Seoul Train: Advancing Community Wealth Building In South Korea

Meeting with Governors club, National Assembly members and Hope Institute

“We already have inclusive and sustainable economic actions, we need Community Wealth Building to scale them up!”  So said South Korean Mayor Kim Ye seon to me last week, as part of The Democracy Collaborative’s intensive multi-city visit to South Korea to advance international dialogue, exchange, and cooperation on democratizing the economy.  Invited to learn and share ideas about Community Wealth Building by the South Korean think tank the Hope institute, myself and TDC Senior Fellow Matthew Brown were barely into my week long trip and the challenge for the South Koreans and the wider global economy was clearly laid out.

The trip was immersive, full on and busy.  Travelling to 4 cities – (Yeongam, DaeJong, Gyenggi-do and Seoul) - as well as meeting members and legislators of the South Korean National Assembly, the national legislature, we learned much more than we could ever share in return.  Contextually, South Korea  is both economically successfully – the fourteenth largest economy in world – technologically advanced, boasting a consistent growth rate of around 3% that would be the envy of many other OECD nations.  However, it also suffers from growing problems familiar from other advanced industrial economies: growing regional and social inequality, depopulation, and the imperative – as with economies the world over – to make the essential transition from fossil fuel-dependent growth so as to address the climate crisis.

Discussion with activists and policy people in Gyenggi-do

Progressive economic activity is mature in South Korea, with the democratic economy centred around a burgeoning and highly developed social economy (albeit part thwarted in more recent times by national policy and funding shifts).  Underpinning this sophisticated work on the social economy is a recognition of the need for a deeper progressive economic stance, making the economy more social and relational to people and communities.  This recognition, coupled to the urgency of the climate crisis, served to drive interest in the possibilities for and application of Community Wealth Building. 

In Yeongam, in the far south west of the country, the Mayor, Woo Seung Hee, is pursuing CWB as his primary strategy, with the implementation of a local currency, support for local food systems, public procurement and an anchor strategy –all backed by a muscular municipalism and an ordinance supporting the growth of inclusive and democratic enterprises.  Infrastructure is an impressive part of the economic story throughout South Korea.  Whilst in the south-west, we also visited the third largest shipbuilding facility in the world, at Samho-eup, a huge and impressive operation with a workforce of 35,000.  

Neil giving a presentation on Community Wealth Building to audience in Yeongam

In Dae jong, the mayor, Kim Je seon, is also committed to CWB, including advancing plural forms of democratic ownership.   In the city, alongside politicians and city officials we met with social economy activists and practitioners and visited Sungsamding – a bakery with exemplary social economy principles and actions.  Whilst not employee owned or a formal coop, it reflected the deep inclusive and social roots that underpin a surprising amount of business activity in South Korea, where profit and surplus is seen generatively as a social good that should be deployed socially.

Meeting with social economy activists at Sungsamging, with Mayor of Dae Jong

In Seoul we visited the National Assembly, meeting with representatives of the Governors’ club and National Assembly members.  Participating in conference session, we learned of the many local currencies that proliferate in South Korea’s economy and that we were able to use ourselves as part of our travels.  When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the central government paid out disaster recovery and social support funds in local currency. We heard a presentation and met with the Mayor Buyeo-gun- Park Jung Hyn, who with his Goodtrae pay has impressive plans for extending the local currency model.

Overall, local currencies are now issued by 229 local governments in South Korea, representing the equivalent of $7 billion US dollars in 2020.  We also heard about renewable energy developments from the mayor of Shinan Gun, highlighting the pressing challenge of embedded community wealth and municipal ownership in this fast growing sector.  This – as we are experiencing elsewhere across the world – is a cutting-edge issue for CWB, with the need to ensure that the transition to these vital new sources of energy provides generative forms of community wealth and doesn’t merely follow the old patterns of wealth extraction that are so dominant in the fossil fuel sector. 

Matthew in discussion with National Assembly member -Park Jung-Hyun 

Seoul itself is a city of 10 million people, with the population of Greater Seoul rising to 30 million – and the problems of land use, property values, and gentrification are as signifiicant as in any other major world city.  Efforts to address these problems by Seoul metropolitan council include the increase in social housing and the work of the Seoul sustainable development departments, which have policies and ordinances designed to curb gentrification and ensure cooperative incubators and start-up workspaces.  This serves to curb the crowding out from speculation and thwart runaway land and property appreciation, which threatens to preclude local industry, instead aiding the preservation of community life, culture and identity.

On reflection, after a powerhouse tour of South Korea put on by our hosts, there are significant lessons for CWB elsewhere.  Firstly it was heartening to witness how the Community Wealth Building model and its five pillars resonated in South Korea.  CWB is not just for deindustrialized or capital-poor places, but is for all places where there is a wish to create an economy that genuinely works for people, place and planet.  There is much still to do in South Korea, but the practice of CWB is landing and a number of municipalities are taking the agenda forward, building on solid pre-existing foundations 

Secondly, each place is different, and there are different triggers and system-wide challenges which demand a response.  In South Korea, depopulation and regional inequality are key drivers.  In the face of these problems CWB offers change with concrete actions, which can start the process toward wider system change.   

Thirdly, many places around the world have progressive politicians and a base of radical social activism.  In many instances, this can be somewhat cowed by reactionaries, financialization and the power of wealth and vested interests.  In the face of these opposing currents, CWB stands as an antidote, offering hope and demonstrably effective actions that can be put into practice right away.  We are grateful to our Korean hosts for an incredible and eye-opening journey and exchange, and at TDC we will continue to help and assist South Korea and our partners at the Hope Institute as things progress and they continue to build towards the economy and world we all want to see. 

Look out for our forthcoming joint Hope Institute-Democracy Collaborative paper on Community Wealth Building in South Korea, to be published in Korean and English in the coming weeks.