Family as Community: Rethinking Care, Recognition, and Familyhood in Contemporary Korea

This article reconceptualizes the family as a community through a three‐stage analysis of contemporary South Korea. First, drawing on Chang's theory of compressed modernity and individualization without individualism, it demonstrates how familialism by default becomes self‐undermining as the kin networks on which it depends contract. Second, the article develops a family‐as‐community framework by integrating three theoretical perspectives: (a) family practices, which define family as something enacted rather than possessed; (b) networked individualism, which relocates solidarity from households to person‐centered networks; and (c) the ethics of recognition and care, which view sustained care rather than ascribed status as the basis of familyhood. Third, applying this framework to Korea, the article shows that nonkin cohabitation, group homes, and chosen families may perform important functions of care, mutual support, and relational recognition while remaining legally invisible. It argues that addressing this recognition gap requires statutory reform and a broader institutional understanding of family grounded in dignity, mutual care, and relational responsibility.