Abstract
Recognizing the significance of the residents' organizations in community design practices, this paper explores the characteristics of residents' self-governing committee in local administration. The goal is to examine the roles and potentialities of the committee and to draw its implications for promoting community design. As for the research methods, this paper applied contents analysis method on 317 agendas from official minutes of the residents' self-governing committee in Seong-san 1 dong, which has been regarded as a representative case of community design in Korea. Unlike former assumptions and expectations, supporting activities related to residents' welfare service took the largest portion of the committee's agenda, and the committee had obvious limitations to manage or control the decision-making process. The committee's function, authority, and its relationship with governments were connected to each other, and as a consequence, the mechanism of committee's operation can be categorized into two typical combinations. The committee delivers or supports what upper governments demand, mostly associated with welfare issues. However, it is more likely to deliberate or decide, especially when it is related to cultural/recreational or self-governing agenda initiated by lower governments. As such connection reflects the structural system of local administration, it might be generalized as a common framework to understand and examine residents' self-governing committees, contributing to fulfill their potential as effective institutions for community design.