COVID-19 and the Climate Crisis: Seeing, Hearing, and Speaking from the Residents' Perspective

Dongseon-dong Residents' Autonomy Committee Holds Online Non-Face-to-Face Public Forum to Explore Ways for Residents to Share Opinions While Observing Social Distancing

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seongbuk-gu (Mayor Lee Seung-ro) announced that the Dongseon-dong Residents' Autonomy Committee successfully held a total of three online public forums on October 30, November 6, and November 10.

The residents' autonomy committee members served as assistant panelists and moderators for each session, and by recruiting sign language interpreters from the Seongbuk-gu Sign Language Interpretation Center to provide simultaneous sign language interpretation, they were able to reach more residents and viewers.

The operation and broadcasting of the public forums were stably carried out and completed through cooperation with the local media cooperative "Waboshong."

At the filming location, the 3rd-floor auditorium of the Dongseon-dong Community Center, an exhibition of the “Plastic School” artwork, created with the theme of raising awareness about the use of disposable products, was held simultaneously.

The 1st public forum (held on October 30), titled “COVID-19 and the Climate Crisis,” took the form of a lecture conducted by Dr. Lee Yujin, a researcher at the Green Transition Research Institute, successfully linking two seemingly unrelated topics and laying the foundation for the subsequent public forums.

The 2nd public forum (November 6) changed the format to a dialogue between panelists and the moderator. A local member of the National Assembly presented, and the moderator conveyed questions and concerns collected via real-time chat on behalf of the audience, with the presenter responding accordingly.

The 3rd public forum (November 10) focused on ways to activate resident participation through case studies.

The presenters were Kim Soyoung, CEO of Seongdaegol Village Datsalrim Cooperative, and Lee, the director of Donghak Waste Center. They held a discussion with resident panelists on what measures residents can take to overcome both the climate crisis and COVID-19, and the role of the residents' autonomy committee.

The event concluded with the reading of the “Wise Dongseon Resident Promise” by Yoo Jaeseung, chairman of the Dongseon-dong Residents' Autonomy Committee.

The Dongseon-dong Residents' Autonomy Committee planned the public forums over three sessions as “residents themselves imagining a future where they can live safely from the crisis of COVID-19.” To ensure that the public forum (公論場) does not become an empty discussion (空論), residents’ promises will be concretely put into practice starting with the “Dongseon Action Meeting” on November 26.

The residents' public forums were conducted online in a non-face-to-face manner in response to the COVID-19 situation, and videos of each forum can be viewed on the Dongseon-dong Residents' Autonomy Committee YouTube channel, “Dongseon-dong Residents' Autonomy Committee TV.”

With evaluation and monitoring stages remaining, the Dongseon-dong Residents' Autonomy Committee in Seongbuk-gu plans to hold the remaining sessions of another detailed implementation project, the “Ceramic Healing Program ? Clay Play with Stories,” within November as part of the “Recharge Happiness Index! Pat Pat Heart Playground.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.