{"id":2776,"date":"2013-09-27T08:44:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T08:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/six.stimulatingminds.co.uk\/?p=2776"},"modified":"2022-04-27T08:46:58","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T08:46:58","slug":"meeting-the-seoul-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialinnovationexchange.org\/legacy\/meeting-the-seoul-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting the Seoul Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By Eddy Adams, URBACT expert<br><br>On the business card of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Park_Won-soon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Won Soon Park<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/fr.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/S%C3%A9oul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Seoul<\/a>\u2019s dynamic and charismatic Mayor, there is a drawing of a spoon-billed sandpiper, with the legend small but can fly further. Mr. Park is very interested in how far he and his city can fly, and if you ever wanted proof of the value of city leadership to social innovation, he is the man; the Seoul man.<br><br>An animated figure, Mr. Park ran his Mayoral campaign on the slogan \u201cCitizens are the Mayor.\u201d He champions the value of co-production and underlines the importance of connecting directly with the public. Outside Seoul\u2019s cavernous City Hall building is a two metre high symbol of an ear, to emphasize that Mr. Park is listening \u2013 actively listening.<br><br>Inside City Hall he has installed Simincheong, a Speakers Corner where citizens can record and broadcast their suggestions to government. His office has a wall full of post-it notes \u2013 change ideas from his constituents as well as a webcam so that everyone can see who he is meeting with. In a country with a legacy of authoritarian government and corruption, he speaks about transparency being the most important innovation in city government.<br><br>But although he spearheads the city\u2019s change agenda, Park realises the importance of travelling together. His mission \u2013 both before and since becoming Mayor \u2013 has been to build Seoul\u2019s capacity for social innovation and cross-sectoral collaboration. As a result, the city has a growing infrastructure focused on securing sustainable change and better results underpinned by strong evidence.<br><br>Key nodes in this framework include&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beautifulfund.org\/eng\/sub07\/04_03.jsp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Hope Institute<\/a>&nbsp;(largely modeled on the Young Foundation where Park spent part of his in London), the Residents Participatory Budgeting System and the Social Innovation Planning Division. The Division is charged with identifying the best global examples of social innovation and exploring their potential application in Seoul. And then there is the Seoul Social Innovation Park, one of only three in the world (Singapore and Bilbao host the other two). The park plays home to a cluster of organisations and shared spaces for social enterprise development and collaboration.<br><br>What are the lessons emerging from Seoul\u2019s experience under Mr. Park? First, we see the value of creative and visionary leadership, characterised by highly effective use of social media to engage citizens directly (this is a man with 750,000 followers on Twitter). Second, the key role of the public sector in mobilising wider partnerships \u2013 what Mr. Park calls Super-sectoral collaboration \u2013 is evident. Third, the experience shows what can be achieved in a relatively short time even in a large and complex city like Seoul, with ambitious direction.<br><br>Closer to home, last week I spent the day with&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/urbact.eu\/en\/news-and-events\/urbact-events\/training-for-elected-representatives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">elected officials from across the URBACT projects<\/a>, considering the question of social innovation and city leadership, as part of the programme\u2019s capacity building efforts. The ensuing discussion about collaborative models was frank and wide-ranging. Hot topics included the relationship between elected officials and civil servants; social media\u2019s impact on the interface between politicians and citizens; and the struggle to justify investing creatively in the long term during a time of Crisis.<br><br>This event and the recent&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/university2013.urbact.eu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">URBACT Summer University<\/a>(#URBACT2013) in Dublin brought home the value of this capacity building work. For me, URBACT has no function more important than building the competencies of the urban practitioners who will shape the future of our cities \u2013 in collaboration with their citizens. The programme plays a key support role in this by shining lights on effective practice and supporting its transfer. The upcoming round of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/urbact.eu\/en\/news-and-events\/urbact-events\/national-training-on-participative-action-planning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">National Training Schemes<\/a>&nbsp;(NTS) events in the autumn \u2013 where we bring practitioners together from our 150 participating cities \u2013 will form the final strand of this capacity building work for 2013.<br><br>Beyond that, we enter a new&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/europa.eu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">European Union<\/a>&nbsp;(EU) funding era where there will be significant funding available to promote social innovation, not only through the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/regional_policy\/thefunds\/cohesion\/index_en.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cohesion Funds<\/a>, but also via programmes like&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/research\/horizon2020\/index_en.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Horizon 2020<\/a>. There is also an increased focus on cities, where the majority of EU residents live, where our problems are concentrated and where shared solutions must be found. This presents a great opportunity, and URBACT cities should be well-placed to benefit, through their experience of social innovation and collaborative practices.<br><br>At the root of this is the URBACT model\u2019s focus on co-production and integrated urban solutions, which echoes one of Mr. Park\u2019s favourite aphorisms: \u201cIf you want to go fast go alone, but if you want to go faster go together.\u201d<br><br>By Eddy Adams<br><br>Via&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.blog.urbact.eu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Urbact<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Eddy Adams, URBACT expert On the business card of&nbsp;Won Soon Park,Seoul\u2019s dynamic and charismatic Mayor, there is a drawing of a spoon-billed sandpiper, with the legend small but can fly further. Mr. Park is very interested in how far he and his city can fly, and if you ever wanted proof of the value <a href=\"https:\/\/socialinnovationexchange.org\/legacy\/meeting-the-seoul-man\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Meeting the Seoul Man<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[15,71,45,47],"class_list":["post-2776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cities","tag-asia","tag-citizen-participation","tag-eastern-asia","tag-korea"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Meeting the Seoul Man - SIX | Social Innovation Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/socialinnovationexchange.org\/legacy\/meeting-the-seoul-man\/\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/socialinnovationexchange.org\\\/legacy\\\/meeting-the-seoul-man\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/socialinnovationexchange.org\\\/legacy\\\/meeting-the-seoul-man\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anna Proffitt\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/socialinnovationexchange.org\\\/legacy\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e1d49628f22499f93a16142826eec696\"},\"headline\":\"Meeting the Seoul Man\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-27T08:44:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-27T08:46:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/socialinnovationexchange.org\\\/legacy\\\/meeting-the-seoul-man\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":770,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/socialinnovationexchange.org\\\/legacy\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/socialinnovationexchange.org\\\/legacy\\\/meeting-the-seoul-man\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/socialinnovationexchange.org\\\/legacy\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/3500.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Asia\",\"Citizen Participation\",\"Eastern Asia\",\"Korea\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Cities\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/socialinnovationexchange.org\\\/legacy\\\/meeting-the-seoul-man\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/socialinnovationexchange.org\\\/legacy\\\/meeting-the-seoul-man\\\/\",\"name\":\"Meeting the Seoul Man - 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