농촌정주생활여건의 지역간 실태비교와 개선방향

Abstract

이 연구는 국토균형발전을 위한 중요한 과제로 부각되고 있는 도(都) 농(農)격차해소를 위해 도농간 정주생활 여건 격차에 대한 실태를 파악하고 정책적 대응 방향을 모색하여 제시하고자 수행되었다. 이를 위하여 이 연구에서는 지속적인 인구 감소로 인한 농촌인구의 과소화와 고령화, 질적 측면에서의 생활환경의 악화 등 도-농 간(都農間) 격차와 농촌지역 상호 간의 격차에 대한 실태를 분석하였으며, 이러한 도농간 격차, 농-농 간(農農間) 격차에 대한 실태분석을 바탕으로 하여 지역 간 격차와 정주생활 여건간의 상관성을 구명(究明)하여 정책적 과제를 도출하고, 농촌 지역 주민의 삶의 질 향상을 위한 생활환경 개선과 농촌에의 인구정착 유도를 위한 정책적 대응 방향을 모색하여 제시하고 있다. (이하 본문 참조)

This study aims to analyze the urban-rural and inter-rural differences in settlement environments, to analyze the correlation between regional differences and settlement environments, and then to derive policy implications to improve rural settlement environments. Eventually, the study intends to suggest the policy directions for the enhancement of settlement conditions in order to improve rural resident's welfare and to promote more settlements in rural areas. The major findings of the study are as follows: Korea's territorial and regional development policies have been executed based on the top-down method so far, but it is changing toward the bottom-up approach. Nevertheless, the slow growth of rural regions and the industrialization-centric national economic growth, which was pursued based on top-down development policy, have created differences in living standards between urban and rural regions, the increasing rural exodus, and the underdevelopment of rural regions. In this context, the differences in development degree between urban and rural regions as well as between rural regions have been more significant due to the population concentration in urban regions. The widening gap between urban and rural regions are exacerbated by poor settlement conditions in rural areas as well. The basic settlement conditions include housing, transportation, telecommunication facilities, water supply and drainage, informatization level, medical service·welfare, education, culture·tourism, and accessibility·linkage to metropolitan areas. Among them, the school-education condition means the admission rate to middle·high school and universities. The practical education condition means whether there is a library. The welfare condition means the status of pension provision. The cultural condition means whether there are literary center and other cultural organizations, and finally the medical condition means whether there are hospitals and doctors in the region. Among the rural regions, those whose development level is relatively high are found to have low admission rate to higher education institutions and have an insufficient number of library facilities and insufficient life-long education. The rural areas, whose development is somewhat stagnant due to the fucus on the agriculture, are found to have poor welfare condition, such as low pension receipt rate, and they have poor medical conditions as well. Lastly, the rural areas, which suffer from underpopulation, have comprehensive problems in various fields such as school/education, welfare, cultural and medical conditions. Based on the findings above, the following suggestions can be made: First, the qualitative enhancement is more important than physical infrastructure expansion in order to improve rural settlement conditions. Second, the improvement of housing quality, water supply and drainage, and medical care·welfare should be conducted in the way that fulfills the basic needs of rural people. Third, it is urgent to expand the informatization and the provision of medical and welfare services for the elderly, because informatization and the aging of a society are progressing at a fast speed. Fourth, rural people strongly need the improvement of education environments and cultural and residential conditions. Thus, the central government should take it as a priority to implement the policy to improve educational, cultural and residential conditions for rural people. Fifth, in carrying out policies of improving rural settlement environments, the government should take into account the differences in settlement environments among rural villages, and especially the elderly in the stagnant rural villages. Lastly, it is important to inform the rural people of policy details when establishing rural development policies. And the policy direction should be reoriented to enhance the participation of regional governments and residents and to stress that they can take the leading roles. And it is necessary to establish policies by coordinating all factors involved in the consistent, well-organised and comprehensive manner, instead of taking a separate and disperse approach. Researchers: Chang-Hyun Kim, Jong-Taek Park, Researchers: Sung-Su Lee and In-Keon Park E-mail address: chyunkim@krihs.re.kr