This new joint article by our Dr Ming Curran, published in Food, Culture & Society, draws on his research into South Korea's vibrant coffee culture. The research, funded by the Academy of Korean Studies, aims to better understand the social meanings of coffee and coffee shops in contemporary Korean culture.
In this paper, Dr Curran and his two collaborators, Dr Felicia Istad and Dr Michael Chesnut, explore the strategies that hands-on owners of coffee shops, or "coffee entrepreneurs", use to pursue success in Seoul's ultra-competitive coffee market. Drawing on two rounds of interviews with 9 coffee entrepreneurs, they find that these entrepreneurs feel immense pressure to ensure both that their shops "stand out" amongst competitors and also "fit it" by keeping up with the latest trends. Dr Curran will present his research on Korean coffee shop culture in January at the 1st annual "Language of Food" conference at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
More information about the article can be found on the website HERE.
