This dissertation explores the rise of social economy in South Korea, in order to understand the transformations of sociality, ethicality, and subjectivity in the contemporary capitalism. In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, we have witnessed “the return of the social” through introduction of various socio-economic projects—such as social economy, social innovation, and social entrepreneurship—that aim to graft morality and sociality onto the market. In the last decade, South Korea’s social economy sector has also grown quickly with the active support and promotion by the government, representing a new model of development as well as a feasible solution to reproduction crisis. This rapid growth has generated public and academic debates over whether the returned “socials” are the seeds of post-neoliberalism or just an ideological cloak for the expansion of market rationality. Based on ethnographic research on the social economy sector in Seoul, this dissertation focuses on an often-neglected question in these debates: what forms of the social imaginary, knowledge, subjectivity, and ethicality have emerged in the new “socials” as a result of the imbrication of moral aspirations with the neoliberal human condition? To address the question, I first demonstrate how contemporary neoliberalism presupposes a new form of homo œconomicus, human capital, who is expected to manage all the aspects of life within a single value frame, acting as a “portfolio manager.” As the new subjectivity incorporates non-economic elements—including social logics and moral orientations—as assets that can be translated into economic value, the responsibilities for society and the construction of social bonds are directly devolved on the new economic subjects. This dissertation goes on to show how the financial logic of human capital has conditioned and created a new sociality and ethicality. In examining the various fields from community development through the social care market to fair trade activism, I trace how community, care, affective labor, and ethical practices have been intermingled and articulated with the new form of economic rationality and have contributed to the economization of sociality and ethicality. Notions such as “enterprization of community,” “projective ethicality,” “affective labor (hwaldong),” and “marketized gift-exchange” are discussed to flesh out the transformation and articulation more clearly. Finally, this thesis conceptualizes the dynamics of the new subjectivity, ethicality, and social imaginary in terms of “neosocial government,” in which the crisis of the neoliberal human capital regime is managed and addressed through social ties based on care, affective labor, and gift. In unveiling how the new governing rationality prioritizes and reifies intimate social bonds over political engagement and structural transformation, this dissertation not only illuminates the depoliticized aspects of the newly returned socials but also highlights the necessity of reinventing a universal vision of politics upon which the broken link between social solidarity and politics can be restored.

Thesis (MPhil (Philosophy))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / As poverty continues to impact billions of people across the world – to the extent that millions die daily simply because they are too poor to live – there is a pressing ethical question to ask: Who, if anyone, should be taking moral responsibility to end extreme poverty? The key moral problem that my thesis addresses is that those individuals who should primarily be taking moral responsibility to eradicate extreme poverty because they have the power and thus responsibility to make a real difference are not. My contention is that capitalism as it is currently practiced perpetuates extreme poverty and that the very individuals who have the greatest power to eradicate poverty do not view this as a real ethical challenge nor as their primary responsibility to address. I argue that these individuals are global corporate business leaders and that extreme poverty will only be eradicated when these leaders take moral responsibility to apply capitalism in a far more sustainable way - a way that has continuity for future generations and that is fundamentally just towards all human beings. The practice of sustainable capitalism as a solution to extreme poverty is dependent on a ‘critical mass’ of business leaders acting in a way that displays virtuous moral character and sets the example for others to follow. I will assume as a starting point that global poverty does exist and that people dying of poverty when others have far in excess of their needs cannot be ethically justified, irrespective of which moral theory it is viewed from. My thesis will commence by assessing the virtue of virtue ethics theory in comparison to other moral theories and I will illustrate that virtue ethics theory is most appropriate in addressing the moral problem of extreme poverty because it places moral responsibility firmly on the individual human being rather than on any metaphysical principle or context that exists ‘above’ the individual. In my analysis of the relationship between virtue and justice, I will specifically argue that capitalism as it is currently being practiced is unjust and unsustainable. I will further argue that it does not represent Aristotle’s ideal of ‘the good life’ for all and that the outdated modernist principles on which capitalism is currently premised, need to be challenged. Since global corporate business leaders are both the architects of capitalism as we currently experience it and the greatest beneficiaries of it, they have the corresponding greatest moral responsibility to act to eradicate extreme poverty. Business leaders need to take primary moral responsibility to eradicate extreme poverty through practicing a more just and sustainable form of capitalism that is inclusive of all, balancing society and profit needs. In closing I will propose that the African humanist concept of ‘ubuntu’ provides a unique opportunity in South Africa to inform an ethical consciousness that could underpin a future sustainable capitalist approach and perhaps serve as an example to influence global corporate business leaders.