A Critical Review on the Citizen Participatory Design Group (CPDG, Kukmintichaintan) in South Korea: Impacts and Limitations

초록

In South Korea, service design is spreading in solving social problems and establishing citizen-led policies as an effective means for engaging the public (the consumers) in a policy-making process. This chapter reflects on the ways in which service design is being used by government in South Korea through “Citizen Participatory Design Group (CPDG)” project promoted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) in collaboration with the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIPD) since 2014. The purpose of this study is to examine the use of service design in the public service sector, focusing on projects under the CPDG. This study analyzes the maturity of service design for the public policy and service sectors using a time series analysis on CPDG cases. The analysis revealed the current status of CPDG’s application of service design thinking, method/tools, and their derived outcomes according to themes of user-centeredness, co-creation, holistic view, and solution materialization. Furthermore, this study suggests the value and challenges of the CPDG as a human-centered and participatory policy establishment model based on service design. © The Author(s) 2025.

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