Governing for and through harmonious community: The emergence of moral clinics in China

Shaoying Zhang and Derek McGhee
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Shaoying Zhang: Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, China
Derek McGhee: Keele University, UK

Urban Studies, 2021, vol. 58, issue 11, 2369-2385

Abstract: In this article, we advocate the adoption of ‘more temporal and processual characters’ to understand contemporary community governance in China. We show that communities in China are seen both as producing moral problems and as being the solutions to these problems. Furthermore, we argue that the establishment of the moral clinic provides an alternative to neoliberal ways of self-governance. In the article, we present moral clinics as a new form of community self-governance whose aim is to achieve a complex balance between various conflicts in the context of China’s unprecedented urbanisation in the name of governing for and through community harmony. Through examining the establishment of moral clinics, we expose how the relationship between the moral ‘hospitalisation’ of society and the socialisation of individuals can be understood in new ways. We argue that the institutionalisation of this ‘moral work’ is a strategy based on old techniques of Chinese traditional medicine that are being enhanced by modern organisational settings. In addition, we examine the micropolitics of the moral clinic through exposing the power relations behind its structural design, and especially its links with the state.

Keywords: agglomeration/urbanisation; Chinese traditional medicine; community; governance; local government; moral clinics; public space; é›†è š/城市化; ä¸­åŒ»è ¯; 社区; æ²»ç †; 地方政府; é “å¾·è¯Šæ‰€; 公共空间 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:11:p:2369-2385

DOI: 10.1177/0042098020940640

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