Pricing the priceless surgery : professional expertise and the marketing of high-risk surgery in South Korea

Abstract

Through ethnographic fieldwork in cosmetic surgery clinics in Seoul, South Korea in 2018, in this article I investigate how professional clinicians persuade consumers to purchase surgery during consultations. Enamored by the ascendancy of the Korean cultural industry, many non-Koreans are drawn to Korea for the storied, domestic brand of surgery believed to be inextricable from the aesthetic appeal of their idols. Clinical professionals capitalize on this Korean ascendancy by transforming the meanings of surgical success (as symbolic attainment of moral-existential satisfaction) and failure (as deficiency of its symbolic rewards) to trust in their moral authority and expertise.