Urban regeneration projects are based on ideal assumptions that residents' participation is higher than in the past, urban planners perform well as experts, and residents' representatives for democratic implementation fully reflect the opinions of res...
Urban regeneration projects are based on ideal assumptions that residents' participation is higher than in the past, urban planners perform well as experts, and residents' representatives for democratic implementation fully reflect the opinions of residents. However, according to many existing researches and experiences, even a seemingly democratic urban plan can be anti-democratic if it is not properly implemented and implemented properly. Alfasi(2003), through the example of Israel, showed that simple forms of residents' participation are dominated by vocal people and eventually in a non-democratic form.
Participation is necessary in terms of preventing authoritarianism of power, supplementing the weak points of the representative, securing the procedural legitimacy of the policy, and enhancing the feasibility of the policy. The actual level of participation is not improved due to lack of willingness to participate, lack of time, financial reason, lack of professionalism, lack of power.
The government strives to improve the convenience and welfare of residents, considers the public interest to be the highest priority, and the experts decide policies on behalf of the residents based on the belief that they establish a rational plan from a neutral standpoint. However, governments and experts, who play a crucial role in deciding policy, have lacked information on the specific situation and problems of the region, and the level and level of involvement may be different for various reasons. We are concerned about the voluntary participation of residents even though the level of participation of government or experts is low, even if the residents positively express their opinions, it takes long time to be reflected in the policy or it is not even reviewed.
The purpose of this study is to select three themes that should be considered in city planning in order to secure the procedural legitimacy of urban planning, increase the feasibility of the plan, and finally contribute to the improvement of welfare of the residents.(Participants’ Behavior, Experts’ Role and Community Participation Level) The above study has limitations in analyzing the external appearance, so it approaches qualitative methods focusing on analyzing the contents aspect deeply for a long period of time. Therefore, the study was conducted by observing one case deeply for more than two years.
This study did not aim at general evaluation of urban regeneration projects in Korea, nor to generalize the characteristics of urban regeneration projects in Korea. Instead, we will delve deeper and more critically into the decision-making, the level of community participation, and the role of urban planners, which are easily understood through in-depth exploration for many years. This will narrow the gap between the perceptions and actions of the people and the theories and practices of the government and the experts. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the realization of democracy by improving the level of participation and working more effectively in the decision-making process of triangle composed of residents, government, and experts, and to examine what is needed for urban planning to achieve better development.
From the viewpoint of public choice theory, the decision - making behavior and motivation of participants in urban regeneration projects were identified, and hypotheses about behavior and motivation were verified through field record and participation observation.
First, land owners who voluntarily participate will increase their participation motive and actively participate if economic reasons such as land price increase (or fall) through urban regeneration projects and social prestige increase. The tenant(the village activist) will actively participate if the value is realized rather than the economic reason, the achievement of the effort is derived and supported.
Second, from the viewpoint of public choice, public officials will participate actively when the chief engineer is interested and achieves individual goals through the outcomes. If the Chief Engineer is not interested or is facing difficulties to solve, full-time officers will delay the project or move the department, and term-time officials will delay the project.
Third, companies that maximize profits and generate profits will strive to maximize profits through minimizing costs, and will participate in agreeing to agreed plans rather than drawing new ideas.
Fourth, the commissioned master・consultant planner can not concentrate on the urban regeneration project because the urban regeneration project is not a full-time job, and will endeavor to achieve minimum achievement with minimum efforts. In addition, the master・consultant planner will show Directing or Coaching leadership to the residents(There is interest in urban regeneration projects, but lack of ability), Supporting leadership for the enterprise(High work ability but low interest), and Delegating leadership for the public officials(More active participants in business than other participants).
The results of the contents analysis of the change of the decision making situation of the participant, the level of the citizen participation and the role of the urban planner are as follows.
First, the results of the analysis of the decision - making process of the participant, 1)The residents who own the land, participated for economic reason, exclude the specific group according to the sense of responsibility to the area and improve the social prestige. And the relationship between the residents and the information disclosure were encouraging participation. In addition, the tenant(the village activist) also participated in the personal expectation and achievement feeling in the meeting place with the people who can form the consensus and the economic reason influenced participation. And if the administration interferes, motivation for participation decreases. 2)Public officials participated for the purpose of individual or agency rather than business performance, and showed minimal effort only when the goal was difficult to achieve or the director 's interest was low. In the face of difficult to solve problems, full-time officers flew through departmental movements, successors delayed their decisions, and term-time officials retained the status quo. 3)Enterprise should increase efficiency through decision-making to minimize costs, prioritize opinions of contracting parties, actively participate in the business process outlined in the task content, and agree on agreed opinions. 4) The master・consultant planner made decisions for the benefit of the individual or the group to which they belonged, gave priority to the opinion of the public officials like the company, and kept the progress of the event and agreed passively on the agreed opinions. By showing supportive leadership to residents lacking maturity of business, they could be excluded from residents' resentment. The master planner exercised Delegating leadership to enterprise(to minimize the scope of work) to minimize effort and maintain a good relationship and showed the Supporting or Delegating leadership to the public officials.
