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Community Development Journal Advance Access originally published online on October 26, 2005
Community Development Journal 2007 42(2):222-236; doi:10.1093/cdj/bsi109
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© Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal. 2005 All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Social engineering of community building: Examination of policy process and characteristics of community construction in China

Miu Chung Yan and Jian Guo Gao

Address for correspondence: Miu Chung Yan, School of Social Work and Family Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6T 1Z2. email: miu.yan{at}ubc.ca

This article briefly introduces the history and major policies of a massive community construction project launched by the People's Republic of China in the mid-1980s. Based on a literature review and field observations, the authors highlight four characteristics of this project: muddling through chaos, top-down control, regulated participation, and community as functional establishment. It is argued that the goal of the project is not to recreate, in China, a Western model of civil society, but to restructure the existing urban administrative structure so that it can adapt to new social demands. By transforming the grassroots neighbourhood organization – the residents' committee – into a welfare provider, this project is expected to ease the state's welfare burden while maintaining its political control.


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