Abstract

This study examines Korean society through the “Better Society Index” (BSI), which evaluates society at the individual and community levels, and searches for the future direction of society. Recently developed indicators of the quality of life have started from the criticism that individual happiness cannot be measured as a single item such as GDP. Needless to say, because of the individualistic approach, these indicators have some limitations to evaluate the discrimination that arises from social relations and the ignorance resulting from gender and individual identity. Therefore, the BSI (Better Society Index) distinguishes between the BLI (Better Life Index) and the SRI (Social Recognition Index). Based on these two dimensions of BSI, this study presents four types of society: the humiliation society, the exclusion society, the connivance society, and the respect society. As a result of applying the BSI to Korean society, we found a discrepancy in that the level of recognition was lower compared to the level of the quality of life. In particular, the comparison of 25 GUs in Seoul shows that Socho, Kangnam and Songpa are the exclusion society type with high quality of life but low recognition level. Those with low-level quality of life such as Chungnang, Kangso, Kuro, and Songdong showed a high level of recognition, but this implies the possibility of being indifferent rather than showing respect or hospitality toward the other. Such a discrepancy between the quality of life and recognition implies that policies aiming at improving the quality of life, such as distribution, are insufficient to stimulate community harmony and cooperation. Eventually, this suggests an innovative transformation of the social problem framework. In other words, this study suggests “rematching,” which aims at solving the problem by pursuing convergent hybridity beyond the simple mix of heterogeneous categories.