The Community Consciousness and Social Capital in Rural Korea

탈 농촌화 지역 주민의 공동체의식과 사회적 자본

The community consciousness used to be the core of the social capital in rural Korea, and there used to be a long tradition of mutual trust and cooperation in rural village community in Korea. However, recent trends in rapid urbanization or de-ruralization may affected community consciousness and social capital in rural society in Korea. The social capital has been existed in terms of mutual trust, commonly shared norms, and cooperative behavior in farm work and daily life of rural people. Commonly shared norms and networks have accelerated social effectiveness and promoted cooperative work as well as moral and spiritual aspects of rural society. Social capital in terms of community consciousness, participation of village work, visit and invitation of the neighborhood, and participation in various village group and networks were suveyed in JanggogRi, Jori Myun, Paju city, Gyeonggi province. The data collected from 65 persons, and the major findings of the study were as follow; The respondents responded that the community consciousness of de-rural area decreased in general with a few exception in the groups of alumni, family, religion and voluntary society. Social capital in terms of participation of village work, visiting the neighbors and voting increased slightly. Further research on social capital should be conducted to strengthen community consciousness, and various measures to increase the social capital should be adopted for livable community development.