Turning a home into the common: the micro-politics of subjectivitions in a cohousing community in Seoul
Didi HAN
ABSTRACT This paper explores the micro-politics of a cohousing community called Bin-Zib (Empty/Guests’ House) in Seoul, South Korea. In a society where home ownership has become a financial asset, the residents of Bin-Zib have attempted to turn the home into the common. This paper focuses on how paradoxical principles of the community create Bin-Zib as an argumentative space, where disputes constantly arise. The paper then shows how the practice of communing in Bin-Zib is essentially related to the everyday politics of subjectivation. Finally, the meaning of Bin-Zib in the inter-Asian context will be discussed.
KEYWORDS: Bin-Zib; cohousing; the common; subjectivation; everyday politics
Notes on contributor
Didi Han holds an MA in Communications and is pursuing PhD of Human Geography at London School of Economics and Political Science. In her previous research, she looked at the co-housing movement in South Korea, how members struggled to create different practices of housing and relations in a financialized urban setting. Her current project is investigating urban communing movements of the precariat in different cities of East Asia.