Participatory culture of crowdfunding in Korea

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the user participation and socio-cultural value of non-financial crowdfunding in Korea, mainly focusing on performativity and community. Generally, crowdfunding refers to a social movement or alternative funding mechanism in which funds are collected from anonymous individuals by using a crowdfunding platform through the internet. In crowdfunding, persons who have been unable to enter into the main economic system can subjectively participate as starters, focusing on a certain topic with which they empathize. This process can be accomplished through the active involvement of backers who donate money to the project. This study concentrated on how crowdfunding users participate in the project through their acts on a crowdfunding platform and how they use their voice to attract attention through their confessional storytelling style. Through these participations and interactions, a liminoid community is formed by massively engaged users. In addition, according to the key concept presented by Maffesoli (2017), this type of community is characterized by collective emotion sharing. It is expected that the result of this study will contribute to understanding the basis for giving in light of the socio-cultural value of crowdfunding in Korea.