Neighbourhood Committees Research Articles

Social reproduction with socialist characteristics in Shanghai: destitute and disadvantaged women (pinkun funü) and their affective lives in the Workers’ New Villages during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Since the 1970s, Marxist feminists have extensively discussed social reproduction to argue that women’s unwaged domestic labour is a form of exploitation deriving from capitalism. This article focuses on the socialist socio-historical context to explore the social reproduction performed by lower working-class women in Shanghai during the COVID-19 outbreaks. To probe the pandemic interruptions to social reproduction, a COVID-19 Diary-Writing Workshop was conducted in 2020 to collect diaries written by destitute and disadvantaged women (pinkun funü) living in the Workers’ New Villages. By delving into the women’s affective lives, the article shows that women not only contributed to community through their volunteerism in social reproductive labour but also sacrificed for their families in a time of crisis. Moreover, women endured mental stress as the main performers of social reproductive work, and communal services provided by neighbourhood committees helped relieve the stress of household chores and resolved tensions related to food shortage. Our findings confirm scholars’ longstanding argument that communal support policies can alleviate the gendered exploitative nature of social reproductive labour, and shed light on the roles of the remaining structures of socialist communal organization and infrastructure.

Legal regulation of administrative assistance by neighbourhood committees in public health emergencies

Legal regulation of administrative assistance by neighbourhood committees in public health emergencies

How to develop a Caring and Compassionate Neighbourhood?

Background: The concept of Caring Neighbourhoods is both in Flanders and worldwide widely known. However, how to integrate the topics of serious illness, death and loss into a Caring Neighbourhood via a co-creative process with citizens and partners remain largely unknown.
 Aim: In this workshop, we will present the case of Compassionate Sint-Kruis and inspirational examples of neighbourhood actions around serious illness, death and loss. Additionally, this workshop aims to familiarise people with drafting a Theory of Change model to understand how actions can lead to certain results and outcomes.
 Participants: This workshop is for everyone interested in developing a Compassionate or Caring Neighbourhood or being an active part of it. Both people with experience in neighbourhood work around serious illness, death and loss and people without experience in the subject are welcome.
 Methods:
 1)Presenting the case of Compassionate Sint-Kruis and inspirational examples for involving the neighbourhood (e.g. Soup with chats, Nodes City Festival, involving neighbourhood committees) (25 min).
 2)Divide the participants into groups of five (2 min.)
 3)An introduction to the exercise and presenting the fictional case of Neighbourhood Welcome (3 min). ‘Neighbourhood Welcome’ is located in a semi-urbanised village with approximately 2.000 inhabitants. The neighbourhood is characterised by some challenges, e.g. a large group of older people who live alone and feel disconnected from the neighbourhood, and a large group of informal caregivers. Additionally, the neighbourhood is also characterised by some important assets e.g. residential care centres that are looking for active ways to involve the neighbourhoods and active neighbourhood committees.
 4)Doing the first part of the Theory of Change exercise (15 min). This entails that each group formulates five results/outputs they want to realise with ‘Neighbourhood Welcome’ (based on the neighbourhood challenges and assets).
 5)Plenary feedback where each group can share their chosen outputs (10 min). The two workshop leaders will write all the outputs on a whiteboard and provide some feedback per group.
 6)Doing the second part of the Theory of Change exercise (15 min). Participants are asked to formulate actions, and inputs that are in line with the chosen outputs.
 7)Plenary feedback where people can share their chosen actions and inputs (10 min). The two workshop leaders will write all the actions and inputs on a whiteboard and provide feedback.
 8)A closing moment where the workshop leaders will discuss the final Theory of Change and where people can share their experiences with the exercise (10 min).
 End goal: People will go home having had an example of what a Caring and Compassionate Neighbourhood can look like. They will have achieved the skill of drawing up a Theory of Change model that includes possible outputs and actions for integrating compassionate topics into a Caring Neighbourhood. After the workshop, an electronic version of the Theory of Change model will be distributed to all participants.

