This study examines how people's participation in community-building influences their sense of community and their sense of social well-being, in line with the structurally changing communities currently being activated by civil society. The structura...
This study examines how people's participation in community-building influences their sense of community and their sense of social well-being, in line with the structurally changing communities currently being activated by civil society. The structural model that involves these variables was analyzed based on the social capital approach. The study hypothesis is as follows: Participation in community building as an exogenous potential variable, and information-type participation as an exogenous observation variable, have direct and indirect effects on the sense of social well-being through the mediation of citizen-led participation, cooperative participation, and a sense of community.
The subjects were gathered using the convenience sampling method from among 20-year-old or older adults who participated in the community-building project contests conducted at the level of local governments in Seoul(Geumcheon-gu, Dobong-gu, Dongdaemun-gu, Seongbuk-gu, and Eunpyeong-gu) and Gyeonggi-do(Seongnam, Suwon, Ansan, and Anpyeong-gun). The data were gathered in 10 weeks, from June 29 to September 4, 2015, through interview surveys, and 371 effective responses were secured. The gathered data were subjected to a frequency analysis, descriptive statistics analysis, t-test, analysis of variance, correlational analysis, and structure equation analysis, using the SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 18.0 programs. The findings are summarized below.
First, the verification of the study model revealed that the goodness of fit was significant, which suggests that the overall fit index and the relative fit index of the study model were suitable. Second, the examination of the direct effects showed that of the nine hypotheses, seven were statistically significant. The sense of social well-being was positively influenced by participation in community-building, citizen-led participation, cooperative participation, and a sense of community. The sense of community as a mediating variable was directly positively influenced by participation in community-building, citizen-led participation, and cooperative participation.
Third, the analysis of the indirect effects of the mediating variables revealed that of four hypotheses, three were statistically significant, which confirmed the indirect path. Participation in community-building, citizen-led participation, and cooperative participation significantly mediated the effects on the sense of social well-being.
Based on the findings of this study, the direction of community welfare practice is presented below.
First, it is suggested that the information-type participation be expanded not into the existing government-led information-type participation but into citizen-led participation through public open online discussions. Second, the proposed measures for activating citizen-led participation involve constructing diverse networks, such as of residents, welfare foundations, regional welfare centers, culture foundations, volunteer service centers, and the social economy in the community welfare practice field, and further facilitating interaction among residents. Third, the proposed measures for activating cooperative participation involve allowing non-government and expert groups to determine the community agenda on their own, thereby further facilitating collaborative participation. Thus, community-building should be constructed as the community model that forms the community as a cooperative governance field.
Based on the findings of this study, the community welfare policy direction is presented as follows. First, information-type participation, proposed as a policy, can hardly exclude government-led community-building efforts, partly because residents lack professional capabilities. Thus, measures for changing the community-building procedure and method must be taken to continue boosting the residents' capabilities, so as to prepare them for the changes and to incubate the community-building contest projects. Second, for policy measures for activating citizen-led participation, measures must be taken to construct a system designed to effectively support local governments' systems, organizations, and budgets so as to enable their residents to take the initiative in engaging in community-building. Third, for the measures for activating cooperative participation, residents' support and cooperation functions, such as community-building, must be further bolstered by the social welfare workers of community social welfare centers, which is one of three evaluation functions of the centers, so as to facilitate cooperation among non-government, government, and expert groups. Thus, a cooperative governance paradigm must be established among non-government, government, and expert groups.
This study presented a structure model that involves variables such as participation in community-building, a sense of community, and a sense of social well-being. The findings of this study are expected to embody the direction of the practice of community welfare policies.
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