hankyoreh

Oct. 22. From left to right

Kim Soo-hyun

Deobuleorak Community, a people-centered cooperative for the elderly in Gwangju’s Gwangsan district, is neither an NGO nor a non-profit. It was formed through the voluntary involvement of elderly people and the assistance of citizens, and the local government also took part in the negotiations. The cooperative is turning a profit by running a red bean porridge (patjuk in Korean) restaurant and a tofu factory. It came into being when people were put first, with agency given to the local government, the elderly, and the residents of the area.

“The thing that enabled the success of the Deobuleorak Community was that we empowered the elderly to become participants, instead of objectifying them or relegating them as welfare recipients,” said Min Hyung-bae, mayor of Gwangsan District. Min was a speaker during the plenary session of the 5th Asia Future Forum, which took place on Oct. 22 in Seoul, the first day of the forum.

Gwangsan District has also applied the concept of giving residents agency in work that does not alienate people in the Pump Priming Cooperative, which recycles waste, and Clean Gwangsan Cooperative, which picks up household waste.

Mondragon in Spain is regarded as the city in the world with the most successful cooperatives.

“The cooperatives at Mondragon were built by people and for people. Workers’ democratic participation in management and voluntary work prevents labor from being alienated by capital,” said Juanjo Martin, professor at Mondragon University, during a lecture on the same day of the forum.

“The owners of these cooperatives are not capital, and not the government - it’s the workers themselves,” Martin emphasized.

The topic of the plenary session on this day of the forum was “New Governance for Cooperative Communities.” Ideas were exchanged about how to escape from the dominant control of the market and the government to create economic communities in which the people, capital, and the public sector all play a role.

Drawing upon their various experiences, the speakers during the plenary session - Lars Danielsson, Swedish Ambassador to South Korea, Min Hyung-bae, and Juanjo Martin - were in agreement that now is the time to focus on an economy that is designed to benefit all of the members of society and to consider a variety of governance systems that can accomplish this.

“The conclusion that Sweden has reached through its experience is that, as long as the basic system is in place, it does not matter whether the government, the private sector, or some combination thereof takes the lead in governance,” Danielsson suggested, reflecting on the history of Sweden.

In elaborating the aspects of the basic system in Sweden for a people-centered economy, Danielsson pointed to social trust, which enables people to trust the government and their neighbors, and the Lutheran work ethic, or the idea that everyone who is capable should work.

During a special speech, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon provided specific examples of governance in Seoul. “We are creating a special human city, with the dream of a human-centered economy that transcends the capital- and market-centered paradigms,” Park said at the beginning of his address.

“In order to orient governance around communication, participation, and cooperation, we have made all of the details of city governance transparently available online. We have also created ways to hear citizens’ opinions on these topics through social networking services. The opinions solicited in this way are then further discussed offline, and the majority of them reflected in city policy,” Park explained.

During the discussion in the plenary session, Qian Xiao-jun, professor at Tsinghua University, and Jade Chung, Senior Human Resources Manager at GE Korea, talked about the role that corporations should play in a cooperative community.

“The Chinese economy has been experiencing ferocious growth, but companies are gradually starting to realize the importance of communicating with workers and with local communities,” Qian said. As examples of this, she cited Flextronix, which actively solicits the opinions of migrant workers who have moved to cities from the countryside, and China Minemetals, which makes an effort to communicate with local communities.

“Companies cannot abandon the goal of profits, but despite this GE is working to train talented individuals with human-centered values who can resolve the difficult problems facing the world. Worker training and human resources at GE go beyond profits and are focused on internalizing human values,” said Jade Chung.

By Bang Jun-ho, staff reporter

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