글로벌라이제이션과 한국의 도시 지역여성운동 - 수도권의 소비자 생활협동조합을 중심으로 -

Globalization and Local Women's Movement in Korea : Consumers' Cooperatives in the Seoul Area

One of the main factors that determines the quality of life in the age of globalization is decentralization. That is to say, the quality of life in the 21st century depends on to what extent local districts enjoy politico-economic and socio-cultural autonomy. Recognizing the importance of local autonomy, this paper explores how consumers' cooperatives have been establishing local self-reliance and whether or not they constitute the basis for residents' self-governance. The first part of the article suggests five criteria that are recognized as feminist concepts of locality in the era of globalization as follows: 1) degree of local self-government and autonomy by local residents, 2) public system of communal management of communal property, 3) grass-roots democracy (or participatory democracy) including the establishment of financial and administrative rights by residents, 4) promotion of gender equality in community governance, and 5) recognizing voluntary participation publicly by offering material or non-material rewards. In the second part of the article, various aspects in connection with "consumers' cooperatives and local women" are examined focusing on the Seoul metropolitan area. As a result, the cooperatives are contributing to new lifestyles, which offer an alternative to neo-liberal globalization. In other words, the five criteria outlined above are emerging in embryonic forms. These results are more evident in community activities carried out by consumer cooperatives, rather than in the marketing structure of the cooperatives themselves. The author advocates the following tasks for consumer cooperatives: First, the existing marketing style of the cooperatives needs to be rethought and a new method urgently devised. This will entail searching for a new direction, as the current items marketed by the cooperatives are limited to organic farm products and are not helpful for establishing a center of production ─ this is, strictly speaking, not an original plan intended by local consumers' cooperatives. Secondly, a systematic perspective on various community activities including education is needed. So many community activities based on consumers' cooperatives sprang up like mushrooms, but without any systematic prospects, they are difficult to link to residents' self-governance both in name and reality. Thirdly, consumers' cooperatives should think seriously about how women can display their spontaneity and responsibility for the development of the cooperatives themselves, rather than consider the cooperatives as a base of women's movement Because the development of the cooperatives cannot be expected without recovering the subjectivity of women who are the leading figures in the consumers' cooperatives.