[Jihye Choi's Trend 2023] In the Era of Self-Reliance... We Are All Recipients of 'Care'

Trend Korea 2024: The "Care Economy"
Care Expands Beyond Infants and the Elderly
Convenience Stores Take on the Role of Community Police
Time to Focus on "Universal Care"

At the start of the long holiday before Chuseok, I read the newsletter ‘Katalog.’ It introduced a new product released by LG Electronics, beginning with a novel called ‘Beginner Korean’ by writer Moon Ji-hyeok. The protagonist teaches Korean to foreigners and receives an unexpected question: "Teacher, what does ‘Annyeonghaseyo’ mean?" The teacher explains the meaning literally: "Are you in peace?" A greeting that asks about each other's ‘PEACE.’ The editor of Katalog thought this sentence showed that Korean greetings are quite warm and sacred.

This is not only in novels. Nowadays, when ‘care’ that asks about each other's well-being and embraces members is becoming important, the book ‘Trend Korea 2024’ names the phenomenon of expanding ‘care’ beyond family boundaries into social capacity as the ‘care economy.’ Notably, it is not limited to ‘infant care’ or ‘elderly care’ but expands the concept of care to include the everyday lives of ordinary people. This means a trend where people lean on each other simply as fellow humans, not because something is lacking and needs to be filled.

Convenience stores are the most representative example. Convenience stores that keep their lights on 24 hours in every alley play a caregiving role, whether intentionally or not. Since 2017, CU convenience stores have taken on the role of a ‘police box’ in local communities. Inside the payment booth or on terminals, there is a pre-designated police agency connection button that can be easily pressed in emergencies. Since 2020, the National Police Agency and convenience stores have jointly conducted campaigns to prevent and encourage reporting of child abuse. This measure allows the convenience store lights to act like a lighthouse for children who have escaped child abuse and are out on the streets.

Many local governments also utilize convenience stores to monitor blind spots in care for single-person households. Yeongdeungpo District strengthened resident outreach activities to discover vulnerable households in welfare blind spots through public-private cooperation with local convenience stores. Dongducheon City implemented policies linking with convenience stores in the area to identify low-income families facing economic hardship or comprehensive crises who might be at risk of food insecurity.

Recently, cafes, bars, and independent bookstores in neighborhoods have also functioned as spaces that care for residents' well-being, which is interesting. B-Market, located on the first floor of Namsan Mansion in Hannam-dong, Seoul, is a ‘community-oriented neighborhood supermarket’ that sells daily necessities and doubles as a simple restaurant, aiming for a warm village caf?-like friendly atmosphere. Due to its location in a somewhat isolated apartment complex where nearby grocery stores require riding a bike or car to reach, it serves as a neighborhood gathering place where anyone can come and go.

It also serves as a meeting place for residents, hosts birthday parties for neighborhood dogs, and is a space where families gather for brunch on weekend mornings. Children who finish school or academy are welcomed to stop by briefly to buy snacks while waiting for their parents. It is a neighborhood community reflecting the local context.

Laundromats can serve a similar function. ‘Sanbok Laundromat,’ located on Sanbok Road in Busan, acted as a hub where local residents could do laundry and communicate simultaneously. It was a short-term project lasting three months, which provided an opportunity for villagers to use the laundromat as a community room to talk. The project gained more fame through a feature article by the Busan Ilbo. In an era when people don’t even know who lives next door, it confirmed the possibility of communicating and asking about each other's well-being through the medium of ‘laundry.’

Especially in neighborhoods with many single-person households, a drink at a regular bar or a brief chat with the owner of a frequently visited caf? plays an important role. In an era where online contact is more frequent than offline, the place that asks about one’s well-being is not family or friends but a regular store near one’s home. From this perspective, making a regular store has become a trend among young generations. It reflects the desire of young people to create a sanctuary where they can lean their hearts.

‘Danggeun Market,’ which started as a secondhand trading platform, is also an example of a neighborhood-based service fulfilling a ‘care’ function. Recently, Danggeun Market changed its name to ‘Danggeun.’ While ‘Danggeun Market’ focused only on Nth-hand new commerce available nearby, ‘Danggeun’ now signifies a service that mediates living together with neighbors a little closer and a little more loosely, simply because they live nearby?sharing used items, discovering delicious bakeries, and making new bicycle friends. In fact, Danggeun is expanding its role as a place where people create hobby groups and build relationships based on their neighborhoods.

It is an era dominated by loneliness. Convenience stores, laundromats, and neighborhood caf?s, which were disconnected during the COVID-19 period, are evolving into spaces of communication that connect individuals and care for each other's well-being. This phenomenon suggests that care is a service needed not only for infants and the elderly but for all of us.

Nancy Folbre, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, pointed out in ‘The Invisible Heart’ that while the driving force behind growth in capitalist economies was the ‘invisible hand’ pursuing self-interest, the economic condition determining quality of life in individualistic societies is the ‘invisible heart’ that cares for others. In an era where individuals are fragmented like grains of sand, the object of ‘care’ means all of us. It is time to pay attention to the concept of ‘universal care,’ which will become an essential area in the future.

Choi Ji-hye, Research Fellow, Consumer Trend Analysis Center, Seoul National University