Community Well-being and Community Development ― Conceptions and Applications

This briefs provides foundations of both community wellbeing and community development, and the relationships between the two areas, including both similarities and differences. Community well-being encompasses a large array of concepts and disciplines. Community development, as an established discipline, is one framework that can help further understanding of community well-being, and is an allied concept. The interaction between the two areas is worthy of exploration, as both a new way to think about community development as well as a way to understand what community well-being entails. Beginning with a discussion of the foundations, the first and second chapters provide grounding for conceptions and potential theory applications as well as constructs for moving community wellbeing forward. The remaining chapters provide applications of community well-being in the context of community development, with examples from North America and Asia. Community development focused community wellbeing policies and programs illustrate processes and outcomes. ?

Seung Jong Lee is a professor at the Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University and president of the Korea Research Institute for Local Administration. Previously, he served as the president of the Korean Association for Public Administration and chief editor of several academic journals in related fields, such as the Journal of Korean Association for Policy Studies, Journal of Association for Local Government Studies, and The Korea Local Administration Review. He has frequently advised local and national governments through such positions as chairman of the Local Government Administration Joint Evaluation Committee, vice chairman of the Presidential Committee on Local District Reorganization Plans, and member of the presidential transition committee. He has not only done extensive research on citizen participation and local autonomy, but also has been a strong advocate and educator in the field. He is the author ofTheories of Local Autonomy, and Democratic Politics and Citizen Participation.

Yunji Kim is a doctoral student in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. She received her master's degree from the Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University in 2011. Her master's thesis, "Development and Application of a Community Well-being Index for Korea,” focused on defining community wellbeing as a guiding principle for local governments and suggested a new community wellbeing index for Korean metropolitan districts. Her current research interests include the relationship between community wellbeing and local government services; citizen participation; and community development. Her recent articles include, "The Development and Application of a Community Wellbeing Index in Korean Metropolitan Cities," "An Analysis of the Relative Importance of Components in Measuring Community Wellbeing: Perspectives of Citizens, Public Officials, and Experts," and "Sing, Dance, and Be Merry: a Strategy for Successful Urban Development?"

Rhonda Phillips, Ph.D., AICP, is Dean of the Honors College at Purdue University and a professor in the Agricultural Economics Department. A former senior sustainability scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability for Arizona State University, she served as professor in School of Community Resources and Development, and affiliate professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. Community well-being and development comprise the focus of Rhonda’s research and outreach activities including community-based education and research initiatives for enhancing quality of life. Honors include serving as the 2006 UK Ulster Policy Fellow Fulbright Scholar and a 2012 Fulbright Senior Specialist to Panama. Rhonda is author or editor of eighteen books, including Community Development Indicators Measuring Systems, and Introduction to Community Development, and serves as editor for the Springer series,Community Quality of Life and Well-Being. Rhonda is president of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, www.isqols.org.