• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.37-45
• /
• 2022

The purpose of this study is to determine social values of self-support enterprises, known as the origin of social economy by using a qualitative research method. Main themes representing social values of self-support enterprises were developed through four sessions of FGI and thematic analysis. First, self-support enterprises embody the value of 'social safety net' by providing workfare for disadvantaged people as well as by operating market-oriented business. Additionally, 'communal spirit', for which self-support enterprises strive, is social value that enables the entirety of self-support enterprises and participants to fulfill non-profit values, reciprocity, and sharing. Lastly, ontological, diachronic, and ecological 'sustainability' of self-support enterprises is a foundational element which creates continuous positive impact on our society. Findings of this study are significant to provide theoretical and empirical evidence for preservation and development of the social economy ecosystem. Based on this, further researches on comprehensive social economy are suggested.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.447-456
• /
• 2022

Korea's self-support program has constituted one of the most important workfare policy for the past 25 years. However, many pointed out the lack of field perceptions in the performance indicators of self-support program, such as overemphasis on the economic performance and uniform application regardless of regional types. This research intends to derive policy implications to improve performance indicators of self-support program by analyzing field perceptions, utilizing ISA(Importance-Satisfaction Analysis) method. Analysis on the difference between importance and satisfaction shows that the procedure was perceived more important than the consequences. It also reveals that current indicators were not satisfactory enough to reflect field practices. Finally, ISA matrix classified indicators into keep, improve, policy reconsideration area, and obvious differences were found by regional type. These findings suggest the importance of field-orientation in performance indicators, and by which, can serve as an exploratory study for the improvement of performance indicators.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.52
• /
• pp.241-272
• /
• 2003

The Self-Support Program was introduced as an antipoverty policy at 2002 year in Korea. But, the Self-Support Program's negative or positive effects have been debated from diverse perspectives to the present. Thus, in this paper, we analyzed the effects of the Self-Support Program using the survey data from program participants. Even though the effects of Workfare Programs can be evaluated by various indicators(ex. income, employment status, poverty status, etc.), in our analysis the effects of the Self-Support Program are evaluated by participants' self-reliant attitudes and behaviors. Major findings are as follows. First, we found that some kinds of self-reliant attitudes(ex. work commitment, self-esteem, etc.) were build up through participation on the Self-Support program, but some kinds of self-reliant factors(job competence and skill, self-sufficiency prospect, etc.) which are more relevant to the self-sufficiency were not build up thorough it. Second, we found the positive effects of the program among people who are females, olders, less educated, more healthy, and the participants who have acquired more certificate of qualifications. Third, we also found that self-support center's job training program, adequate task matching, agency climates and intra-networks influence on the positive effects of the Self-Support Program. These findings suggest that the Self-Support Program has not been successful up to now and it's reformations are required. It means that objectives of the Self-Support Program as an anti-poverty policy must be obvious and program contents must be diverse. And also program administration systems need to be reformed in oder to raise the effectiveness of the Self-Support Program.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.5-33
• /
• 2018

A self-sufficiency service has worked as a typical workfare policy combined with public assistance in Korea since 2000. Despite of its long history, three core pillars in administrating the self-sufficiency service, policy, research, and practice, have respectively understood the meaning of self-sufficiency in terms of their own interests. As a result, the self-sufficiency service has recently faced with its own identity issues by showing failures to its environmental changes. The current situation makes it necessary to reconceptualize the definition of self-sufficiency by exploring its in-depth understanding perceived by service providers. Specifically, we analyzed practical reflections on 35 service providers' experiences which were collected via focus group interviews for two hours. The study findings presented that service providers had two antithetical approaches towards self-sufficiency. While a dominant approach to self-sufficiency has been concentrated on improving clients' economic outcomes such as employment, job retention, the escape from welfare trap, and increasing earnings and assets, the other approach has been extended to empower clients and achieve their well-being and quality of life. Yet, these contrary perspectives have led to suffer from their role confusions and identity crisis between the work-ready process and the employment-oriented outcomes. Specifically, they described self-sufficiency in terms of psychological, social, and integrated aspects. The psychological aspect included a process of developing inner strengths, intensifying job motivation, and coping with barriers of employment. The social aspect meant a path toward social integration through recovering human relationships. The integrated aspect covered more comprehensive support for their recovery of daily life and autonomy to make a decision for their own life. In conclusion, the study findings suggest that self-sufficiency should be more extensively considered as a stepwise process towards work-ready preparations beyond ultimate economic outcomes. Such an extended concept of self-sufficiency could contribute to restructuring the whole practice of self-sufficiency including organizational and program changes in the fields.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.131-170
• /
• 2008

Korea's public assistance system, represented by NBLS(National Basic livelihood Security), has disclosed critical problems despite the rapid increase in its budget, such as decreasing work incentive and deepening welfare trap. These typical problems of classical welfare system have been commonly witnessed in many other advanced countries. Therefore a number of efforts have been exerted to correct these problems by transferring the existing welfare system into a welfare-to-work(or workfare) system, and the most common one of such efforts is introducing the EITC(Earned Income Tax Credit)-type programs. They have already been implemented in many countries such as the USA, the UK and France, also Korean government decided to launch EITC program in 2009. This paper aims to propose some measures to improve Korean EITC program. For this, an optimization problem is constructed from the government's viewpoint. Optimal EITC program is defined to be a solution to the problem - a combination of phase-in rate, phase-out rate, and maximum credit that maximizes labor supply increase under a exogenously given budget constraint. Using a mechanism design analysis, we derive and characterize the optimal EITC program. Analysis results implies that Korean EITC structure needs to be modified so that phase-in rate is larger than phase-out rate and the upper limit of phase-out range becomes larger. Comparative static analysis results show that the feature of the optimal EITC program is sensitive to the change of income distribution, suggesting that if beneficiaries are categorized into different income groups, then it is desirable to apply distinctive EITC programs to each group.