144 Sun Jung
associated emerging green lifestyles by focusing on the cosmopolitan desires of
the urban middle class toward environmentally friendly, sustainable living as well
as the nostalgic desires that drive them toward cooperative communities. It also
examines how this emerging civic movement reflects broader Korean society’s
demand for a new socioeconomic paradigm―the social economy―which can
ideally provide an antidote to the accumulation of neoliberal economic fatigue.
Sustainable living and emerging social enterprises in Korea
Sustainability and sustainable development came to global prominence when
the World Commission on Environment and Development published its 1987
report, “Our Common Future” (commonly referred to as The Brundtland Report).
Since then, sustainability discourse has addressed social equity alongside
its original site of interest, environmental well-being. When considering the
inseparability of environmental quality and human equality, Julian Agyeman
constructed what he called a Just Sustainability Paradigm: “from global to local,
human inequality is bad for environmental quality... the dominant wilderness,
greening and natural resource focus [of the existing notion of ‘environment’]
now includes urban disinvestment, racism, homes, jobs, neighborhoods and
communities” (2008, p. 152). Sustainability, therefore, does not simply refer to
a “green” or “environmental” concern (although these aspects of sustainability
are unquestionably essential); rather, a truly sustainable society must ensure a
better quality of life for all its citizens, where “wider questions of social needs and
welfare and economic opportunity are integrally related to environmental limits
imposed by supporting ecosystems (Agyeman, Bullard, and Evans 2002, p. 78).
Recent trends in Korea toward social enterprise (and the associated living co-op
boom) mirror this very philosophy of “just sustainability”.
The term social enterprise was first coined by Joseph Banks (1972), who
proposed that business organizations should use managerial skills to address and
resolve social problems. In recent years, this has become a global phenomenon
as a result of the growing needs of expanding marginalized communities, the
increased dominance of multinational corporations, and the withdrawal of the
State from public service and provisions (Drayton and Greiner cited in Yue 2012).
Many individuals or groups of individuals with similar interests—driven largely
by passion and a strong vision to challenge the existing economic system—
established their own companies or organizations to provide products and services
to the market through which they could make a positive social impact. Studying
the transformation of social movements and civil society in contemporary Japan,
Broadbent and Barrett (2005) observed how the voluntary involvement and
participation of Japanese citizens in these types of groups demonstrated a vigorous
interest in issues that were of a general benefit to society (such as the reduction of
global warming since the mid-1990s). This has also been the case in other Asian
countries over recent years, which have witnessed a surge in social movements and
nongovernmental organizations on issues including the environment, sustainable
living, and social well-being and equity. This has coincided with the rise of an