At first glance, this question may seem strange: is it still necessary to ask? But it is indeed a problem. In recent years, Hubei Province has extensively carried out activities to create a beautiful environment and a happy life, proposing to take urban and rural communities as the basic units. However, there is currently a city community with a population of tens of thousands of people. Is it convenient for the masses to participate in the joint creation? It seems that the word "community" is worth exploring. By clarifying the past and present of "community" in China, perhaps we can find the answer.
Different from the natural villages in rural areas, the "community" in cities is a foreign term. Before the reform and opening up, cities implemented the "unit system", and people without units formed residents' committees. The history of residents' committees in our country is earlier than that of villagers' committees. After the reform and opening up, the "unit system" of "combining politics and enterprises" changed. Especially in the 1990s, a large number of enterprises went bankrupt and employees were laid off. Who would take over the personnel without "units"? It was in this context that cities formed community residents' committees composed of several residents' committees. The word "community", which was previously only used in academia, entered government documents and became a grassroots organization for urban management. At that time, there was a lack of clear understanding of what a community was and how to build a community. In 1998, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the country carried out a national community construction demonstration. Among the 26 community construction demonstration sites, three distinctive community construction models were formed, namely the "Shanghai model", the "Jianghan model", and the "Shenyang model" as they were called at that time. I participated in the creation of the "Jianghan model" in Wuhan and gained a preliminary understanding of urban governance.
From the rise of communities in China, it is based on solving a large number of social problems that emerged after the reform of the "unit system". It has a strong national constructiveness and is a grassroots organizational structure for urban management. It is quite different from the original meaning of community. Generally speaking, a community is a social living community composed of people living in a certain geographical area, with a certain population, common consciousness and interests among residents, and close social interactions. Communities in China have strong administrative management characteristics and can be regarded as an extension of the urban street system from top to bottom.
From the original meaning of community, residential areas in cities have more characteristics of communities. In the late 1990s, with the transformation of the "unit system" and the advancement of urbanization, China implemented residential commercialization reforms, resulting in residential areas composed of commercial buildings. Because the construction land of these residential areas is purchased, there are clear geographical boundaries; residents purchase houses in a monetary manner and have to pay property management fees, so they have common consciousness and interests; residents are active in the same geographical area and have close social interactions. However, the concept of "community" has been used for community residents' committees, and the subsequently developed residential areas have been named "residential areas", which is a unique product of China's urban development.
In China, urban construction starts with housing and then supporting facilities. Many urban residential areas have been built, but the corresponding supporting facilities are incomplete, making it difficult to form a living community with clear boundaries and a sense of belonging. Therefore, the Ministry of Construction proposed the concept of a "complete community", which refers to a living unit that provides basic services and facilities for people's daily lives.
The "complete community" proposed by the Ministry of Construction is obviously closer to the original meaning of a community, but China's communities are historical products and have become grassroots organizational structures for urban management. When people mention "community", they naturally refer to this organizational structure. In fact, a community contains several residential areas.
Since communities are established based on the needs of urban social management, they have strong administrative management functions. However, the basic management of communities has been weak for a long time. A community usually has more than 20,000 people and only 5 to 7 staff members. There are several residential areas in the community, but the residential areas do not have organizations affiliated with the community, which is very different from rural areas. Rural governance has evolved from the "three-level ownership, based on teams" structure during the people's commune period. Under the village committee established on the basis of the original production brigade, there are village groups formed by the transformation of original production teams. Villages and groups correspond to each other. Urban residential areas only have homeowners' committees and property management companies, which are formed around property and do not have a direct organizational relationship with the community. However, residents' affairs are not just property issues. Community cadres have to correspond to tens of thousands of residents, which is naturally difficult. For a period of time, cities were mainly governed by the government alone, and there was not much talk of diversified participation and two-way interactive social governance. The rapidly changing cities still have many "cracks" that the government cannot effectively govern. It is precisely in this context that communities have been equipped with a number of grid members, providing an extended organizational structure. Even so, it is difficult for the grid to cover everything, and there are many "loopholes". For example, a large number of community small businesses were originally intended to serve community residents, but they have not been incorporated into the community governance system. Recently, our team conducted an investigation in a certain place and found that more than one-third of the complaints received by the government hotline were related to small businesses. This shows that "complete communities" still need "complete governance".
From the perspective of top-down urban management, the "community grid system" can still cope, but it is obviously difficult to adapt to joint creation activities. Recently, we conducted a special investigation in a community with this question in mind. When asked about the unit to carry out joint creation, the interviewed community secretary blurted out: of course it is the residential area! Why is it the residential area instead of the "community"? The secretary answered without hesitation: joint creation is about mobilizing, organizing, and involving the masses. Only the residential area that is closest to the residents' lives and directly related to their interests can organize the masses to participate together.
The next question arises: the residential area is a living unit directly related to people's lives and interests, but it lacks a corresponding organizational system and is also difficult to become a governance unit. The presentation of this issue is similar to the inevitable requirement for changing the production relationship when the productive forces develop to a certain stage. The joint creation activities have achieved certain results, but they have also exposed the shortcomings of grassroots governance, which is the lack of a sound organizational system below the urban community. Joint creation activities are more of a top-down organizational mobilization. Without top-down organizational mobilization, the activities will be difficult to sustain. This requires deepening joint creation, improving and perfecting the governance system below the community, and institutionalizing the organizations and governance generated by joint creation.
To improve and perfect the community governance system, it is inevitable to involve the basic issue of "community". In response to the needs of urban management, communities have solidified into organizational units, while residential areas, which are closer to the original meaning of communities, are not called communities and do not form corresponding organizational and governance units. Considering the historical reasons and current situation of China's community system, it is worth considering a dual understanding of communities. On the basis of the existing organizational community, regard the residential area as a "sub-community" under the organizational community. The focus is on building the residential area into a "complete community" according to the concept of a community, strengthening the corresponding organizational and governance functions, and consolidating the foundation of community governance with "complete governance". In this regard, the community we interviewed has already made good explorations.
In China, many problems encounter obstacles in practice and need to be solved through practice. Only by frequently going to the practical field can we gain true knowledge!