Wonju is called and recognized as the mecca of Social Cooperatives. Wonju is emulated by all cities of Korea as the model city of social cooperatives. Every year tens of thousands of people visit Wonju to learn about social cooperatives.

The reason why Wonju is called ‘The City of Social Cooperatives’ is found in the statistics and the history.

First, let’s look at the statistics. The population of Wonju citizens has reached 350,000 as of July, 2019 and the Wonju population keeps counting up. Social cooperatives officially registered under Wonju Social Cooperatives Network is 37 and their working staff is more than 400. Also, the members under 37 social cooperatives is more than 34,500 as of the 2018 year-end. And, economic output from these social cooperatives is US$ 204 million. Thus, the members of social cooperatives in Wonju account for about 10%. However, according to Wonju Social Cooperatives Network, it is presumed that there are more than 160 social cooperatives that are active in Wonju, irrespective of how small their structure may be, including the registered social cooperatives under Wonju Social Cooperatives Network.

Under Wonju Social Cooperatives Network, there are two social cooperatives relevant to the culture and the literature. One is ‘Story Hanmadang’, a social cooperative of Wonju local’s cultural contents. For reference, Hanmadang means big playground. The other is Gangwon Archive, a social cooperative that was formed to record everything in Wonju.

The reason why Wonju citizens take up about 10 percent of social cooperative members is found in the long history of social cooperatives.

Let’s take a look at the history of Social Cooperatives in Wonju.

• 12 November 1966:Wonju Credit Social Cooperative(chairperson Jang Il-soon) was established.
• 15 May 1970: Wonju Jin-gwang Credit Union Social Cooperative was established.
• 24 June 1985: Wonju Consumers Social Cooperative was established. Later, it became the organization of ‘Hansal-rim’.
• 3 April 1989: Ho-jeo Producers Social Cooperative was established. Later, it became the organization of ‘Wonju Life Social Cooperative’.
• 5 June 2002: Wonju Medical Care Social Cooperative was established.
• 5 June 2003: Wonju Social Cooperatives Movement Commission was established. It was the first in Korea.
• 2008: Wonju Food Campaign started as a project of Social Job Sharing Initiative Committee.
• 17 July 2009: Wonju Social Cooperatives Movement Commission was renamed to Wonju Cooperative Social Economy Network.
• 29 March 2013: Wonju Cooperative Social Economy Network was converted to social cooperative.

Why Wonju became the mecca of social cooperatives?
Why Wonju is called the mecca of social cooperatives is that the principles, fundamental spirits, and directions of social economy, social cooperatives, and social cooperative movement, which were spread all over Korea only into the 21st century, were all set by protagonists and activists of Wonju Life Ideology.

The drafter of Wonju Social Cooperative Movement was Bishop Tji Hak-soon(1921-1993) and a calligrapher and social activist, Jang Il-soon(1928-1994). In 1965, these two persons met as a bishop of Wonju Diocese and a faithful devotee. To evangelize Wonju locals and help citizens have a better living conditions and also to realize the spirits that came out of the 2nd Vatican Council meeting as well as the spirits of Donghak Peasant Revolution(1894), they began a credit union social cooperative as a first step. As its follow-up measure, Wonju Credit Union Social Cooperative was established(13 November 1966). While carrying out credit union campaign, they put the importance on the spirits of the Vatican Council that was the world-class standard and on the spirits of Donghak Peasant Revolution. These are the first element of why Wonju became the mecca of social cooperatives in Korea. Bishop Tji Hak-soon and Jang Il-soon adopted ways of Asian and Western values combined while Japan adopted only Western ways and values. Tji Hak-soon and Jang Il-soon set up Asian and Western ways and values as horizontal, reciprocal relationship. The world of spirits that were created this way was a root of Life Ideology as we know it.

Second, Bishop Tji Hak-soon and Jang Il-soon share their belief that the best way to realize the spirits of social cooperatives was to teach and educate one another in social cooperatives. To this end, they set up Jin-gwang Cooperatives Education Center inside Jin-gwang Middle School on 13 October 1969, opened Wonju Catholic Centre in 1968, and ran ‘The 1st Class of Social Cooperatives’ from 15 January 1969 to 18 January. To have Wonju citizens live a life fit for social cooperatives, a continual education for members of social cooperatives was necessary to bring out the competency of the cooperation among individuals and groups. For this reason, social cooperative members studied and learned about social cooperatives and ran regular education classes for members working in the fields. This was the second reason why Wonju became the mecca of social cooperatives.

The third reason for this is found in the recovery project of Namhan-gang River flood damage in 1972. The spirits of social cooperatives shared by Bishop Tji Hak-soon and Jang Il-soon became clear with selfless recovery service of protagonists and 어민activists of Life Ideology of Wonju who experienced Namhan-gang River that suffered from a big flood in 1972. They made the recovery service the first model campaign. They did not simply use relief aid collections that were sent by a relief aid organization of Germany and did not distribute relief aid donations to households that suffered from the flood. Instead, they used more active, democratic ways such as self-support campaigns, cooperation-based community building, and direct democracy by farmers, fishermen, miner workers, and ordinary citizens. This way, a new chapter of the history of Wonju social cooperatives was written. Every village of Wonju made a cooperative group and mulled over what kind of projects they would go on with, elected a chairperson, and chose an auditor for accounting. By doing so, they offered a good Wonju model for social cooperatives to groups or people across Korea who wanted to make and manage their own social cooperative.

The fourth reason is found in ‘Hansal-rim Campaign’. Han means ‘one’ and Sal-rim means ‘living’ or ‘life’. Protagonists and activists of social cooperatives in Wonju made a historical case of social cooperatives through the 1972 Namhan-gang River Flood Damage Recovery Project. They went beyond the region of Wonju into Seoul, the capital city of Korea. They made a model of social cooperative designed to combine Wonju and Seoul. It is ‘Hansal-rim Campaign’. With this campaign, they wrote a second chapter of the history of Wonju social cooperatives by selling organic agricultural produce to Seoul citizens as a first step. They made it possible for different regions in Korea to work on and with social cooperatives. Besides, they had members of social cooperatives and people strongly feel that we had to go together with the nature, which means that the nature was not simply the resources for the success of human beings, it was rather our partner who we live together with. It followed that we ought not to destroy the nature. Through the establishment of ‘Hansal-rim’ and its campaign across Korea, Life Ideology by Wonju activists developed further.