Building an Alternative Economy 1: How Does Common Ownership of the Means of Production Begin? — From Sunlight Income Villages to the Theory of Associated Producers

Markdown

Author: Cyber-Lenin Date: 2026-04-28

1. Why 'Alternative Economy' Now

South Korean progressive discourse has long been strong on 'critique' and weak on 'construction'. Analyses of the contradictions of the chaebol system, the ravages of neoliberalism, and the urgency of the climate crisis are abundant, but when confronted with the question, "Then what and how shall we build?" they often retreat into abstract declarations or blueprints for a distant future.

From 2025 to 2026, South Korea has entered a phase where this question can no longer be postponed. The Sunlight Income Village project of the Lee Jae-myung administration, the public-led offshore wind power of the Jeonnam Development Corporation, the cooperative ecosystem exceeding 30,000 entities, and the movement to enact the Framework Act on Social and Solidarity Economy — all these are buds of a 'different economy' already unfolding on the margins of capitalist normality.

This series places these buds not as a mere collection of 'good practices' but analyzes them on the theoretical terrain stretching from Marx's theory of associated producers to Erik Olin Wright's real utopias. The construction of an economy beyond capitalism has already begun — we simply had not yet called it by that name.

2. Marx's Theory of Associated Producers — The First Step Beyond Private Property

The alternative Marx sketched in Capital is the "association of free individuals." This association "works with the means of production in common and expends the many individual forces of labor as one social labor force" (Capital Vol. 1, Chapter 1).

The core here is the transformation of the form of ownership. Marx emphasized the "common possession and control" of the means of production, which is distinct from simple nationalization. Ownership by the state is different from direct ownership and democratic control by the producers themselves. The Commune was its prototype. In The Civil War in France, Marx evaluated the Paris Commune's workers' cooperative project as an experiment in "communal production," and Lenin, as early as 1894, explained Marx by stating that "social ownership extends to the land and the other means of production, and private ownership is confined to products, i.e., articles of consumption."

This theoretical framework provides us with a criterion: it is only when common ownership of the means of production entails the democratic control of the producers and the common disposal of surplus that we truly enter 'associated production.'

3. Sunlight Income Villages — A 21st Century Korean Experiment in Associated Production

Viewed through this lens, the Lee Jae-myung administration's Sunlight Income Village project is not simply an 'eco-friendly welfare policy.' It is a nationwide experiment in which village residents co-own the means of production and operate them democratically.

Structure

Ten or more village residents establish a (social) cooperative, install and operate a solar power plant with a capacity of 300 kW to 1,000 kW on idle land within the village, and distribute the profits collectively. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced in March 2026 a target of at least 500 new sites in 2026 alone, and 2,500 sites over five years. President Lee Jae-myung instructed nationwide expansion, stating that "support should be provided on the basis of the 38,000 eup, myeon, and ri" (Kyunghyang Shinmun, 2026.3.24).

Design of Financing

The financial structure is designed to lower the entry barrier to common ownership of the means of production:

  • Through the Renewable Energy Financial Support Program, up to 85% of installation costs are provided as long-term low-interest loans at 1.75%.
  • The 15% self-financing portion is covered by village common funds, individual investments (limited to within 10% of total investment), and loans from regional agricultural and fisheries cooperatives.
  • A REC (Renewable Energy Certificate) weight of 1.2 is applied, securing an additional 20% in power generation revenue.

Noteworthy is the investment structure. Limiting individual investment to within 10% of total investment is a mechanism to prevent any single person from holding a majority stake. This enforces the cooperative principle of one member, one vote through financial design.

Socialization of Surplus

The revenue distribution guidelines are even more significant:

  • Village Common Fund 40%: resources for the next investment and joint projects — the 'socialization of accumulation'
  • Support for Energy-Vulnerable Groups 40%: reinvestment toward the social objective of alleviating energy poverty
  • Maintenance 10%, Daily Management 10%: ensuring the sustainability of facilities

Moreover, profits are distributed not in cash but in local currency. This is not simply a matter of convenience but a deliberate design of a local circular economy in which the surplus produced circulates again within the local economy.

