Community governance, welfare service provision and state power in changing Chinese villages

ABSTRACT

Using ethnographic data collected in two comparative cases of Qiu Village and Zhang Village, which have followed different paths of urbanization and service-planning, the study examines varied local processes and mechanisms to establish village welfare service systems and their social and political consequences in contemporary China. The village-based welfare services in urbanizing rural China offer critical cases to reflect on the power negotiation and reconfiguration in community governance in social change, and contribute to the understanding of state power in the evolving welfare planning in China.

KEYWORDS:

• Community-based welfare service
• local cadres
• rural China
• social justice
• welfare exclusion
• community welfare service provision

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong [458612].

Notes on contributors

Haijing Dai

Haijing Dai is Associate Professor of Social Work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received her PhD in social work and sociology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research interests include community organizing, rural development, grassroots organizations in contemporary China and ethnography.