Community Services and Social Involvement in COVID-19 Governance: Evidence from China

Jianwen Ding, Jia Xu (), Thomas Weise and Huan Wang
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Jianwen Ding: School of Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
Jia Xu: School of History, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241002, China
Thomas Weise: Institute of Applied Optimization, School of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, Hefei University, Hefei 230601, China
Huan Wang: Sino German Talent Exchange Center, Hefei University, Hefei 230601, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 22, 1-21

Abstract: This study explores how the services provided by different types of Chinese communities varied in their impact on the social involvement of residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. The literature revealed problems caused by travel restrictions, including using oversimplified measures for grassroots governance, which might result in decreased residents’ social involvement during COVID-19. We argue that the services provided by “smart communities” in China not only adhered to the COVID-19 pandemic governance, but also promoted the social involvement of residents. Using a case study approach of the smart community Fang Xing and the traditional community Qili Tang, both of which are located in China, this article compared the traditional and smart community services based on 122 interviews with residents and frontline community staff members. The findings suggest that while the traditional community decreased the residents’ social involvement by restricting certain services during the pandemic, the smart community was able to apply COVID-19 governance measures, considerably increasing the residents’ social involvement. It offered an attractive option for residents to act as community service managers, and it prepared them for local-level pandemic governance. This study provides an understanding of the relationship between the community services and the residents’ social involvement in terms of the community services. The smart community model can act as a reference for international community development during pandemic governance.

Keywords: community service; COVID-19 governance; social involvement; smart community; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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