Payments and Intimate Ties in Transnationally Brokered Marriages

How do women make sense of marriages that start with payments and brokers? This study explores the sustenance of connected lives through relational work by analyzing how women from Asia who marry South Korean men in transnationally brokered marriages understand money and marriage. Evidence from 31 i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Socio-economic review 2019-04, Vol.17 (2), p.337-356
Main Author: Kim, Julie S
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:How do women make sense of marriages that start with payments and brokers? This study explores the sustenance of connected lives through relational work by analyzing how women from Asia who marry South Korean men in transnationally brokered marriages understand money and marriage. Evidence from 31 in-depth interviews elucidates the different ways in which women manage their social and economic relations in their home country and their destination country, and how the negotiation of those ties impacts marriage decisions and experiences. The case extends our understanding of relational work by uncovering its dynamic nature as women’s changing expectations reconfigure their relations with family, brokers and husbands, and, in turn, reformulate their monetary practices. Examining women’s relational work also reveals micro-processes that underlie macro-level trends in the flow of money, information and people in Asia, lending an understanding of broader transnational processes.
ISSN:1475-1461
1475-147X
DOI:10.1093/ser/mwx061