Park Seong-won, the Head of Innovative Growth Group, proposed a detour strategy that could lead to the people’s desirable future based on the multi-dimension investigation and analysis of the prolonged conflicts in the Korean society.
Based on the future perception surveys conducted over the past three years, he has concluded that the Korean society is suffering from conflicts and confrontations in national and economic growth, environmental preservation, efficiency and equity. Korean society has emphasized growth, efficiency, meritocracy so far, but recently calls for new social vision raises for personal growth, environmental conservation, fairness and equity, which is expected increase further in the future.
In his opinion, the long-term desirable future striking a balance among economy, environment and personal achievement can only be accomplishment by a “detour”, a person-centric alternative to abandoning the blind obsession with economic growth. Korea should aim at new dimension (society II) different from the existing society (society I) which was a combination of growthism and environmental damage; the detour will show us new perspectives and opportunities to reconstruct a goal our society wants to build up.
“The proposed alternative can be understood as a detour and stopover toward the desirable further that our society should pursue over a long period,” explains Park. “Although it takes time, a gentle road could be a preferred alternative to a steep shortcut.”
* “National Future Strategic Insight” is a brief report which is issued every two weeks to provide strategic insights for our future based on in-depth analysis of major issues made by professional researchers at the National Assembly Futures Institute (NAFI).
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