도시민속조사에 대한 경험의 공유

Abstract

This article organizes various general purports from the Urban Folklore research projects promoted and sponsored by The National Folklore Museum of Korea. Until now, Korean Folklore studies have been focused on extant culture in rural areas. However, many Koreans nowadays are residing mainly in urban areas or nearby urban areas. A long time has passed since they completed the migration from an agrarian culture to an urban and industrial culture. Urban redevelopment is in progress all over Korea and the need for various studies on the life of city dwellers has emerged. In response, The National Folklore Museum of Korea conducted large scale folkway research projects in ahyeon-dong, mapo-gu, and jeongneung-dong, Seongbuk-gu in Seoul. It soon became apparent that conducting the research using existing research methods and directions for rural area studies was ineffective for acquiring objective data on the life and culture of city dwellers. Thus, the author is making several suggestions based on his research experience so far. First, the folklorist circle has been confined in superficial research and in producing data that is only valuable for academia rather than ensuring application to current culture and folkways. Second, the author strongly suggests that research should be conducted with a comprehensive understanding of human beings, the basic platform of humanities and from the view point of the general public, rather than being limited to the academic perspective. By the same token, the author calls for creating experiential ethnography. Also, the author strongly proposes a critical look at existing research subjects and presents a specific methodology of research on life chronology and material culture. Finally, the author presents the ultimate direction for ethnography and shares the problems as well as trials and errors he experienced while conducting research for fellow colleagues.