Community Building: Start from My Own Needs, Collaborating, Engaging and Cooperating with the Power of Collaboration

Instructor

Cheong, Seonghoon

Ph. D. philosophy in Seoul National University/ former research professor in Korea University and former HK research professor in Institute for Urban Humanities, University of Seoul. Currently working as a lecturer in Seoul National Univ., Seoul National Univ. of Science and Technology. Published a number of journal articles about tension between diffusion media and success media in digital age, limit of communitarian community and realistic community in modern conditions, Problems left by the debate between Habermas and Luhmann, etc.

Communities form based on the needs of their members, where individuals with similar demands come together to cooperate and move towards cooperative associations or social enterprises. Efforts are also made to include those who cannot directly participate in these communities, forming “a community of cooperation and inclusion.” For example, in Wonju, there is a senior cooperative where elderly individuals create their jobs without taking opportunities away from the youth. Similarly, in Munrae-dong Creative Village, artists have formed a community. This lecture prompts the audience to consider their own “needs” and how communities formed around those needs should progress. Today, as mobility technology has made society more fluid and anonymous, it questions, “What kind of community should we create?”