One Book Promotion Committee Grows from 126 to 4,176 Members
Building a Resident-Led Cultural Public Forum Network
Seongbuk-gu in Seoul (Mayor Lee Seungro) has transformed its libraries into resident-participatory democracy platforms, winning the top prize at a nationwide cultural policy contest.
On December 26, Seongbuk-gu announced that it had received the top prize in the cultural governance category at the "1st 2025 National Basic Local Government Manifesto Cultural Policy Concerto," co-hosted by the Korea Manifesto Implementation Headquarters and the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Economic Promotion Agency.
Officials from Seongbuk-gu are taking a commemorative photo to celebrate the award. In the center of the photo is Lee Seungro, Mayor of Seongbuk-gu. Provided by Seongbuk-gu.
The competition, held at Sangji University from December 22 to 23, was themed "Culture, Cities, and Resilience." A total of 85 local governments from across the country participated, submitting 160 cases. Of these, 86 outstanding cases passed the first round of screening and advanced to the finals. The final winners were selected based on criteria such as breaking away from old practices, unique local DNA, policy sustainability, and the potential to solve urban problems through culture.
Seongbuk-gu expanded the role of libraries from simply providing cultural services to serving as "everyday democracy platforms" where residents directly participate, deliberate, and take action. Based on this, Seongbuk-gu has built the "Seongbuk-style Library Platform," a resident-led cultural public forum network.
The Seongbuk Cultural Foundation designed and operated a cultural governance structure centered on libraries, in which residents participate as active agents rather than passive beneficiaries of policy. Major initiatives include "One Book Seongbuk," "Network:ON," and "Maeulin(in)Suda."
In particular, the structure allows residents to participate directly in every stage of selecting the "Book of the Year," from identifying issues to discussion and implementation, thus expanding the main agents of cultural participation from government officials to citizens. At the heart of this operation is the One Book Seongbuk Promotion Committee, which has grown from 126 members in 2011 to 4,176 last year, establishing itself as a rare resident-led reading and discussion governance model nationwide.
A Seongbuk-gu official stated, "This award is a result of the Seongbuk Cultural Foundation's consistent efforts to operate resident-participatory cultural public forums and governance centered on libraries, and it has now been recognized nationwide. Going forward, we plan to continue working with the Seongbuk Cultural Foundation to further expand cultural governance that enables residents to easily participate through our cultural platform."
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