Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T06:51:08.015Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adaptation under Scrutiny: Peering Through the Lens of Community Governance in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2016

JUDE HOWELL
JUDE HOWELL*
Affiliation:
Department of International Development, London School of Economics, Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines processes of adaptive governance and authoritarian resilience through the lens of community governance, bringing together hitherto unrelated fields of study. It argues first that adaptation has unintended consequences that can threaten stability but do not necessarily cause regime crisis. Second, it contends that the structural fault-lines of institutionalised categorical inequality, marketisation, and professionalization, along with the pathologies of Leninist authoritarianism, undermine adaptive community governance. The paper draws on qualitative research in two neighbourhoods of Shanghai.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , July 2016 , pp. 487 - 506
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bray, D. (2005), Social Space and Urban Governance in China, California: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, B., Cooper, T. and Sun, R. (2009), ‘Spontaneous or Constructed? Neighbourhood Governance Reforms in Los Angeles and Shanghai’, Working Paper, Centre for Non-Profit Strategy and Management, May.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
China Statistics Yearbook , (2013), Beijing: China Statistics Press.Google Scholar
Feuchtwang, S. (2014), ‘Urban Development, Traditions and Modern Lifestyles’, Urbachina Working Paper5, London: LSE.Google Scholar
Forrest, R. and Yip, N.M., (2007), ‘Neighbourhood and Neighbouring in Contemporary Guangzhou’, Journal of Contemporary China, 16:50, pp 47–64 Google Scholar
Florini, A., Lai, H.R. and Tan, Y.L. (2012), China Experiments. From Local Innovations to National Reform, Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, E. and Lee, C.K. (2010), ‘Remaking the World of Chinese Labour: A 30-Year Retrospective’, The British Journal of Industrial Relations, 48: 3, September, pp 507–533 Google Scholar
Gui, Y., Cheng, J.Y.S. and Ma, W.H. (2006), ‘Cultivation of Grassroots Democracy. A Study of Direct Elections of Residents’ Committees in Shanghai’, China Information, vol XX (1), 7–31 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, B.G. and Thogersen, S. (2010), ‘Giving the people a voice? Experiments with consultative authoritarian institutions in China’, Journal of Contemporary China, issue 66, volume 19, pp 675–692.Google Scholar
Heberer, T. and Goebel, G. (2011), The Politics of Community Building in Urban China, Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Heberer, T. (2009), ‘Evolvement of Citizenship in Urban China or Authoritarian Communitarianism? Neighbourhood development, community participation and autonomy’, Journal of Contemporary China, 18 (61), September, pp 491–515.Google Scholar
Heilmann, S. and Perry, E.J. (2011), ‘Embracing Uncertainty: Guerrilla Policy Style and Adaptive Governance in China’ in Heilmann, S. and Perry, E.J. (eds) (2011) Mao's Invisible Hand. The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China, Cambridge, Massachussetts: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heilmann, S. (2009), ‘From Local experiments in national policy: the origins of China's distinctive policy process’, chapter 25, pp 183–211 in Kipnis, A., Tomba, L. and Unger, J. (eds.), Contemporary Chinese Society and Politics, Routledge, Abingdon Google Scholar
Hutchings, A. and Taylor, I. (2007), ‘Defining the profession? Exploring the international definition of social work in the China context’, International Journal of Social Welfare, volume 17, pp 18–21.Google Scholar
Li, Y.M. (2008), ‘Community Governance: the micro-basis of civil society’, Social Sciences in China, volume XXIX, number 1, February, pp 132–141 Google Scholar
Liu, C.R. (2011), ‘Contested Ground’, pp 63–80 in Zang, X.W. (2011), Understanding Chinese Society, Abingdon, Routledge.Google Scholar
Lu, H.L. and Li, J. (2008), ‘Comparison of residents’ committees in two Chinese cities: Shanghai and Shenyang’, Social Sciences in China, volume XXIX, number 1, February, pp 181–192 Google Scholar
Mason, J. (2002), Qualitative Researching, Sage, London.Google Scholar
Merle, A. (2014), ‘Propietaires de Pekin, unissez-vous! La construction d'une mobilization collective‘, Perspectives Chinoises, 2, pp 7–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nathan, A. J. (2003), ‘Authoritarian Resilience’, Journal of Democracy, 14, number 1, pp 6–17.Google Scholar
O'Brien, K. J. (2009), ‘China Since Tiananmen. Rural Protest’, Journal of Democracy, volume 20, number 3, July, pp 25–28 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pan, T.S. (2007), Neighbourhood Shanghai, Shanghai: Fudan University Publishing House.Google Scholar
Perry, E.J. (2009), ‘A New Rights Consciousness?’, Journal of Democracy volume 20, number 3, pp 17–20 Google Scholar
Read, B. (2000), ‘Revitalising the State's “Nerve Tips”, The China Quarterly, no. 163, September, pp 806–820Google Scholar
Read, B. (2012), Roots of the State: Neighbourhood organisation and social networks in Beijing and Taipei, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Shambaugh, D. (2008), China's Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation, Washington, D.C., Woodrow Wilson Centre Press.Google Scholar
Su, Y. and He, X. (2010), ‘Street as Courtroom. State Accommodation of Labour Protest in South China, Law and Society Review, volume 44, number 1, pp 157–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, N. R. (2014), ‘Living on the Edged: Household Registration Reform and the Peri-Urban Precarity in China’, Journal of Urban Affairs, volume 36, number S1, pp 369–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, C. (2007), Democracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Google Scholar
Tomba, L. (2014), The Government Next Door. Neighbourhood Politics in Urban China, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, S.G. (2009), ‘Adapting by Learning. The Evolution of China's Rural Health Care Financing’, Modern China, volume 35, Number 4, July, pp 370–404.Google Scholar
Wang, X.Z. and Feng, T. (2004),‘Urban Residents’ Willingness to Participate in Community Affairs’, Zhejiang Social Sciences, 4, pp 99–105.Google Scholar
Wu, Z.H., Zhai, G.P. and Wang, D. (2008), Dushi Shequ Zhili: Yi Shanghai Weili (Community Governance in Metropolitan Area: the Case of Shanghai), Shangai: Fudan University Press.Google Scholar
Xu, F. (2008), ‘Gated Communities and Migrant Enclaves: the conundrum for building ‘harmonious community/shequ’’, Journal of Contemporary China, 17 (57), November, pp 633–651.Google Scholar
Yan, M.C. and Gao, J.G. (2005), ‘Social engineering of community building: Examination of policy process and characteristics of community construction in China’, Community Development Journal, volume 42, number 2, April, pp 222–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, H. (2008a), ‘Urban Community Reader’ (chengshi shequ duben), Shanghai: Luwan Community Research Office, Shanghai.Google Scholar
Yu, H, (2008b), Shanghai Community Development Research Report (Shanghai shequ fazhan yanjiu baogao), Chongqing: Chongqing Publishing Group.Google Scholar