Social Governance Innovations Practices in Shanghai: An Interview with Ma Yili

Abstract

Editor’s Note On August 25, 2011, Professor Wang Ming (王名) of the Tsinghua University School of Public Policy and Management and members of his research team conducted an interview with Mr. Ma Yili, Chief of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau on the topic of social governance innovations (社会管理创新) and practices and reflections in Shanghai. The talks revealed the following characteristics of Shanghai: first, the social management system has fully integrated characteristics peculiar to the current phase of Shanghai’s economic and social development. A Social Work Committee (社会工作党委) was organized as a non-entity (非实体) implementing department responsible for conducting macro-level research and undertaking coordination in the area of social management and society building. Second, Shanghai has continually adjusted relations between government and society in practice through social organization management. In addition, while emphasizing social organization capacity building, Shanghai has protected social organizations’ independence through agreements to purchase their services and other mechanisms. Third, in order to form a positive organizational ecology and collaborative culture, Shanghai has adopted an ecological view toward social organization enhancement and emphasized incubator building and enhancement of support-type organizations. The following represents the interview content following reorganization and editing.