ABSTRACT
Based on communication infrastructure theory (CIT), this study developed and assessed communication concepts to understand the various ways in which residents in a metropolitan city experience and manage differences through their neighborhood communicative actions. We investigated three urban communities in Seoul with in-depth interviews (n = 30) and 12 focus group interview meetings (n = 120). We conceptualized two types of community storytelling actions to address differences – difference-reducing community storytelling (DRCS) and difference-managing community storytelling (DMCS). We also identified four neighborhood relational types – denial, rivalry, cohabitation, and coexistence – in the study areas as interacting in various forms with community storytelling to address the issue of difference in urban neighborhoods.
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Euikyung Shin, Dr. Ahra Cho, Dr. Yeji Kwon, Si-Yeon Jang, and Chul-ho Choi for their help with data collection. We would also like to thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2016S1A5A2A03927298).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 We created the terms of difference reduction and difference management based on uncertainty reduction (Berger & Calabrese, Citation1975) and uncertain management (Brashers, Citation2001), both of which addressed how individuals managed uncertainty in interpersonal relationships. We applied the contrast of “reduction” and “management” in the interpersonal communication theories to the cases where urban residents addressed differences in their neighbourhoods.