Progressive Community Movements in Korea

This paper aims at a systematic review of Korea's progressive community movements which lead to the formation of a cooperative urban community. The second section provides some remarks regarding a new concept of community development which is brought into light by the so-called postmodern social change. The third section presents a sketch on Korea's NGO-led community movements emerging along with the opening of civil society. The forth section attempts a case review on the shaping of a cooperative community, by taking an example of the ‘Hangdang-Kumho-Hawang’ area in Seoul. The fifth section draws theoretical implications from this analysis about a new model of progressive community development. By way of conclusion, there are summary and some comments on the limit of this study. 1) According to Lefebvre (1991), these two aspects of urban community stem from two contrasting characters of urban space: one for exchange value, the other for use value. 2) It is reported that, as of 1996, 3,200 civil movement ...