Abstract

This study reviews the prototype and role of the community center in community movements of the urban poor in the 1970s in Korea with the cases of Ddukbang village and Bokumjari village. It tries to draw implications for current residential communities and the operation of community centers in social housing complexes. Interviews with former residents in the villages in the 1970s and reviews of the literatures are used as the bases of the analysis. The main findings from the analysis are 1) gathering of the residents itself was the key element of the community center regardless of the place, 2) multiple layers of community activities were overlapped in the center including childcare, education, cultural event, savings and even production, 3) the hope to build their own houses against eviction warning of the shanty houses became the key momentum of the change of the self-help, and 4) what remains as a key factor after the changes of community centers in terms of members and structure was empowerment of residents through community activities.