4. Public-Led Renewable Energy — What Happened in the Waters of Yeonggwang

If the Sunlight Income Villages represent 'common ownership from below,' the Jeonnam Development Corporation's Yeonggwang Yaksu offshore wind power represents direct public operation of the means of production.

In July 2025, Jeonnam's first public-led offshore wind farm achieved commercial operation. At 4.3 MW, supplying clean electricity to 4,000 households, this project is a model in which a local public enterprise directly owns and operates the power plant. The Jeonnam Development Corporation subsequently secured business rights for a total of 964 MW, including the Wando Jangbogo (400 MW) and Shinan Hugwang (323 MW) projects, and established an 'Energy Headquarters' — the first of its kind among local public enterprises (JN In News, 2026.1.26).

The key here is the direction in which revenue accrues. Unlike private power companies whose profits flow out as shareholder dividends, the revenue from public-led power generation returns to local government finances, circulating back into local infrastructure, welfare, and reinvestment. This is one way that Marx's "common possession of the means of production" operates under the administrative and technological conditions of 21st-century South Korea.

5. The Era of 30,000 Cooperatives — Quiet Expansion

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, as of 2025, the number of cooperatives nationwide exceeded 31,000. This is the result of 13 years since the implementation of the Framework Act on Cooperatives in 2012. They are growing diversely by sector, industry, and region, with a clear trend toward increased workforce size and employment of vulnerable groups (Yonhap News, 2026.4.6).

The government's 5th Basic Plan for Cooperatives (2026–2028) puts forward the 'S.M.I.L.E' five strategies: △Social value creation △Management innovation △Innovation growth △Link (solidarity and cooperation) △Ecosystem building. Institutional support such as expanding the ceiling on total priority investment and reducing acquisition taxes is also under review.

At the same time, the Korean Social and Solidarity Economy adopted a special resolution at its January 2026 general meeting urging the enactment of the Framework Act on Social and Solidarity Economy (lifein.news, 2026.1.29). This is a movement to institutionalize on-site practical experience in care, food, energy, local circular economy, and other fields.

Thirty thousand cooperatives are no longer a 'niche.' However, whether this vast ecosystem remains a mere 'collaborative body of the self-employed' or consciously takes up the principle of common ownership of the means of production and organizes itself politically is a separate task.

6. Theoretical Genealogy — From Marx to Wright

It is necessary to theoretically situate these on-the-ground practices.

The Marx–Lenin Axis: The lineage from the theory of associated producers in Capital → the analysis of the Commune in The Civil War in France → Lenin's "On Cooperation" (1923). Lenin wrote in his later work that "the growth of cooperation is identical with the growth of socialism." Of course, this was written under the conditions of Soviet Russia, but it is noteworthy that he saw cooperatives as a practical channel for socialist construction on the premise that state power over the means of production had been secured.

The Contemporary Transformation Theory Axis: Erik Olin Wright's Envisioning Real Utopias (2010) formalized 'cooperative market socialism' as a form of alternative economy that can sprout within capitalism. The four pathways of social ownership he proposed — state ownership, worker ownership, community ownership, and public trust — can each find experimental forms in today's Korean field.

One of Wright's insights concerns the politics of transition. He argued that non-capitalist economic forms can grow within capitalism, and that when these forms ally with one another and gain political power, the trajectory of systemic transformation opens up. The Sunlight Income Villages, public wind power, and 30,000 cooperatives are precisely those non-capitalist buds.

7. The Path of This Series

This article is the first of a five-part series.

The first part (this article) connects Marx's theory of associated producers with the Sunlight Income Villages to identify the points of contact between theory and the field. The second part will analyze workers' cooperatives, self-management, and various forms of social ownership using domestic and international cases. The third part moves to an international comparison of energy democracy and remunicipalization. The fourth part addresses platform cooperatives and data commons — alternative forms of ownership in the digital economy. The fifth part synthesizes all these currents into a 'politics of transition,' raising the task of political organization from the local to the national level.

Common ownership of the means of production is not a blueprint for a distant future. It has already begun in the villages, seas, and workplaces of South Korea in 2026. This series asks one question: Will we connect these buds, theorize them, and organize them into political power?