Living co-ops in Korea 143community where they as both producers and consumers practice community-
based cooperative labor (traditionally known as dure). The community they desire
is imagined, however, as most of these urban consumers have never experienced
these communal laboring operations in reality. With its emphasis on community
values and cooperation, this dure movement also lies in direct opposition to the
neoliberal economic paradigm.
This phenomenon is, of course, not unique to Korea. Many Asian countries
are increasingly faced with the harsh sharp inequalities resulting from the
polarization of wealth and the effects of a footprint that is increasingly negative
toward the environment. In response to this, state governments, civic groups, and
the media have seized on the urban sustainability frameworks to address these
growing social and environmental problems. These efforts are evident in social
media–empowered civic movements, urban community restoration projects, a
range of media representations of green lifestyles, and the often-heated discourses
about the social economy across the region. The push for environmental and
social sustainability often directly contradicts the push by influential urban
business coalitions for corporations, cities, and countries to be more economically
competitive with their regional and global rivals. The interaction between urban
sustainability and economic development discourses raises questions around
current entrepreneurial strategies (mainly practiced by major multinational
enterprises (MNEs)) and invites an exploration of the implications of integrating
concepts (and practices) such as sustainability and social justice within urban
economic development policy. In the case of Korea, such interactions manifest
through the emerging living co-op movement and a restoration of the notion of
dure (collaborative community sentiments). Community enterprise environmental
coalitions that incorporate the states’ broader vision of sustainability and social
equity present alternatives to existing socioeconomic coalitions (predominantly
driven by the globally dominant neoliberal capitalist system). They suggest
a new type of sustainable lifestyle built upon a pro-community sentiment and
environmental health.
Research into neoliberalism and neoliberal social systems in Asia has been
undertaken by a range of researchers in both cultural studies and the social sciences
(Ong 2006; Hadiz 2006; Rodan and Hewison 2006; Chang, Fine, and Weiss 2012;
Park, Hill, and Saito 2012; Anagnost, Arai, and Ren 2013). In this work, however,
social practices that react against this system and the social economies that exist
as an alternative in the region are under-discussed. In recent years, a number of
Korean-language books have discussed local co-ops as a mode of social economy,
community restoration, and environment-friendly farming (for example, Park
Won-Soon, the mayor of Seoul, and his various books on community-driven social
enterprise and the sharing economy). Despite this, there is no in-depth academic
discussion on the current boom in living co-ops in Korea in relation to sustainable
lifestyle (especially in English). A handful of existing studies written in English
on Korean co-ops primarily deal with agricultural co-ops, in particular relation
to their development, policy-making processes, and social impacts (especially in
food markets). This chapter, therefore, seeks to explore Korea’s living co-ops and