Neighbourhood civic engagement around serious illness, death, and loss: results of the development of initiatives in two neighbourhoods in Flanders

Introduction/background: Worldwide, civic engagement initiatives concerning serious illness, caregiving, and bereavement are gaining momentum, as a result of the increasing interest in communities addressing challenges around these topics. In Flanders too, a diverse range of civic engagement initiatives are being developed, among which two research-initiated neighbourhood initiatives in municipalities in Herzele and Sint-Kruis (Flanders, Belgium). Most of the existing civic engagement initiatives around serious illness, death and loss have not been evaluated thoroughly, though this would generate important knowledge about community development on these topics. 
 Aim: To offer insights into the facilitators and barriers in the development process of neighbourhood civic engagement initiatives in two municipalities in Flanders (Belgium), e.g., the municipality context of development, stakeholder engagement, complexity and compatibility of developed initiatives.
 Methods: To study the development process of the initiatives, we performed observations (n=159) of all meetings between stakeholders, interviews and focus groups (n=72) with the different stakeholders, and a document analysis of all the relevant written materials (n=32). The results were iteratively analysed using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).
 Results: The studied civic engagement initiatives were both initiated by the municipality, which facilitated the co-creative process with formal and informal stakeholders in the neighbourhood. We identified a lack of leadership engagement to formulate and support clear goals for the project, as a barrier. These goals and interests should be compatible with existing municipality projects and with the interests and needs of the people in the neighbourhoods. Non-compatibility decreases stakeholder engagement since stakeholders do not wish to conduct new initiatives but want to strengthen the topics of illness, death and loss in their regular activities. A challenge is to not just include stakeholders who already have a core formal function around wellbeing, illness, death and loss, but also include stakeholders that are indirectly involved with these topics (e.g. neighbourhood police, local merchants, neighbourhood committees). Sufficient resources, especially in terms of staffing, seem to be a facilitator for starting neighbourhood civic engagement initiatives. Results suggest that having a neighbourhood worker on the ground for engaging neighbourhood stakeholders, facilitates network formation around illness, death and loss in the neighbourhoods.
 
 Conclusion: Leadership engagement, compatibility and sufficient resources are three key concepts in facilitating neighbourhood civic engagement initiatives around serious illness, death and loss. Non-compatibility between existing workflows in the municipality and the needs of stakeholders can lead to decreased stakeholder engagement. We suggest the goals of the city be adjusted to the interests and needs of the neighbourhood. Sufficient resources need to be provided to realise these goals.

Evaluation of the household solid waste mandatory sorting policy in Shanghai: A 1-year public opinion survey.

Sustainable management of household solid waste (HSW) is an essential step in realizing the development of a circular economy (CE). However, for many developing countries, HSW sorting is evolving incrementally, and focusing on the intervention role of policy and the sorting behaviour of residents can help achieve sustainable waste management. This study aims to investigate the main determinants of residents' HSW sorting behaviour and how policy particularly contributes to it. Drawing upon the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and incorporating experiences, a conceptual framework is tested on a sample of Chinese residents in Shanghai (n = 560, from November to December 2020) using structural equation modelling analysis. The empirical results show that experience and behavioural intention greatly influence HSW sorting behaviour. Moreover, the positive attitude of residents promotes the success of HSW sorting. Subjective norms and perceived behaviour control indirectly affect behavioural intention and behaviour via attitude. The findings of this study provide policymakers with critical factors for the successful implementation of HSW sorting. We also propose policy implications to maintain and improve sorting efficiency from the perspective of residents (education, communication and publicity), neighbourhood committees (degree and efficiency of supervision) and property management companies (good infrastructure, services and processes).

Changing nature of the work units and urban governance in China: The enduring influence of public institutions

Economic reform and housing commercialisation have fundamentally changed employer and employee relations and resulted in new patterns of urban governance in China. Consequently, recent research has focused on the emergence of new residential forms, their corresponding homeowners’ associations, neighbourhood committees and shequ governance structures – shedding light on state re-emergence at the grassroots level. However, an important omission in the literature is the changing roles played by the large number of existing work units within urban governance. This paper examines the new status of urban work units and assesses the changing nature of public institutions and their impact on socio-economic relations in communities – using a 70-year-old city hospital ( shiye- danwei) as a case study. Key actor interviews and field observations reveal that these type of work units have created a framework of ‘one work unit, multiple systems’ – where mainstream employees not only enjoyed high pay, enhanced support and benefits at work, but also more opportunities to exercise influence in the neighbourhoods where they live. The case demonstrates that neighbourhoods and work units form two pillars within contemporary Chinese urban society in which shequ, resident associations and the work units all provide social and economic support and concurrently exercise social and political control.

