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Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Research Background and Motivation
Sitting in the path of many typhoons over the Northwest Pacific, Taiwan suffers severe damage from typhoons almost every year. From 1961 to 2003, typhoons caused 3,240 deaths and 9,499 injuries, destroyed 95,000 houses, severely damaged 175,000 houses, and caused uncountable property damages in Taiwan.
On August 25, 2004, Taiwan was hit by Typhoon Aere which caused great damage in Taoshan Village, Wufong Township, in Hsinchu County. On that night, many houses and farms were damaged. The heavy rains caused serious flooding and landslides. Flooding destroyed many bridges, and landslides cut off roads in the mountains. Some residents of Taoshan Village lost their homes and families in the typhoon.
Wufong Township is situated on the western edge of Mount Xueshan in Hsinchu County, among undulating hills and ridges. The residents, mostly members of the Atayal and Saisiat Tribes, make a living by planting temperate fruit and high-cold vegetables. It is an important agricultural area. Another important source of income for the local people is tourism. The Qingquan scenic area, located in Wufong Township, is famous for the vast forest, endless fresh springs, and bubbling brooks.
According to statistics from the Hsinchu County Government, at the time of the typhoon, it was a popular scenic area attracting 300,000 visitors per year. After typhoon Aere, traffic in the mountainous areas of Wufong Township was disrupted.
This caused a great loss because the tourism assets were put out of action or rendered inaccessible. As a result, the number of tourists decreased to only two thousand people per year.
In order to reconstruct Wufong Township and promote tourism after the typhoon,
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the Hsinchu County Government integrated resources from the central and local governments to implement a reconstruction project. The “Second Overall Review of the Qingquan Scenic Area Project”, an urban planning project, was proposed by the Hsinchu County Government in 2004, after the typhoon. A few years later, on December 12, 2008, Chang Syue-Liang's Former Residence was opened, and the number of tourists began to increase gradually. In March 2010, some tourists filed complaints about the vendors in the Qingquan Scenic Area, so the township head decided to remove these vendors. These vendors organized a committee and asked for the right of public participation.
Public participation has long been emphasized by scholars as an important aspect of planning practice and policymaking. Participation helps planners and policymakers understand the preferences and local knowledge of the public, builds support for policies, and may prevent expensive and time-consuming litigation against plans and policies (Innes & Booher, 2004). Since local residents are the main beneficiaries of the policies, they should have the right to express their opinions and participate in the policy decision.
“Participation may be characterized by an asymmetric power relationship between planners and those who decide to participate” (Arnstein, 1969). Most of the residents of Taoshan Village Wufong Township are Aborigines. In Taiwan, the Aborigines have lower social and economical positions than other Taiwanese. They are hindered from participating in the policy-making process by many factors, including incompleteness of information, weakness of mobilization, and cultural differences. Through a case study of Wufong Township from 2004 to 2010, the author of this thesis intends to identify how government policymakers have involved local residents in the policy-making process, and particularly how policymakers have provided these aborigines real opportunities to participate and have a voice in the
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processes and outcomes. Furthermore, the author hopes this study can offer some direction for planners in the public sector implementing the policy-making processes in other aboriginal areas.
1.2 Research Purposes
First, this thesis aims to understand the process of public participation of the indigenous people in Wufong Township during the Second Overall Review of the Qingquan Scenic Area Project from 2004 to 2008.
Second, the thesis, through exploring the communications between public officials of the local government and representatives of the local inhabitants, clarifies how they interacted when vendors protested against the dismantling of their businesses .
Third, by collecting data, the author gathers the local inhabitants’ opinions and evaluations of the process and outcomes of the Qingquan Scenic Area Project.
1.3 Research Procedure
First, the author will explain the motive of this research in Chapter One. That explanation is followed by a literature review of relevant works on citizen participation in urban planning in Chapter Two. In Chapter Three, the collection of data through in-depth interviews is explained. For the case study, the “Second Overall Review of the Qingquan Scenic Area Project” is introduced in Chpater Four. The author analyzes the data and presents the results of the research in Chapter Five and Chapter Six. In the final chapter, Chapter Seven, the author concludes with a summary and discussion of directions for future research. The author also expresses hopes that this research can offer some suggestions for planners and policy-makers to enable public participation in the policy-making process.
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The research flow chart is as follows:
Research Background and Purposes
Research Contents and Method
The Indigenous Right of Participation Literature Review
Citizen Participation Empirical Researches
Research Design
Case Study
Second Overall Review of the Qingquan Scenic Area Project
Documents Analysis
Data Analysis
Conclusion and Suggestion
In-Depth Interviews
Figure 1-1. Research Flow Chart Source: Author