I have been working on creating a diagram to visualize the structure of Hansalim and to communicate the range of activities that fall under the umbrella of the Hansalim Life Movement.

Hansalim’s structure

Here is what I have come up with so far:

Visualizing Hansalim's structure and activities in a diagram

What this diagram shows is the Hansalim Life Movement as an evolving entity formed of a huge diversity of organizations and activities. Each have their own specific purpose and have been developed over Hansalim’s 30 year history to address the challenges and opportunities of rapid growth and to respond to the changing socio-economic and environmental conditions.

Reading the diagram from left to right…

Producers

Agricultural producers are organized locally into communities of 5 or more households and processors form associations. These communities and associations are formed into 13 regional alliances with their own boards of directors which represent around 2,200 farming households in total. Many of these alliances pool resources to run local distribution hubs, processing facilities and organize the sharing of equipment and recycling of farm wastes.

Consumers

Consumers are organized into 23 local co-operatives across the country with their own boards of directors and local offices for their hired staff. They run the local retail shops (239 in total between them) as well as village (i.e. neighborhood) meetings, small groups, food-life education/training and community kitchens. In addition to these activities, the consumer co-operatives organize farm visits and work parties to connect consumer members with local producers, run social media campaigns and hold festivals to gather consumers and producers together around shared food and celebration.

Activists

A core part of the activities of the consumer co-operatives are the activists. They are semi-voluntary consumer members who give their time to run the shops, support the call center, deliver food-life training, organize group activities and coordinate the larger-scale collective action of the local consumer co-operatives. They may also serve on the various committees and as directors.

Employees

Each of the producer alliances and consumer co-operatives employ some staff in processing, distribution and administration. However, the Hansalim Federation employs the largest number of staff as it is the central coordinating body that supports the producer and consumer co-operatives and manages the online sales. The Federation staff are involved in running the central distribution system, purchasing and price negotiation, communications and marketing, environmental campaigning and advocacy as well as research and development into new products and recipes.

Federation

The federation itself consists of the General Assembly, the Hansalim Alliance, the Producer Alliance and the Business Association Ltd. In addition to these organizations Hansalim also runs a research institute (Mosim and Salim Research Institute) which aims to provide a critical voice of reflection on Hansalim as a movement and a co-operative business endeavor. They conduct their own research into the Hansalim Life Movement and the Korean co-operative movement as well as annually funding research by independent researchers. This is complemented by Hansalim’s publishing house, a charitable Foundation, a Solar Energy Plant and a Financial Service provider.

Multi-stakeholder Governance

Each of these stakeholders and organizations are represented in the General Assembly and send directors and committee members to participate in the numerous governance processes including Joint Committees and National Solidarity Committees.

In addition many producer members, activists and directors are associated with other like-minded organizations and some also participate in the activities of other similar co-operatives in Korea (for example attending their General Assemblies).

More than a consumer co-op

As you can see, Hansalim is much more than a consumer co-operative or an organic supermarket. If you were to look only at the ‘Producers’ and ‘Consumers’ boxes in the diagram and the link between them, you would miss the whole range of other things that makes Hansalim so difficult to define in simple terms.