In Korea’s Cultural Memory, There Is a Long Tradition of Solidarity

 Korea may be a society where experiences of solidarity and cooperation run especially deep. For generations, people have relied on one another, solved problems together, and met shared needs through collective effort.

 

I believe this spirit lives on in Korea’s cultural memory. And today, it reappears in what we call the social and solidarity economy.

 

In this article, I explore how Korea’s long tradition of cooperation has evolved into its modern social and solidarity economy.

 

Is the Social and Solidarity Economy a Foreign Concept in Korea?

 

When I first began working as a journalist covering social impact, I had a question:

Is the social and solidarity economy—cooperatives, social enterprises, community enterprises, self-reliance enterprises, and social ventures—an imported idea?

 

In its early development, many explained that the model was inspired by European examples and later adapted to fit the Korean context.

 

But the more I reflected, the more I realized that Korean society has long practiced cooperation and solidarity. People have shared hardship, expanded joy collectively, and overcome crises together.

 

The structure may have changed over time, but the spirit itself has been present for generations.

 

Traditional Models of Community Cooperation in Korea

 

Two historical examples illustrate this tradition: Dure and Gye.

 

👀Dure – Organized Collective Labor

 

Although Korea is now known as a global IT powerhouse, it was historically an agricultural society. Most people lived in rural villages and depended on farming for survival.

 

Agricultural work often required concentrated labor during certain seasons. During busy farming periods, it was difficult for one household to manage alone. Villagers therefore formed cooperative labor groups called Dure.

 

Dure functioned as a village-based collective labor organization. Members rotated support during peak seasons, sharing labor responsibilities across households.

This went beyond simple mutual help. Individual labor became a shared community asset.

 

In this sense, Dure reflects values similar to those of today’s social and solidarity economy: solving problems collectively at the community level and meeting shared needs through cooperation.

 

👀Gye – Trust-Based Community Finance

 

Gye is another long-standing cooperative practice in Korea.

 

Members—called gye-won—contribute a fixed amount of money at regular intervals to create a pooled fund. The total sum is then distributed to members in a predetermined order. A coordinator, known as the gye-ju, manages the group.

 

Gye is not merely a social gathering.

It is a trust-based community finance model.

 

In several ways, it resembles modern social finance:

 

👉It operates on a community basis

👉Trust is its core asset

👉It provided alternatives for those excluded from formal banking systems

👉Mutual aid is central to its structure

 

In this sense, Gye shares similarities with today’s social finance institutions, microfinance systems, and cooperative banking models.

 

Cooperation in Times of Crisis

 

This cooperative culture has re-emerged during critical moments in Korea’s modern history.

 

One notable example occurred during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. At the height of the IMF bailout period, citizens voluntarily donated personal gold to help the nation repay its debt.

 

This “Gold Collection Movement” demonstrated that solidarity in Korea is not simply a historical memory. It can be activated during times of national crisis.

 

Institutionalized Solidarity: The Modern Social and Solidarity Economy

 

Today’s social and solidarity economy does not look exactly like Dure or Gye.

 

In modern society, solidarity must operate within legal frameworks and market systems. As a result, voluntary community models have become institutionalized through laws and public policies, such as:

 

👉The Framework Act on Cooperatives

👉The Social Enterprise Promotion Act

👉Government support programs for community enterprises

 

Solidarity and cooperation are now combined with formal governance structures, contracts, and performance systems.

 

Modern Korea’s social and solidarity economy is not simply a revenue-generating sector.

It represents institutional structures built upon deep cultural foundations.

 

The Spirit of the Past, Practiced in Modern Forms

 

The essential question is this:

How can we sustain and modernize the spirit of solidarity that has long existed in Korean society?

 

The social and solidarity economy may not be merely an imported model. It could be understood as a contemporary reconstruction built upon Korea’s accumulated cultural memory.

 

The forms have changed, but the core remains the same:

😍solving problems together and growing together.

 

And perhaps the strength that enables Korea to navigate future crises will once again emerge from this shared cultural memory.

 

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