Neoliberalism From Above and Cosmopolitanism From Below: A Korean-English Meetup Group in the United States

Abstract

This article applies theories of cosmopolitanism-from-below A. Appadurai (2011), F. Kurasawa (2004) to an empirical case. Drawing on participant-observation and interviews conducted over the course of 20 months at a Korean-English Meetup group in the United States, this article explores the practices of an explicitly “cosmopolitan” group. Specifically, it focuses on U.S. Americans and Korean interns, and considers their experiences and motivations within the broader structures of neoliberalism. The group is identified as alternately exemplifying and challenging neoliberal logic and the article considers the relationship between neoliberalism and different forms of cosmopolitanism. The cosmopolitan ethos fostered by the group’s founder and reinforced through members’ practice offers preliminary but hopeful evidence of a cosmopolitanism that challenges neoliberalism and the uneven distribution of cultural/economic capital.