
“Where Seoul leads, the country
will follow” The Dawning of a Social Economy
A social economy is beginning to take
shape in South Korea. Government-certified social enterprises alone now number
more than six hundred. Two thousand twelve is the UN International Year of
Cooperatives, and going into business with one will be easier than ever this
December after the Framework Act on Cooperatives goes into effect. Meanwhile, village
enterprises organized independently by local communities continue drawing more
and more attention.
Mayor Park Awakens New Hope for
Seoul Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon is one of the people who
planted the seeds for this kind of social economy in South Korea. Creator of
the Beautiful Store and Hope Institute, he was first to import the concepts of
the recycled goods store, fair trade, and the village enterprise into the country.
His election as mayor assigned him the role of clearing a field for this
economy to grow. How is he approaching the social economy? We met him on
February 21 to hear his thoughts. We’re hearing a lot of talk these days
about alternative economic models for addressing the problems facing the world’s economies. “There’s
been a lot of talk about capitalism in crisis, as well as various attempts to
resolve it. We’re also seeing concepts like ‘philanthropic capitalism’ and ‘creative
capitalism.’ The social economy is an important experiment in this area. In the
United Kingdom, social enterprises are coming to represent the mainstream. The
cooperatives they’ve traditionally had there are starting to look now like
models of stability in the wake of the financial crisis, and are receiving
renewed attention. Corporate social responsibility is being developed into
international norms like the ISO 26000 guidelines. I wouldn’t say it all adds
up perfectly in logical terms, but it is all part of a larger current of
change. In Seoul, we’re working to create village communities where the social
economy can take root and flower.” What would people’s lives be like with such an economy in
Seoul? “Seoul’s villages have traditionally served as
bedroom communities. Also, the population that remains tethered to one place
has been quite small. Relationships aren’t forming. Lives aren’t being shared.
But when people all take part together in production, consumption, and culture
[as in Seoul’s Seongmi Mountain village], communities naturally take shape.
People can then use them as a foundation for working together to create village
enterprises and cooperatives. That’s the social economy.” Are you saying
village communities can take shape even in a big city like Seoul? “In Seoul’s Sangdo No. 3 neighborhood, there’s
a village called Seongdaegol. Around twenty families there got together to
build and run a children’s library, and a community was formed. It’s gone even farther
than that—people are building alternative schools and joining together on
energy conservation campaigns to reduce our dependence on nuclear power. If you
go to Seongmi Mountain village, you’ll find people who came together over
shared child care and went on to build an alternative schools and collective theater,
and even a consumer cooperative, where they’re participating together in
production, consumption, and cultural activities. “Right now, South Korea’s
communities are in a state of collapse—farming
villages and cities alike. People have left the farming villages, and everyone’s lonely in the cities. But you’ll find
this craving for community in people. Nobody told them to make places like
Seongdaegol or Seongmi Mountain. Residents did it themselves.” What will the central
or local government’s role be in the social economy? “Now that the social economy phenomenon is really starting
to spread in Korea, a key factor will be how the public sector helps to promote
it. It’s actually problematic for the government to have too big a role in the
process. When you’re giving too much direct support, it starts to become
something of a hothouse flower. We need to go about creating the kind of
infrastructure that allows an independent social entrepreneur spirit to emerge.
Since we have this thirst among people, if we can create even a small system for
distributing resources, and if it inspires in people the hope and expectation
of possibility, then I think it will spread very quickly.”
Government Resources, Private Ideas What kind of
relationship should there be between citizens, the central government, and the
local government? “The crucial thing is cooperation between the government
and private sector. Public institutions have the resources, while the private
sector has the creative ideas. You need both of these to work together for something
significant to emerge. For instance, the city of Seoul doesn’t have to
monopolize public assets. It could give government assets and project commissions
to private groups or village enterprises that embody the public spirit, so that
we end up having a kind of competition for the public good. There are a lot of
projects along these lines in the United Kingdom.” The city of Seoul is
currently planning to set up a social economy committee to provide assistance. Wouldn’t you say the social economies that
emerge from village communities are too small to solve the problems of a huge
city like Seoul? Can they reach a large enough scale to be called a “strategy for beating the crisis of
capitalism”? “The beginnings certainly have been small, but
I expect the ripple effect to grow. It’s been just ten years since I began my social
enterprise with the Beautiful Store. And it’s only been around three years that
people have really been talking about ‘social enterprises.’ But even the
interest it’s drawing now has been very fast in coming. I believe Korea is a
dynamic place. The social economy idea will spread rapidly. In particular, I am
confident the country as a whole will change when Seoul takes the lead in
changing. “There
seems to be an agreement among the people of the world that capitalism is
facing a fundamental crisis. But different people are suggesting different
alternatives. Some say the role of the state should be increased to control the
market. Some say capitalism can be saved through straightening out the market
order with strict enforcement of the rules that have already been developed. The
message is, in a sense, that it is possible to break through the crisis with the
functions of the state and the market, the two main actors in the global
economy to date. “The
social economy represents a different approach entirely. Its aim is a value
system that operates within the market economy, but is diametrically opposed to
the capitalist economic paradigm where the only values are competition and profit
maximization. I believe that we should be looking to increase the public
presence, but that the state should be cooperating with independently formed
communities rather than monopolizing that role. The driving forces behind the
social economy are things like altruism, reciprocity, collaboration, social
goals, reputation, and dedication—rather
than the greed that has been the driving force with capitalism. Perhaps these
economies can provide us with a fire brigade to smother the flames of global
economic crisis.”