Consuming Citizenship

by Park, Lisa Sun-Hee

• ISBN13: 9780804752473
• ISBN10: 0804752478
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-08-22
• Publisher: INGRAM

Summary

Consuming Citizenshipinvestigates how Korean American and Chinese American children of entrepreneurial immigrants demonstrate their social citizenship as Americans through conspicuous consumption. The American immigrant entrepreneur has played a central role in projecting the American ideology of meritocracy and equality. The children of these immigrants are seen as evidence of an open society. While it appears that these children have readily adapted to American culture, questions remain as to why second-generation Asian Americans feel compelled to convince others of their legitimacy and the way they go about asserting their citizenship status. Extending our understanding of such children beyond the traditional emphasis on assimilation, the author argues that their consumptive behavior is a significant expression of their paradoxical position as citizens who straddle the boundaries of social inclusion and exclusion.

Author Biography

Lisa Sun-Hee Park is Assistant Professor in the Ethnic Studies Department and the Urban Studies and Planning Program at the University of California, San Diego. She is co-author of The Silicon Valley of Dreams: Environmental Injustice, Immigrant Workers, and the High-tech Global Economy (2002).

Table of Contents

List of Tables	x
Acknowledgments	xi
1. Consumptive Citizenship	1	(21)
2. Minding the Family Store	22	(20)
3. Searching for a "Normal" Family	42	(22)
4. The Business in Children's Lives	64	(21)
5. The American Narrative of Asian Immigration	85	(26)
6. Consumption Fantasies of Upward Mobility	111	(20)
7. Consumption, Democracy, and the Good Immigrant	131	(6)
Appendices	137	(2)
Notes	139	(13)
References	152	(11)
Index	163