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This study attempted to reinterpret the passively accepted meaning of “local” in relation to local creators and adds a humanistic meaning of place. The aim is to derive the direction of local creators as a practical regional development strategies by adding the meaning of humanities. In this process, the concept and discourse of locality, the nature of relationships and contexts were taken into consideration, and ‘local creators’ were approached as the subject of regional development and the possibility of a humanistic approach was explored through case studies of local creators in Korea and Japan. As a result, a development model for the humanistic meaning and practice of local creators was prepared and proposed, and several significant outcomes were obtained. Firstly, a region-specific, customized project with various forms and self-sustaining structures is crucial. Secondly, a “creative place” with a humanistic perspective as a base space is important. Thirdly, the foundation of a mutually cooperative relationship with locals begins with understanding the local context. Fourthly, the process of local creators understanding and reaching a consensus on the meaning of their role as practitioners and artisans within the region is important. Local creators play a crucial role in combining humanistic values with economic values in the region, and the environment and support for this must be sustained.

Although the Chinese government faced a crisis due to the cover-up of SARS in the early stage, it succeeded in escaping the SARS crisis by operating the ‘total quarantine’ system in the later period. The ‘total quarantine’ system worked in the lower levels as well as in the upper levels of the Chinese Communist Party and government. When the policy change of the upper levels was communicated to the lower levels, in the lower levels, grassroots cadres voluntarily shut down- Blocking with the outside was carried out. In the SARS crisis, the weakness of rural medical infrastructure was highlighted. In rural areas, the role of grassroots cadres centered on the village committee was important, and farmers were also aware of the crisis, total quarantine at the village level, that is, community-based quarantine was able to carry out. However, China’s community-based quarantine, like the total quarantine system itself, does not lead to voluntary participation by citizens in the case of cities, and in the case of rural areas, the dedication of grassroots officials and voluntary participation of farmers are possible. Even so, since the quarantine system based on temporary resource mobilization is not sustainable in the long run, with the transition to a community-based quarantine system centered on citizens’ participation, in other words, from grassroots-level government to grassroots-level governance, expansion of medical infrastructure in the grassroots, especially in rural areas, should be preceded.

An Evaluation Framework for Socio-Economic Impacts of Water Management Information Systems: A Case in Uzbekistan

High poverty incidence and stagnant decrease in poverty rates have always been a big challenge for developing countries. To address this issue, the Government of Indonesia made a breakthrough by implementing a program called Village Fund Transfer in 2015. The government is committed to enhancing its economy and development, especially in the rural and outermost regions, by granting funds and authority to each of over seventy thousand villages in Indonesia. This study explores the causal effect of the Village Fund Program on poverty alleviation in Indonesia using an Impact Evaluation approach by applying the Difference-in-Difference Event Study Framework. Due to data limitation, the study uses approximately 500 district-level data and compares the poverty rates of districts receiving the program funds and those not receiving the program funds between 2011 and 2021. By employing this identification strategy, this study is able to provide more robust estimates of the program’s impact and its dynamic variation yet is unable to consider the intensity variations within the recipient districts. In addition, the observed districts were divided into three groups based on their geographical conditions using a Construction Cost Index. The empirical results on all districts data found a significant impact of the Village Fund Program on reducing poverty four years after the program’s inception in 2015. A significant impact was also seen starting in 2017 for districts with low geographical disadvantage, and from 2018 for districts with intermediate geographical disadvantage. However, the study also revealed that this program has no significant impact in highly geographically disadvantaged districts. This emphasizes the importance of initial geographical and infrastructure conditions. Therefore, it is argued that the highly geographically disadvantaged regions should prioritize their village fund on infrastructure development rather than community empowerment programs.

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze the business evaluation of Korea’s representative employment service contracting-out business, the employment success package, and Australia’s contracting-out business evaluation and operation method, which currently entrusts all public employment services. To this end, this study conducted case analysis by referring to literature analysis, field trip visits, and result reports. As a result of comparative analysis of performance evaluation, the following items could be benchmarked from the case of Australia. First, considering that contracting-out agencies in Korea are small, it is necessary to consider an integrated evaluation method if they are composed of headquarters and branches like Australia, rather than evaluating each branch. Second, in the case of Korea, there is an excessively uniformity in the evaluation target period and the announcement of evaluation results, but in the case of Australia, there was a difference depending on the evaluation period and announcement point depending on the contract conclusion point. Therefore, it is necessary to flexibly select a project agency according to regional characteristics and conditions, so that there is room for different public announcement times according to evaluation results and agencies subject to evaluation. Third, in the case of Korea, participation in the next year’s project is restricted if certain standards are met through performance evaluation. Therefore, the project can be counterproductive in terms of quality improvement for employment services by carrying out the project with a great burden of performance evaluation every year. Therefore, it is necessary to benchmark the case of Australia, which is not used as a means to exit institutions that produce low performance with performance evaluation results. However, despite the results of the above research, this paper has limitations in that it relied heavily on Korean data when analyzing Australia’s performance evaluation system for employment services and private consignment projects.

This paper uses the job competition theory to explore causes and procedures of underemployment by adapting structural aspects of the labor market. The paper empirically investigates determinants of underemployment by employing random forests. It pays a special attention to self-esteem as a key variable to determine whether or not the labor force status is that of underemployment. For the empirical analyses, a dataset of Youth Panel 2007(YP2007) is utilized, ranging from the 5th to 12th dataset. Methods and results of the analyses are as follows. Random forests take 84 independent variables into account including individual characteristics, personal background, types of jobs, job-search experience, and self-esteem. As a result, a model 1 for underemployment based on education is created, with 94% accuracy, 92% sensitivity, and 96% specificity. A model 2 for underemployment based on technology levels is also created with 93% accuracy, 92% sensitivity, and 95% specificity. Both models find that there is high variable importance such as lists of industrial occupations, business locations, monthly average income, along with self-esteem variables. To conclude, the analysis of random forests finds that self-esteem is predictive in determining underemployment. This paper considers the main determinant of underemployment with particular interest as self-esteem, which is an integral, albeit overlooked explanatory variable. As the result found that high self-esteem plays a key role to appropriate job transitions, methods for education in improving self-esteem are needed. Timely education is incredibly important. Self-esteem is shaped in the teenage years and from young and preschool periods. Once formed, self-esteem tends to be resistant to change. Also, the process of molding and forming self-esteem is influenced by environments around the person. Therefore, targets for education should be broadened into - not to mention young children - surrounding people including parents and teachers. Further research is needed to explore the specific path of how levels of self-esteem affects preparation procedures for jobs and closely analyze how levels of self-esteem influence career outcomes.