Neighbourhood governance during the COVID-19 lockdown in Hangzhou: coproduction based on digital technologies

ABSTRACT

With the digital technologies boom, theories and practices regarding coproduction have evolved. We developed an analytical framework to reveal the theoretical relationship between digital technologies and coproduction; we then employed the case of neighbourhood governance during the COVID-19 lockdown in Hangzhou to illustrate this framework. The case study shows that the stakeholders had utilized digital technologies as an instrument in many ways to exercise coproduction, and then protected neighbourhood health and created public value. This research not only deepens the theoretical understanding of coproduction, but it also contributes a neighbourhood-level solution for the global war against the COVID-19 pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Neighbourhood governance
• COVID-19
• lockdown
• coproduction
• digital technology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In this research, stakeholders refer to the individuals or groups (e.g. residents, government agencies, social organization staff, enterprise staff) that can affect or be affected by the neighbourhood governance process.

2. Hangzhou’s digital governance platform is also called the Hangzhou City Brain, which was initiated in April 2016 to utilize real-time data resources to optimize urban governance. Government agencies can connect their dataset system to the digital governance platform and can retrieve data from other agencies when needed.

3. In the interview quotations, the interviewees from government agencies, residents, social organizations, and enterprises are represented by G, R, S, and E, respectively.

4. In this research, social organizations refer to the non-governmental organizations that undertake various public services in neighbourhoods. In recent years, local governments have outsourced the burden of some public services to social organizations, which are usually made up of professional social workers and volunteers.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [71874154].

Notes on contributors

Yonghua Zou

Yonghua Zou is a ZJU100 Young Professor at the School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. His research interests include urban governance, housing policy, and healthy cities. He received his doctoral degree in Urban Studies from Temple University, and master’s degrees from Indiana University and Tsinghua University. He can be reached via [email protected].

Wanxia Zhao

Wanxia Zhao is an Association Professor at the School of Political Science and Public Administration, East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai, China. Her research interests include public policy and sustainable development. She obtained her doctoral, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees from Indiana University, Tsinghua University, and Peking University, respectively. She can be reached via [email protected].