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Changing Governmentalities and Power Relations in Chiense Government’S ‘Community Construction’ Practices

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UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD Department of Town and Regional Planning Changing Governmentalities and Power Relations in Chiense Government’s ‘Community Construction’ Practices XIAOYUAN WAN A Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Town and Regional Planning November 2013 Summary Changing Governmentalities and Power Relations in Chiense Government’s ‘Community Construction’ Practices Xiaoyuan Wan China has been experiencing a profound and massive social transition from a rigid socialism to a more diverse and fragmented society since 1978. To strengthen the state control of the grassroots society in the increasingly fragmenting society, the central government launched a nationwide ‘community construction movement’ in the 1990s with the rationality of establishing a street-level administration system in order to better implement reformed urban policies. Urban community (she-qu) has been designated as a new government technology to implement state control. The Chinese central government’s 2006 ‘building a harmonious society’ strategy further demonstrated that ‘community’ is targeted as an important approach to develop a more ‘governing-at-a-distance’ administrative mechanism at neighbourhood level. The main objectives of this study are to explore Chinese street-level governments’ shifting governing technologies and to map the changing dynamic of power relations between the government and social actors in the grassroots Chinese society. Drawing on Foucault’s ‘governmentality’, this study looks at both the Chinese government’s changing governing discourses and daily practices and the citizens’ reactions to these technologies, or the process of ‘subjectification’. An in-depth case study of a Beijing city-centre neighbourhood is carried out and data is collected according to qualitative methods including document analysis, interview and participant observation. The findings indicate that the Chinese government is changing its governing mode to explore more soft and covert control on society. The ‘expertise’ of specialists, professional institutions and non-government organisations is in many occasions used by the government as a tool to legitimise its objectives and practices. The terms ‘public participation’ and ‘traditional morality’ are widely used in government discourses to cultivate politically active and disciplined citizens and facilitate social mobilisation. The findings also suggest that living in pervasive discourses of ‘harmony’, Chinese citizens demonstrated multifaceted and ambivalent subjectivities: while in language many citizens express apathy or aversion as resistance to the government discourses, in daily life most of them still choose to obey the conventional norms and rules to be morally integrated and politically safe persons. This study develops a new conceptual framework for understating the Chinese government’s shifting governing approaches in China’s social transition. It contributes to the knowledge of Chinese urban governance and the Chinese state-society relations by revealing the changing dynamics of power relations between the lowest level of Chinese government and the public in everyday neighbourhood lives. Meanwhile, it contributes to the theory of governmentality by opening discussions on government rationalities, technologies and the exercise of bio-power in non-western and non-liberal contexts. This study appeals to scholars who are interested in China’s changing statehood, the landscape of Chinese urban governance and the power interactions between the Chinese government and the public. I Acknowledgement I would love to express my deepest appreciation to a number of people and organisations who made various contributions to this thesis. This research was made possible by a scholarship jointly provided by the Chinese Scholarship Council and the Department for Business, Innovation& Skills of the UK Government. I give my sincerest appreciation to these organisations for funding this project. I am greatly indebted to my supervisors, Malcolm Tait and Hendrik Wagenaar, whose wisdom inspired me greatly in the formulation of this thesis. Without their patient, enlightening and constructive comments and generous support, this thesis could never have come into being. My gratitude is also to all academic staff and colleagues of the Department of Town and Regional Planning for their thoughtful advice and encouragement. Thanks are due to all my lovely friends in Sheffield who give me great encouragement, inspiration and understanding in the process of this research. Without them, my days in this foreign country would have been so dull. Special thanks are given to Mr Malcolm Lilley, Miss Elizabeth Lilley, Miss Amanda Chan and Mr Richard Dunning who provide stunningly patient and detailed language support for this thesis. My final thanks go to my parents, Mr Jainqin Wan and Mrs Lilly Li, and my fiancé Hiro Su, who have always been my strongest spiritual pillar and the breath of my life. I am grateful for their continuous love, patience and understanding to me at very moment when we are separate. Xiaoyuan Wan II List of Tables Table 2-1 The proportion of registered urban and rural residents between 1949 and 2010 . 17 Table 2-2 China’s urban welfare policies in China before and after the 1978 reform.......... 28 Table 2-3 The ambivalent function of the community administration system ..................... 40 Table 2-4 The ambivalent identity of the community administration system ...................... 40 Table 4-1 Case-centred analysis............................................................................................ 95 Table 4-2 Issue-centred analysis ........................................................................................... 97 Table 5-1 The Urban Household Approval Procedures for Migration .............................. 107 Table 5-2 Shift of capital investment in state-owned units in Shanghai (1950-1997) ....... 117 Table 5-3 the urban administration system in China .......................................................... 122 Table 5-4 RC election in Beijing, 2000-2006 ..................................................................... 126 Table 5-5 The personal information of RC directors and RC members in Beijing ............ 127 Table 7-1 Land Use Structure in Jiaodaokou area .............................................................. 157 Table 7-2 The property rights distribution in Naluogu Alley area...................................... 158 Table 7-3 the types and number of legal entities in Nanluogu Alley (2005) ..................... 159 Table 7-4 the government investment on infrastructure regeneration between 2006 and 2010 ..................................................................................................................................... 169 Table 7-5 The number and ratio of activist in Nanluogu Alley ........................................ 179 Table 7-6 The self-governing programs in Nanluogu Alley area between 2006 and 2011 186 Tale 7-7 the population age structure in Nanluogu Alley ................................................... 194 III Table 7-8 The residents’ degree of satisfaction about the neighbourhood ........................ 214 List of Figures Figure 3-1 A governmentality analytical framework to research community construction practice .................................................................................................................................. 74 Figure 5-1: The centralised urban planning guideline in <Zhouli. Kaogongji> ............... 102 Figure 5-2 The government structure of P. R. China .......................................................... 116 Figure 7-1: Location of Jiaodaokou District ........................................................................... 153 Figure 7-2: The centipede-shaped street fabric in Nanluogu Alley Area ................................... 154 Figure 7-3 The She-qus in Jiao-dao-kou Street Office’s jurisdiction ........................................ 155 Figure 7-4 guideline for façade renovation in Nanluogu Alley Conservation Plan ............ 165 Figure 7-5 The residential land replaced for other use along the main alley of Nanluogu between 2006 and 2010 ....................................................................................................... 167 Figure 7-6 A hierarchical self-governing system ................................................................ 178 Figure 7-7 Government technologies to mobilise different activists .................................. 180 Figure 7-8 Voluntary patrollers in Nanluogu Alley ............................................................ 191 Figure 7-9/10 Activities for older people organised by the Street office of Nanluogu Alley ......... 196 Figure 7-11/12 The Community Arts Co-op of Nanluogu Alley .......................................... 207 Figure 7-13/14 The Coffin and Suicide Note of the business owner .................................. 210 List of Charts Chart 2-1 Urban minimum living allowance receivers in China, 2009 ................................ 36 Chart 3-1The paradigms of state-society relation ................................................................. 57 IV Table of Contents Summary ............................................................................................................................................. I Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................................. II List of Tables,
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