Four modes of neighborhood governance: the view from Nanjing, China

In a context of global moves towards decentralization and neighborhood governance, this paper focuses on neighborhood governance in Nanjing, China. Drawing on interviews and observations in 32 neighborhoods, the paper asks how neighborhood governance is working out in different neighborhoods. Four modes of neighborhood governance are identified and described: collective consumption, service privatization, civic provision, and state-sponsored governance. The paper argues that neighborhood governance works out on the ground in diverse and complex ways, such that scholars need to be cautious when seeking to generalize about neighborhood governance (at the scale of the city, let alone the nation-state or the globe). With appropriate caution, the paper also argues that: relationships between actors are important units of analysis when considering how effective governance is achieved in different neighborhoods; diversity and complexity in neighborhood governance partly reflect the role of the state in these relationships; and the role of the state partly reflects, in turn, processes of policy evolution in particular neighborhoods