Inside Korea’s Social Impact

  Korea may be a society where experiences of solidarity and cooperation run especially deep. For generations, people have relied on one another, solved problems together, and met shared needs through collective effort.   I believe this spirit lives on in Korea’s cultural memory. And today, it reappears in what we call the social and solidarity economy.   In this article, I explore how Korea’s long tradition of cooperation has evolved into its modern social and solidarity economy.   Is the Social and Solidarity Economy a Foreign Concept in Korea?   When I first began working as a journalist covering social impact, I had a question: Is the social and solidarity economy — cooperatives, social enterprises, community enterprises, self-reliance enterprises, and social ventures — an imported idea?   In its early development, many explained that the model was inspired by European examples and later adapted to fit the Korean context.   ...

  One of the persistent social issues in South Korea is the concentration of resources and opportunities in Seoul and the greater metropolitan area. In recent years, there have been growing calls to strengthen regional development, and the atmosphere is slowly shifting. Nevertheless, the structural tendency toward centralization in Seoul remains strong.   The same pattern can be observed in the fields of the Social and Solidarity Economy and social innovation. Compared to other sectors, the social impact field arguably has more people who remain in their local communities and work for regional development. However, because the broader social and economic environment is heavily centered around Seoul, many forums, seminars, conferences, and networking events still take place primarily in the capital region.   While social impact ecosystems have been established across different parts of the country, in reality the ecosystem often appears to be structured around the ...