Experiences of domestic abuse within the South Asian community

The Black Lives Matter social movement has once again raised important societal issues around structural and racial inequalities. These issues stem from our political and social structures, which are argued to be a continuance of colonial rule and which allow injustice to amplify. There are many who continue to suffer and are often overlooked, namely victims of domestic abuse within the South Asian community. The Domestic Abuse Bill (DAB) is currently going through the Parliamentary process. It is argued that the DAB is flawed due to an absence of provisions and support for minority ethnic groups, namely the South Asian community. Previous scholarly research has documented the prevalence of honour-based abuse within the South Asian community. Despite the unique nature of abuse, this is not acknowledged in the DAB. The purpose of this paper is to uncover the unique experiences of domestic abuse within the South Asian community by thematically analysing two Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs). The findings will be discussed using aspects of ultra-realism, namely special liberty, and benign neglect. These findings will form the basis of reasoning behind amendment suggestions for the DAB. Following the thematic analysis of the two DHRs and critical literature review, three recommendations were formed: 1) Removal of ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’, thus providing funding to all, despite immigration status; 2) Provide education to police officers and GPs regarding domestic abuse and how it often differs depending on culture, namely the South Asian community; and 3) Implement neighbourhood committees across Britain that have a working relationship with the police to identify cases of domestic abuse within this South Asian demographic.

Neighbourhood permeability and burglary: a case study of a city in China

ABSTRACT Much research from different fields has explored the crime-space relationship for different crime types with various study units. However, empirical studies in the diverse urban environments get conflict results that support the two contrary planning paradigms, ‘open’ and ‘closed’ solutions. Through a case study in one prosperous city in China, this research tries to detect the relationship between neighbourhood permeability and the burglary distribution pattern with the study unit of neighbourhood committees. This study focuses on three types of permeability, namely socio-economic, physical, and spatial ones. Our findings show that neighbourhoods with generally lower physical or spatial permeability allowing fewer people to enter or pass by are associate with burglary clustering. Socio-economic barriers offer a positive impact on burglary prevention. Nevertheless, the relationship between permeability and crime distribution is not geographically uniform over the whole city. A suggestion for future research is outlined in the conclusion.

Decentralisation and urban primary health services: a case study of Delhi’s Mohalla Clinics

The Indian political party Aam Aadmi, which assumed power in the city-state of Delhi in 2015, introduced Mohalla Clinics (i.e. neighbourhood clinics) to provide free primary health services for all, as a response to the rising inaccessibility of primary healthcare facilities for the urban poor. These clinics were to be governed through Mohalla Sabhas (i.e. neighbourhood committees), which are instruments of participatory governance within the neighbourhood. The research compares promises and practice for Mohalla Clinics, especially focusing on governance and the politics surrounding it. The authors find that in their current form Mohalla Clinics are limited to providing primary curative healthcare and have shown limited success, although Mohalla Clinic users do save time and expenditure on primary healthcare, and the clinics have led to a more comprehensive form of primary healthcare than in the past. However, Mohalla Clinics are governed in a top-down fashion by the Government of the National Capital Territory-Delhi, and not by urban local bodies or the envisaged neighbourhood committees. As a result, they face problems that may inhibit their functioning in the long term.

Increasing Community discourse and Action on GBV prevention in Akai Effa and Idundu, Cross River State

Gender-Based Violence is an issue of high global concern and has serious implications for every aspect of women’s lives. The aim of the study was twofold, to increase awareness and knowledge of community members on the contexts in which GBV occurs through the narrative based methodology. It also sought to generate community actions and stem the tide of gender-based violence in Akai Effa and Idundu, Cross River State. The work used a creative narrative based research methodology to explore the contexts in which GBV and inequalities occur. The study had several phases including advocacy visits, production of films, film tours, and the formation of neighbourhood committees. The film “Women of our Land” was a collage of various scenes from different authors produced by DreamBoat Theatre for Development Foundation including; Tess Onwume’s ‘The Broken Calabash’ and ‘The Reign of Wazobia’, Edisua Yta’s ‘Because I am a woman’ and ‘Wives, mothers and daughters’ TV, and radio serials, Liwhu Betiang's ‘The First Stone’, Data Phido’s ‘Rainbow City’ and Chris Nwamuo’s ‘The Substitute’. The film (an enter-educate strategy) was used as a starting point for dialogues in the communities. About three hundred community members were involved in Akai Effa and Idundu and the project ran for six months. Findings identified the following factors as manifestations of gender-based violence in the communities: Domestic violence especially wife battery, sexual abuse, harassment and rape of young girls, restriction placed on women's economic activities, loss of land, assets, and properties, forceful ejections, and young girls denied opportunities to go to school. It is recommended that an extension of project time is essential to allow for adequate behaviour change and stamp out GBV in our communities.

