South Korea is probably one of the countries which went the farthest in the world in the promotion of the social enterprise model. Since last two decades, various public schemes and laws have successively appeared inspired by different reference models such as the concepts of self-sufficiency, social jobs, social enterprise, social cooperative and, more recently, social economy.
This paper aims to explain this specific context and the complex dynamic surrounding the social enterprise phenomenon which has been emerging in South Korea for a few years and could possibly lead to the introduction of a general related law on social economy with the aim to build up an appropriate framework to embrace different initiatives in the fields of ageing, young, health, social services, work integration, inclusion of minorities, etc.
In order to catch up this complex dynamic, we have considered in our study that all those different concepts were different expressions of the concepts of social enterprise and social economy each of them reflecting a temporary but large consensus on a specific model and set of objectives. We picked up the terminology of “meta-model” to express the result of this consensus, i.e. the contents which are retained in a specific legislation or a public policy introduced after long or short discussions among stakeholders. In such a perspective, a meta-model reflects a structuring power that exerts an influence generating or contributing to design other experiences and models.
The historical perspective especially shows a constant dynamic where each meta-model has an influence on local interpretations featured in single/simple models and guides daily practices before it loses a part of its consensual power and credibility and finally generates the emergence of another potential meta-model co-existing with the previous one and partially modifying it. Behind the linearity of the historical progression, these interactions create a circular process. By articulating individual models and ideal concept of social enterprise during a certain period, based on a relatively strong institutional consensus, we assume that this idea of “meta-model” helps to understand the complex structuring of the social enterprise phenomenon in South Korea, although we are aware it is certainly not the only relevant framework to explain this phenomenon.
Our analysis aims at catching this complexity of the social enterprise phenomenon in South Korea arguing that the meanings of economic activities and social aims are always controversial and interpenetrating. For example, the recent interest for social economy can be seen as another step of the development of the social enterprise concept introduced two decades ago, but it also represents a new orientation and a new possibility to include dynamics without concrete economic activities in the marketplace - like associations - and based upon the mutual interest rather than the general interest - like traditional cooperatives.
Selected bibliography:
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- Bidet E. and Eum, H.S, 2011, Social enterprise in South Korea: History and diversity, Social Enterprise Journal vol. 7, 1, 69-85
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- Eum Hyungsik and Bidet Eric, (2014), Dynamiques de l’économie sociale en Corée du sud, RECMA, No. 332, 30-45
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