Education and Training

iCOOP Co-operative Institute (hereafter ICCI) sought to expand the education and publicity by providing learning opportunity for the public in the first half of this year. ICCI hosted a joint forum with Karl Polanyi Institute in Asia (hereafter KPIA) on the thoughts of Karl Polanyi and the social economy on April 17-18. The joint forum, named as “Karl Polanyi and 21 century economy”, investigated Karl Polanyi’s implication on the current economic situation especially on the social economy sector. It focused on the Polanyi’s “plural economy model” of harmonizing market, public, and other economic system to overcome the limits of capitalism with a stress on the role of “the society” in the economy. In the forum, HONG Gibin, the translator of the Great Transformation and an economist and Prof. LEE Jeong-woo shared their thoughts on the social economy giving a particular attention to the human empathy and altruism.

In addition to the joint forum, ICCI hosted a discussion meeting “Toward a Sustainable Community Development Model in Asia” on April 18 to commemorate the 1st anniversary of Gurye Natural Dream Park. With Kato Koichi, the president of Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union (SCCU) in Japan and Il?dio Ximenes da Costa, the Secretary for Employment Policy and Vocational Training of Timor-Leste and mayor of Incheonnam-gu and two congresspersons, members shared their views and recommendations for Gurye and sustainable community development. (More information on http://icoop.re.kr/?cat=30)

During this spring, ICCI also hosted the 2nd iCOOP Co-operative Research Contest to encourage students and researchers’ contribution in the co-operative researches. A total of 10 paper proposals were selected as the final candidates among 26 submitted proposals. The review board said that the quality of proposals including research structure was enhanced and the subjects, approaches and methodologies were diversified compared to that of previous year. The final papers will be awarded in September with a total of 120 million KWR.

Publication
ICCI presented a total of 7 research papers and 3 books until the first half of 2015. In addition to its regular publications like the quarterly Co-operative Journal and monthly iCOOP Overseas Co-operative Research Reviews, it supported the translation of Anders Orne’s Co-operative Ideals and Problems, the book about Swedish Co-operative Movement. Inquiry of Peoples written and edited by iCOOP members’ study group SaTam gathered valuable knowledge about the life of prominent figures in co-op movement such as Beatrice Webb, Ktopokin and Korean co-operator Ahn Changho and Chang Giryeo.

Among research reports, iCOOP KOREA producers’ survey was to investigate the producers’ awareness of ethical consumption, ethical production and iCOOP policies as well as their condition of agriculture production. The survey showed that the producers considered ethical production as a way of producing safe products where families could eat, in other words, eco-friendly agriculture which they are currently involved in. Furthermore, it also revealed that iCOOP producers were professional farmers in the highest 7% income level and currently contributed (96%) or wanted to contribute (98%) to local agriculture.

The 2014 iCOOP KOREA Employees’ job Satisfaction Survey was based on 721 responses out of a total of 1,416 producer members. It was conducted to investigate the employees’ intellectual, psychological, and emotional status and derive lessons for improving working conditions by classifying the results according to job characteristic and job groups.

Report published in the first half of 2015 (latest first)

Book published in the first half of 2015