Transnational migrants in Shanghai: residential spatial patterns and the underlying driving forces

AbstractWith a remarkably increasing number of transnational migrants settling down in China, their residential spatial distributions in Chinese cities have drawn significant academic attention. This paper investigates recent residential spatial patterns of transnational migrants in Shanghai and the underlying driving forces behind such choices. Based on China's sixth population census and our 30 focus group interviews in 30 neighbourhood committees, this paper finds that comparing with it in the semi‐colonial period, Mao's era and the early stages of China's economic reform, transnational migrants' residential spatial patterns in recent times in Shanghai are dispersed in every corner rather than concentrated in specific areas such as the old settlement sites and foreign expert buildings. The paper explains that such residential spatial fragmentation is largely driven by the combined forces of a neoliberal approach in the unique urban political economy in China, globalisation development, individual socioeconomic and demographic concerns and cultural factors.

Linking process and effects of intersectoral action on local neighbourhoods: systemic modelling based on Actor-Network Theory.

After 25years of intersectoral practice to increase health promotion resources, there is little scientific literature linking analysis of processes to observation of effects. Applying Actor-Network Theory, this article examines how the effects of intersectoral action are produced and can be attributed to its processes. A prospective multiple case study (2013-2016) was conducted on Neighbourhood Committees (NCs) in Montreal (Canada). Three NCs were studied using four kinds of data: direct observation notes of meetings and events, documents, logbooks and interviews. Systemic modelling of local intersectoral action was used for data collection and analysis. The results show that the transformations in living environments were produced by sequences of a limited number of 'transitory outcomes' that mark the progression of intersectoral action up to its effects. The list of transitory outcomes identified make up three functions in the production of change: (i) network setup and governance; (ii) self-representing and influencing others; (iii) aligning necessary actors and resources. The production of effects follows a systemic model wherein unique configurations of transitory outcomes, adapted to the different contexts where interactions are occurring, represent the change processes that lead to the effects.

Association between socio-economic status and dental caries in elderly people in Sichuan Province, China: a cross-sectional study

ObjectivesAs a vulnerable group, the elders’ oral health gained less attention, particularly the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and dental caries. This study aimed to assess the associations and to...

The World Bank in Uzbekistan: Labour Standards Take a Back Seat

20 | International Union Rights | 24/1 FOCUS | WORLD BANK AND IMF The World Bank in Uzbekistan: Labour Standards Take a Back Seat After two decades of financing Uzbekistan’s agriculture sector, the World Bank received a complaint to its independent accountability mechanism in September 2013 filed by victims of forced and child labour in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry. The complaint filed to the Bank’s Inspection Panel alleged that one of its agriculture investments was contributing to forced and child labour1. The complainants argued that the Bank had failed to put in place adequate measures to prevent Bank funding from being used on agricultural lands on which forced and child labour is practiced. The Panel noted that ‘a plausible link does exist between the project and the alleged harms’ and identified significant issues of policy compliance2. In response, World Bank management promised to implement measures to mitigate risks of perpetuating child and forced labour in its projects. Viewing the proposed mitigation measures as adequate, the Panel did not undertake a full investigation3. The complainants strongly disagreed4. Since then, the Bank has drastically increased its funding to the Uzbek agriculture industry, claiming that it has mitigated the risks linked to its projects. But a forthcoming report from Human Rights Watch and Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights (UGF), Forced and Child Labor Linked to the World Bank Group Investments in Uzbekistan in 2015 and 2016, reveals that these measures are insufficient. The ILO recently determined from unpublished survey data that approximately two thirds of the 2.8 million people who participated in the 2015 harvest were recruited voluntarily, a ‘minority recruited involuntarily’, and the remaining were ‘to some degree reluctant’, due to poor working conditions and wages5. If many of those classed by the ILO as ‘reluctant’ workers were in fact coerced into working, up to one-third of workers (924,000 people) could be considered victims of forced labour in 2015. Human Rights Watch believes that the proportion of involuntary labour is much greater. The ILO has conceded that ‘many interviewees appeared to have been briefed in advance’.6 This corroborates our research: numerous people told Human Rights Watch and UGF that government officials or their supervisors told people to say they were picking cotton voluntarily. With few exceptions, when interviewed in a confidential setting, people told researchers that they undertook cotton work, not voluntarily, but because the government required them to, and they had been explicitly told or reasonably believed they would be punished if they refused.7 This combination of involuntariness and the menace of penalty is the very definition of forced labour under international law8. Forced, Child Labour in the 2016 Harvest Research and evidence compiled by Human Rights Watch and UGF for our forthcoming report – due to be published in May 2017 – illustrates that in 2016 (as in previous years), senior government officials ordered officials ‘to involve all employees in the cotton harvest’9. Regional and district officials implemented the central government’s orders by imposing labour mobilisation quotas on public institutions for cotton picking during the harvest, as well as planting and weeding in the spring. Officials imposed harvest quotas on institutions, which lead to financial and other penalties if not met. District and law enforcement officials monitored how many workers each institution contributed and how much cotton each institution delivered at daily cotton meetings. Officials threatened and punished heads of institutions that did not meet their quota with public humiliation, beating, disciplinary action, and dismissal. Heads of institutions, in turn, threatened employees and students with dismissal, expulsion, or disciplinary consequences to induce them to work. Heads of neighbourhood committees (mahallas) threatened residents with loss of welfare payments. Despite a significant reduction in child labour over the last five years, officials continue to force schools to send children as young as 10-11 years old to work in the cotton fields in some rural areas. In 2016, UGF and Human Rights Watch documented government-organised child labour in three regions of the country. Education workers emphasised that they were under pressure from ‘higher authorities’ to mobilise students. One education worker said that he and his colleagues had to ‘run after’ most of students. Some teachers...

