SPPA team studies urban policy, management in Seoul, South Korea
8:44 a.m., Nov. 18, 2015--A team from the University of Delaware
School of Public Policy and Administration (SPPA) spent a mid-October
week in Seoul, South Korea, learning firsthand about the challenges and
successes of building and managing that city of 10 million people in the
Seoul Case Study Program, managed by the University of Seoul and
sponsored by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
Visiting Seoul were SPPA graduate students Kirsten Jones, a masters
degree student in urban affairs and public policy; Minhee Kim, a
doctoral student in urban affairs and public policy; Mallory Smith, a
master of public administration 4+1 student; Monica Welch, a masters
degree student in urban affairs and public policy; and Laura Wisniewski,
a master of public administration student. They were accompanied by
faculty leader Jonathan Justice, professor in SPPA.
The students will deliver a presentation about what they learned at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 3, in 187 Graham Hall.
The UD team spent several weeks in September and October preparing
for their week in Seoul by researching Korean history and culture, and
studying the policy and management problems facing Seoul and other
global mega-cities in the 21st century.
In Seoul, the team spent six days immersed in those topics as part of
a larger group that included graduate students and faculty from Cornell
University, the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom), Portland
State University, the University of Central Florida, and the University
of Seoul.
After an initial orientation day on Oct. 18, program participants
spent the week attending lectures, visiting city facilities and project
sites, and interacting with a variety of academic and city-management
experts.
The academic program culminated with analytical presentations
prepared and delivered by multi-university teams of students for the
benefit of city officials and faculty from the University of Seouls
International School of Urban Sciences. Those presentations were
followed by a farewell ceremony and lunch, and a trip to see Miso, a
contemporary musical theatre performance based on traditional Korean
themes.
During a final day in Seoul on Oct. 24, the UD team explored a
portion of the ancient city walls on Mt. Inwang, learned about the
Korean independence struggle of the early 20th century at the Seodaemun
Prison History Hall, and observed the sunset ceremony at the Bongeun
Buddhist temple in the Gangnam section of Seoul.
While in Seoul, Justice also participated as a discussant in the
third Korea-China-Japan International Conference on Urban Management in
Northeast Asia, organized by the Korean Urban Management Association and
hosted by the University of Seoul.
This marked SPPA's sixth consecutive year of participating in the
Seoul Case Study Program. In 2009, Maria Aristigueta, Charles P. Messick
Professor of Public Administration and at the time the schools
director, advised the University of Seoul and Seoul Metropolitan
Government on plans for the program.
In March 2010, SPPA students and faculty participated in the first
iteration of the program. The program, which a number of participants
have described as a "life-changing experience" for them, is one of
several exceptional graduate study-abroad programs organized by SPPA.
Other ongoing SPPA graduate study-abroad programs include
examinations of housing and urban planning policies in the Netherlands, a
research partnership with Babes-Bolyai University in Romania and a
semester abroad at Beijing Normal University.
Programs in the recent past have also taken teams of SPPA graduate
students to study public policy and management in the United Kingdom,
South Africa and Costa Rica.
University of Seoul campus photo by Jonathan Justice
Group photo courtesy of the University of Seoul
Originally published by UDaily