Second, the results of analysis of the level of inhabitants participation are as follows; 1)Residents' participation at the first level, which provides administrative information, persisted, and 2)Overall residents' participation remained at the second level of requesting information. 3)The level of participation in the 3rd and 4th stage of discussing or cooperating with the government at the stage immediately before the planning was indicated, 4)As the time elapsed and experience accumulated, the participation level shifted to a lower level as time elapses, unlike the expectation that the resident capacity will be strengthened and the participation of the residents' cooperation will appear.
Third, as a result of analyzing the role of urban planners; 1)Overall, government-centered meetings were held, 2)The public officials participated in the planning process mainly through the role of the neutral administrative activist and the role of the entrepreneur rather than the enterprise in the planning process. The enterprise that performs the services ordered by the public officials played a role of the neutral administrative activist, mainly participating in the review of the matters requested by the public officials, and the master・consultant planner played the role of the planner mainly as an entrepreneur. 3)The role of the planner as advocate in the previous planning phase appeared to be extremely poor in public officials, 4)Overall, opinions and review results of the public officials were delivered in a top-down manner, and the enterprise and the master・consultant planner agreed passively, and opinions of public officials and other opinions were difficult to accept.
The main results of the study are as follows.
First, the government does not regard public value as a top priority, experts do not actively participate in rational planning, and urban regeneration projects do not improve the level of participation of residents. Nonetheless, we are based on the ideal premise that participation in the urban regeneration project will improve the level of residents' participation and that the government and experts participating in the project will always actively participate. In the decision-making process, it is not possible to force the public interest to take precedence over the participants who pursue their interests according to the expected value of the individual. In other words, it is difficult to derive the ideal result that we want from the policies implemented on the assumption that the participants give priority to the public interest. Therefore, improvement of the structural system should be preceded to achieve the individual goal through achieving the public goal.
Second, the policy making process of our society still does not deviate from the top-down decision making method based on public officials. Kuntala(2004) suggests that the government prioritizes scientific opinions of experts who are more outsiders than those who have diverse information and resources needed for planning. However, the results of the case analysis show that the public officials who have the practical decision-making authority over the experts who make the least efforts to achieve the goals of the individual or organization have the greatest influence on the planning process. Opinions reviewed by the public officials were given priority over the agreed opinions of the residents. This is the result of the participant having no authority to make policy decisions. It is possible to give participants a legitimate right according to their roles, prevent unnecessary conflicts in advance, and induce active participation, thereby avoiding a top-down decision-making system based on public officials.
This will contribute to the role of the public officer as a neutral administrative activist, the enterprise as an entrepreneur rather than the neutral administrative activist, and the master・consultant planner as an expert in the formation of community consensus. It will also help to build a viable plan for the residents away from the structural relationship that first reflects the direct subject of the contract.
Third, the master planner who oversees the urban regeneration project requires appropriate leadership in various situations that arise during the course of the project. In the long run, leadership is not desirable to support residents with poor performance or delegate authority to an enterprise that is not interested in the business. The master planner should be able to increase the participant's willingness to participate by demonstrating appropriate leadership considering the maturity of the participants and their degree of interest in the business.
The implications of this study can be summarized as follows.
First, it is confirmed that today's effort to raise the level of community participation is not realized in the field different from ‘intention’ or ‘horse'. In order to enable residents to ‘lead' as ‘masters' rather than ‘participation', institutional improvement is required and meaningful implications are given for role sharing and synergy enhancement for each major participant.
Second, it is meaningful to emphasize that it is very important not only the residents affected by the plan but also the government and the experts who play an important role in the policy making process through analysis of the decision-making process of the residents-public officials–experts. In addition, it suggests that the participation of residents can be effective when they are balanced.
Third, it is confirmed that the urban regeneration project is proceeding through the top-down decision making method unlike the intention. The reason why this phenomenon does not change is that we do not know exactly what the problem is. Therefore, this study suggests that it is necessary to improve the understanding of accurate reality prior to making an innovative alternative, and it is necessary to conduct qualitative analysis like this study in this sense.
Fourth, this study is meaningful in that it records the process of urban regeneration project of a specific site. This will contribute to preventing and minimizing conflicts with residents in other regions that are undergoing urban regeneration projects in the future. This will help improve the level of community participation and is consistent with the goals of urban regeneration projects.
If such qualitative research is sufficiently advanced and accumulated in the future, it is expected to improve the level of community participation and understanding of the role of urban planners and help set the direction of urban regeneration projects.