The operation and roles of neighborhood associations through exemplary cases in the late 1970s
Authors:   HUFS Institute of History and Culture, Kim Mijeoung 
Published: March 2023

This study focused on the neighborhood associations that started all over the country in 1976, and analyzed the operation and roles of neighborhood associations in the 1970s, focusing on exemplary cases. Based on the critical mind of how the Neighborhood Association led by the Ministry of Home Affairs was operated, what the government expected of the Neighborhood Association, and how the public accepted it, attention was paid to the changes in the Neighborhood Association system, its main functions, and those who led the Neighborhood Association. The work of specifying the reality of neighborhood associations is meaningful in that it can serve as a basis for understanding a part of the policy of the Park Chung-hee regime in the 1970s.
The exemplary cases of ‘Banjang’ and honorary ‘Banjang’ examined here are memoirs that reflect the purpose of promoting policies. This can be meaningful in that it can identify actual conflicts, problems, and solutions experienced by those who implement government policies at the termination administration. This is because we can look at various aspects of the operating process that are not revealed in public records. These exemplary cases are valuable as data to understand neighborhood associations in the late 1970s in that they reflect the purpose of policy promotion. In this study, based on this data, government policy-related data and newspaper articles were reviewed together to analyze the neighborhood association in the late 1970s and consider its meaning and character.
Neighborhood associations, which were implemented nationwide in 1976, were not simply gatherings to promote friendship among villagers. The government emphasized the autonomous will of the association members, but the actual operation was different from the one that advocated autonomy. It was the neighborhood association that utilized the government's policy as a means of immediately and directly conveying it to the people. ‘Banjang’ who led the neighborhood association carried out guidelines and Saemaul movement issued by the government, helped neighbors, raised donations, operated the village safe, and promoted various policies, becoming allow-level government official. Here, we paid attention to their roles, and class presidents and honorary ‘Banjang’ presented in exemplary cases recognized themselves as ‘leaders’ and tried to fulfill their responsibilities, and also showed a desire to be socially recognized through their roles. The government also paid attention to the role of ‘Banjang’ and honorary ‘Banjang’ in the neighborhood association, providing them with various benefits and suggesting ways to boost the morale of ‘Banjang’.
In short, neighborhood associations functioned as a small unit in the promotion of Saemaul movement, and were used as a means to publicize policies and instill the consciousness desired by the government into the public. At that time, the neighborhood association was held regularly every month, and the attendance rate was managed to the extent of checking the attendance of association members. This means that the government's policies could be closely communicated to individual citizens through neighborhood associations. Neighborhood associations in the late 1970s played the role of a lower-level governmental organization that controlled the lifestyle and consciousness of the people desired by the government, and served as a medium for social groups and policies emphasized by the government to be delivered directly to the lives of people. It was confirmed that Neighborhood associations were also used as donations for various fundraising campaigns. In the name of voluntary fundraising for various disasters (or accidents) and national events that the government was supposed to carry out, it frequently imposed economic burdens on the people. Neighborhood associations were used even for a kind of social welfare role that the government should perform.