The New Community Movement in South Korea in the 1970s: The power of community or governmental involvement

The New Community Movement (NCM; Seamaul Undong) has been known as a successful community-based development project, primarily involving economic and infrastructural development and natural resource management in rural areas. It has been particularly recognized for its participatory and democratic decision-making processes at the village level. Although a sizeable literature exists on NCM, little attention has been paid to understanding the expanded roles of government in strengthening NCM as an institution for rural development. Based on a comparative analysis of other existing frameworks with the NCM, this study highlights the critical roles of both community and government in making the NCM successful. Content analysis of documents, newspapers and government publications, and semi-structured interviews yield reflections and explanation on the strategies for the governmental involvement and the roles of community. In concluding, this study argues for an effective integration of the government and community in NCM practices and evaluates the NCM for its applicability to other settings.;Keyword: The New Community Movement, Saemaul Undong, rural development, policy integration, community-based development, qualitative methods.