Actualité de Valérie Gelézeau : conférence sur les méthodes de terrain à l’Université nationale de Séoul

Title : (Back to) Future Fieldwork – Tapsa (踏査) and Haptic Methods in Contemporary Korean Studies

Abstract :

In this lecture, I discuss my current research project, ‘Post- and Meta-Urban Korea’, which follows three decades of crafting my ethnographic methods and critical reflection on fieldwork. In doing so, I share my scientific journey of questioning the concept of Korean space, as a social construct centred on people, from the perspective of cultural geography as ‘situated knowledge’ grounded on fieldwork. My analysis of Korean apartment culture, my engaged research on North Korean Cities and my investigation of ‘life on the lines’ in the border regions pf Korea have all created specific methodological experiences. Building on these, I now propose testing methods that include the sensitive and the ‘haptic regime of knowledge’, which will contribute to the development of a cultural geography adapted to the ‘new normal’ of our societies.