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The Development and Application of a Community Wellbeing Index in Korean Metropolitan Cities

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Abstract

Local governments play an important role in enhancing wellbeing. Quality of life (QOL) indicators and community indicators have been used by local governments in this role, but have been limited to description rather than diagnosis. This paper argues that community wellbeing (CWB) is a value-centered principle that can provide guidance to local governments. The paper deals with measurement as an important step for operationalizing this concept in public policy. Existing CWB measures are examined and in response to their shortcomings, a new CWB index is presented. The index is applied to the sixteen metropolitan cities of South Korea and compared with QOL measurements. The results imply that the measurement tool presented in this paper is a more comprehensive index that shows a different assessment of local communities compared to previous QOL measurements. Based on these results, the paper gives academic and practical implications for CWB as a policy tool.

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Notes

  1. Efficiency and democracy are also emphasized in Korea’s Local Government Act; the stated purpose of this law is “…to define the relationship between the state and local governments in order to enhance democracy and efficiency in local government administration with the ultimate purpose of achieving balanced development of local areas and democratic development of the Republic of Korea” (Local Government Act of South Korea).

  2. This word is spelled either “wellbeing” or “well-being.” Both are currently accepted as correct form by convention. This paper will use the unhyphenated spelling “wellbeing,” unless the word is part of a direct quote that uses the hyphenated spelling.

  3. For a more in-depth discussion of community wellbeing and related concepts, see Lee and Kim(forthcoming).

  4. For example, if someone is a perpetual smoker then his or her individual wellbeing may be decreased. If this person frequents the local community park to smoke, now there is a possibility that community wellbeing may be decreased due to the effects of second hand smoke and a general decline in air quality of that community. While the latter case involves both CWB and individual wellbeing, the former case only involves individual wellbeing.

  5. To be clear, we are discussing CWB measurement in line with the concept of QOL at the community level. Sirgy (2001) points out that there is a distinction between QOL at the community level and community QOL. The former refers to QOL of the entire community, that is the community is the unit of analysis. In contrast, community QOL treats the individual as its unit of analysis and refers to an individual’s QOL in relation to community life.

  6. These figures are accurate as of January 1st, 2013.

  7. z-score = (x − μ)/σ, where μ = mean and σ = standard deviation.

  8. See “Appendix 2” for more details on index derivation.

  9. The May 18th Gwangju Democracy Movement is also known as the Gwangju Massacre. The event took place in 1980 when students protested against the military regime of Chun Doo Hwan. City police and government soldiers opened fire on protestors leading to approximately 1,000–2,000 casualties (Plunk 1985).

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2013S1A3A2054622).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA

    Yunji Kim

  2. Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

    Seung Jong Lee

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  1. Yunji Kim
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Correspondence to Yunji Kim.

Additional information

This paper is a revised version of the first author’s MPP thesis accepted at Seoul National University, August, 2011.

Appendix

Appendix

1.1 Appendix 1: References for indicator projects in Table 1 by alphabetical order

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Australian Unity. (2011). What is ‘wellbeing’ and how does the index measure it? Retrieved from http://www.australianunitycorporate.com.au/Community/auwi/Pages/whatsWellbeing.aspx

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Bristol City Council. (2013). Quality of Life in Bristol: Quality of life in your neighborhood survey results 2012. Retrieved from http://www.bristol.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/council_and_democracy/consultations/qol2013-report_0_0.pdf.

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1.2 Appendix 2: Methods for deriving the indexes

All indicator scores were summed except for those indicators that have a negative relationship with well-being, which were subtracted. For example, suicide rate; number of crimes; number of traffic accidents; number of juvenile crimes; carcinogen emissions; increase in housing price; unemployment rate; rate of consumer price increase; divorce rate; TV watching hours; number of students per teacher; number of adult entertainment facilities; air pollution level; domestic waste were subtracted from the total score.

Some indexes are created by assigning different weights to each indicator. However, the values that each metropolitan emphasizes would differ and hence these weights should be unique to each metropolitan. Due to lack of data on each metropolitan’s value sets, this paper gives equal weight to all indicators.

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Kim, Y., Lee, S.J. The Development and Application of a Community Wellbeing Index in Korean Metropolitan Cities. Soc Indic Res 119, 533–558 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0527-0

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