200년 사회적경제의 역사 속 한국의 사회적경제

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The Social economy is a theoretical and practical notion of about 200 years of history. When it appeared for the first time in France in 1830, it was a critical science as opposed to political economy and then developed as an alternative paradigm to abolish wage labor by organizing workers’ associations during the second half of the 19<SUP>th</SUP> century. However, the notion of social economy was eclipsed by the economic crisis of the 1970s, triggered by the oil shock. It was considered an effective tool for combating social problems such as social exclusion. Therefore, its institutionalization has been processed during the last two decades of the 20<SUP>th</SUP> century. Since then, the notion of social economy has shifted to social economy sector consisting of cooperatives, mutual societies, and associations.
Since the end of the 20<SUP>th</SUP> century, the social economy has represented an alternative economic theory and practices along with newly emerged notions, such as solidarity economy, popular economy, and social enterprise. It spread beyond France and French-speaking countries while being integrated into a newly created notion of social and solidarity economy in the 21st century. In this context, the social economy was introduced in the Korean civil society, aspiring alternative theories and practices after the financial crisis of 1997, under different terms such as third sector, social employment, or social enterprise. The Korean government enacted the Social Enterprise Promotion Act at the end of 2006, considering social enterprises as an efficient political tool for combating social bipolarization. From then on, different ministries started to implement policy measures promoting the creation of enterprises with social missions, such as community enterprises and self-sufficient enterprises. These categories of government-certified or accredited enterprises, together with cooperatives, according to basic laws on cooperatives of 2012, are commonly considered social economy enterprises. That is why the development pathway of the social economy in Korea is characterized by a government-driven and policy-dependent model.
Therefore, the notion of social economy in Korea seems to have been perceived in a narrow meaning without being taken into consideration its historical context and widely accepted usage of the term at the international level. Moreover, its meaning is distorted, representing mainly government-certified or accredited categories of enterprises except for cooperative enterprises. Diverse proposals submitted to enact basic laws on the social economy are said to be in the same vein, and so they have to be reviewed critically.
Meanwhile, the social economy in Korean society is an object of enthusiasm from one side. At the same time, it is the target of criticism and the field of conflict from the other. One criticizes it has too many privileges benefiting from public support schemes, while others think it has become an instrument of public policies and hence lost its self-sustainability. Considering this situation, it is necessary to review the directions and strategies of the social economy instead of continuing the race for further quantitative growth.
This article aims to develop an insight into the social economy through an analytical examination of the historical evolution of the term—the precondition to redefine new directions for the social economy. On this ground, this article draws several issues derived from the process of its institutionalization and clarifies the contradictory points of the currently used method of identifying the social economy. Such a task could lead us to answer if the definition of social economy in Korean society corresponds to the universally accepted usage of the term, questioning its legitimacy.
This article ends up with three suggestions for the further development of social economy in Korean society wishing to succeed in its meaningful traditio