Jongwng Ju

In the planning process, it is crucial to involve every key stakeholder for effective collaborative participation. However, in real-world practice, planners often face difficulties engaging stakeholders who remain passive. The authors argue that the Delphi method, when modified to enhance planners’ roles as a communication channel, can bridge this gap, serving as a tool to facilitate communication with these passive stakeholders and fostering consensus between those who actively voice their opinions and those who do not. Therefore, this study introduces a ‘planner-aided’ policy Delphi method, which is a revised version of existing Delphi methods tailored to better serve these goals. The authors then explore the effectiveness of this proposed method in engaging voiceless stakeholders in the participatory planning process through a case study of the Seohak-dong Art Theme Street design project in Jeonju, South Korea. This study finds that the PAP Delphi technique integrated into participatory planning effectively reflected the thoughts of voiceless stakeholders. This research contributes by proposing a practical and easy-to-use method for urban planners to engage less-vocal groups and demonstrating its effectiveness.

부동산분석(Journal of Real Estate Analysis)

This study investigates the changes in regional disparities in primary healthcare in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our descriptive analysis found that the supply of primary healthcare per capita by the private sector decreased in all regions in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. In the following years, the supply of private clinics in the Seoul Metropolitan Area and other metropolis cities increased compared to before COVID-19. However, the rate of increase in private clinics per person in small and medium-sized cities/rural areas (SMRs) was relatively low. The supply of private clinics for essential medical subjects decreased in SMRs compared to pre-COVID-19. The regional disparity in primary healthcare between metropolis cities and SMRs has worsened during the pandemic. The deepening regional disparities in access to primary healthcare, which are evaluated as the long-term footprint of COVID-19, could result in inequalities in health outcomes.