 1, An Introduction. Translated by Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage Books.
Geertz, Clifford. 1994. “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture.”In Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, edited by Michael Martin and Lee C. McIntyre, 213–231. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Goffman, Erving. 1963. Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. New York: Free Press.
Goffman, Erving. 1967. Interaction Ritual: Essays in Face-to-Face Behavior. New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine Transaction.
Goffman, Erving. 1971. Relations in Public-Microstudies of the Public Order. New York:Harper and Row.
Gweon, Young-lib. 2004. “The Changing Perception of America in South Korea:Transition or Transformation.” Korea Journal 44.1: 152–177.
Halbwachs, Maurice. 1980. The Collective Memory. Translated by Francis J. Ditter Jr. and Vida Yazdi Ditter. New York: Harper and Row.
Han, Gyoung-hae, and Yoon Sung-eun. 2007. “Daejungmaeche-eseoui sinnonyeon damnon bunseok: sinmunmaeche-reul jungsim-euro” (Critical Review of Discourse non Aging in Korean Newspaper). Hanguk nonyeonhak (Journal of the Korean Gerontological Society) 27.2: 299–322.
Harvey, Daivd. 1990. The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Honneth, Axel. 1996. The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hwang, Ki-yeon. 1997. Seoul-si dosicheoldo unyeong gaeseon bangan yeongu (A Research for Improvements in Operation of Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit System). Seoul: Seoul Development Institute.
Kim, Heekyoung, and John Traphagan. 2009. “From Socially Weak to Potential Consumer:Changing Discourses on Elder Status in South Korea.” Care Management Journals 10.1: 32–39.
Kim, Hyon-kyong. 2015. Saram, jangso, hwandae (Person, Place, and Hospitality). Seoul: Munhak-gwa Jiseongsa.
Latour, Bruno. 1993. We Have Never Been Modern. Translated by Catherine Porter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lefebvre, Henri, and Catherine Régulier. 1985. “The Rhythmanalytical Project.”Communications 41: 191–199.
Lim, Chae-hong. 2006. “The National Security Law and Anticommunist Ideology in Korean Society.” Korea Journal 46.3: 80–102.
Merriman, Peter. 2004. “Driving Places Marc Augé, Non-Places, and the Geographies of England’s MI Motorway.” Theory, Culture and Society 21.4–5: 145–167.
MOLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of the Republic of Korea.MOLIT). 2012. 2012 nyeondo gukto haeyang tonggye yeonbo (Statistical Yearbook of MOLIT). Sejong: MOLIT. http://stat.molit.go.kr/portal/stat/yearReportView.do?yearIdx=20120240003.
Moon, Byung-seob. 1998. Jihacheol, daejung gyotong sudan-inga: Seoul-si jihacheol jeongchaek-e gwanhan yeongu (The Subway as a Public Transportation: A Report on the Policy of the Subway in Seoul City). Seoul: Center for Transportation and Environment.
Moon, Seung-sook. 2005. Militarized Modernity and Gendered Citizenship in South Korea. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Noh, Shi-hak, and Yang Eun-Jeong. 2011. “Seoul-si idong ganeung goryeong inguui juyo tonghaeng paeteon-gwa noin jihacheol muimseungcha jedo-e daehan insik” (An Analysis of the Major Travel Patterns of the Elderly in Seoul Metropolitan Area and People’s Attitudes toward the Free Ride Policy for Subway Use for the Elderly). Gukto jirihakhoe (The Geographical Journal of Korea)45.4: 545–557.
Rauhala, Emily. 2012. “The Strongman’s Daughter.” Time, December 17.
Roberman, Sveta. 2007. “Fighting to Belong: Soviet WWII Veterans in Israel.” Ethos 35.4: 447–477.
Seok, Jae-eun, et al. 2005. Noin gyotong iyong deung yogeum jedo yeongu (A Study on Public Transportation Fare System and Usage Patterns of the Elderly). Seoul:Korea Institute Health and Social Affairs and Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Sharma, Sarah. 2009. “Baring Life and Lifestyle in the Non-place.” Cultural Studies 23.1: 129–148.
Son, Jung-mok. 2003. Seoul dosi gyehoek iyagi (Stories about the Urban Planning of Seoul). Seoul: Hanul.
Song, Je-sook. 2009. South Koreans in the Debt Crisis: The Creation of a Neoliberal Welfare Society. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Thrift, Nigel. 2004. “Driving in the City.” Theory, Culture and Society 21.4–5: 41–59.
Ziegler, Garrett. 2004. “The Politics of the Third Rail.” Space and Culture 7.3: 283–301.