Neighbourhood Committees and Community Service Delivery In China
Abstract In recent years, major environmental and planning issues have served to mobilise local communities and raise political consciousness. In response, many government authorities have embarked on pursuing policies aimed at decentralising certain services in order to increase community consultation. With this in mind, the author reports on the use of neighbourhood committees for local service delivery in Chinese cities. Following a discussion of the meaning of a neighbourhood in China, the author outlines the role and organisation of a neighbourhood committee in the City of Tianjin, and then discusses its possible relevance for local government administration in Australia.
Urban employment and labour allocation policies in post-Mao China
Abstract China's leadership has faced serious urban unemployment and inefficient state labour allocation systems. Their drive to increase employment through economic ‘readjustment’ makes developmental sense and the quantitative results appear impressive, but the problem of urban labour-surplus defies solution in the short term, given population pressures, planning weaknesses, economic constraints and ideological proscriptions. Efforts to improve the allocation and utilization of labour have foundered because they contradict employment policy and are opposed by key urban groups. These issues throw into relief the complex relationships between economic and political determinants in the Chinese reform process.
Educational Themes in China's Changing Culture
One of the striking contrasts between a Communist revolution and one of the “nationalist” variety lies in the differing attitudes held by the revolutionary elites towards the traditional culture. Nationalist leaders tend to come to power with a vague commitment to restore the values of the traditional society in a modern context; yet a good deal of their energy in the early years of nation-building is expended trying to relate cherished cultural doctrines to the often incompatible demands of modernisation.