서울과 동경의 '보헤미안 씬(scene)' 비교

Abstract

Bohemia is considered a core component driving innovation and urban development in the West. Many urban sociologists contend that bohemians are creative. Artists are the quintessence in the sense that breaking the eggs of tradition is a prerequisite to cooking a new omelet. The core idea seems broadly accepted by many readers and commentators in the US and Western Europe. However, many East Asian intellectuals react with puzzlement when asked what or where is the local bohemia, implying that there is none in most Asian countries. This paper examines whether or not bohemia is absent in East Asia, using urban scene data. The results are compared with those from Chicago to lead to incorporate Asian variations more specifically. In so doing we reassess whether the idea of bohemia should be revised or whether a new concept should be considered as Asian variations are more specifically incorporated into international theory. What is interesting from the analysis is that the mean bohemian scene scores of Seoul is higher than that of Tokyo, and even Chicago. This does not mean that Seoul is more bohemian than Tokyo and Chicago. The reason why the mean bohemian scores in Tokyo and Chicago are lower than Seoul is the differences in residential areas. In Tokyo and Chicago, the bohemian-like scenes of self-expression and transgression are (often strongly) negatively correlated with neighborliness, tradition, and localism. People pursuing these distinctive activities are in different neighborhoods. By contrast, in Seoul, all of these are more often together geographically and those scenes are positively or at least not negatively related. This makes bohemian scenes of Seoul less attractive than those of Tokyo. No correlations between bohemian scenes and apartment prices are found in Seoul, while positive correlations between bohemian scenes and land prices are found in Tokyo.