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영어

To answer the question: “Why do social economy policies need to be introduced at this point in time?” this paper examines how the social economy policies are progressing in Chungcheongnam-do, as well as pertinent problems, and presents work to be done, in order to find out the likelihood of social economy policies being introduced as sustainable local development policies. It was found that discussions on social economy are still in the initial stages, and local governments and the majority of public servants are certainly not aware of the necessity of social economy. Also, while many people know what social enterprises are – which was initiated by the central government - through enactment of laws, introduction by the media, pertinent policies being pushed, and so on, it is certain that “social economy” is still a term that they’re not used to. Social enterprises, community businesses, self-supporting communities, consumer cooperatives, local foods, medical cooperatives – though they are not labeled as social economy, the organizations and companies of social economy have been with us, so it is expected that more lively discussions on social economy will take place going forward. Accordingly, the introduction of social economy policies should be reviewed in depth as a new endogenous development strategy, going beyond the limited meaning of social enterprises. To this end, local governments need to enhance their capacity for collecting, in a “funnel-like” way, a wide range of social economy policies being pushed by ministries. They also need to establish local development strategies for disseminating understanding of social economy as well as for realizing social economy, in addition to strengthening/solidifying the network of social economy entities. Through this process, local social economies can be constructed.