Gender and the city: intergenerational spatial practices and women’s collective action in Milan

Throughout the 1970s Milan was a laboratory for social and political practices. In Milan, before other Italian cities, the 1968 students and workers movement had attempted to subvert local institutions by challenging them through protest and other forms of action. Revolutionary neighbourhood committees and anti-authoritarian schools were self-managed by activists themselves ; like in other Italian cities such as Turin, in Milan factories were the key place of this struggle consisting of strik...

Private Security in Guatemala: Pathway to Its Proliferation

It has become common to explain the proliferation of private security services as causally determined by crime rates and institutional weakness. This article on the contrary argues that other explanatory factors need to be emphasised, especially for post‐war societies: institutional trajectories and political processes. The article first presents the present situation of commercial and non‐commercial private security services in Guatemala (private security companies as well as security neighbourhood committees). Against this background it reconstructs mechanisms and critical junctures through which the Guatemalan state had sourced out policing functions to the private sector during the war and traces the reinforcement of these mechanisms in post‐war society. It argues that the proliferation of private security services is an outcome of the reinforcing of an institutional pattern of public security displacement to the private sphere. The continuity of self‐defence and vigilante organisations thereby emerges as a stronger explanatory factor of the proliferation of private security services in post‐war societies than their self‐explained authorisation through high crime rates.

De komst van de chamchas: staatsvorming en etnisch geweld in Gujarat, India

India’s Hindu-Muslim violence is rarely spontaneous, as this violence is usually fomented by politicians who aim to reap electoral benefits from the ensuing polarisation. This article aims to explain the capacity of politicians to instigate violence, by relating Gujarat’s 2002 violence to the way Gujarat’s state has developed over the last 200 years. As new state institutions developed their capacity to deliver various public services, older public institutions like the guilds (the mahajans) and the neighbourhood committees (the pol panch) gradually lost their functions and authority. As local communities became more integrated in a broader public sphere, they gradually became politicised, since they became more dependent on political patronage channels to gain access to the budding state. This dependency facilitated violence: the need for political intermediaries generated incentives for local inhabitants to contribute to the violence, while it gave politicians the necessary local authority and local contacts to foment violence. This makes Hindu-Muslim violence a modern phenomenon: the preconditions for violence discussed in this article – democratic political competition, the dependence of citizens on political mediation, and the politicization of neighbourhood life – are all by-products of the development of modern state institutions.

Restructuring urban governance

In urban China, neighbourhoods are administratively demarcated and under the management of Neighbourhood Residents’ Committees, officially recognized as self‐governing grassroots organizations. The increase in their responsibilities and authority, introduced in the late 1990s to help alleviate the burden of welfare service provision on local government, is the focus of this neighbourhood reform under the ‘Community Construction’ policy and program. Our intent in this paper is to understand the emerging forms of self‐governance in urban neighbourhoods. A background section briefly maps the pressures on existing governing institutions, the origins of the policy and its long‐term objectives. Formulated by the central government and relayed down the administrative hierarchy to urban Neighbourhood Committees throughout the country, is by its very nature top‐down. In seeking an endogenous rather than Western perspective informed by liberal democracy concepts, the core of our paper presents the stories of three Nanjing Neighbourhood Committee Directors who were asked to talk about what neighbourhood self‐governance means to them. Their utilitarian perspectives, shaped by the realities of their daily work, remind us of the need to focus on the impacts on community life brought about through local action within the Chinese party–state structure.

Participative democracy and local environmental issues

The present paper deals with the management of environmental quality at the level of a city. More precisely, we propose two different contractualisms among citizens that allow them to reduce the polluting emissions caused by their consumption of both a private and a collective good. In the first contractualism, the mayor proposes to citizens to establish neighbourhood committees. They have the responsibility of defining the total amount of polluting emission by private and public transportation means in their neighbourhood. It comes out that the mediation of the neighbourhood committees brings out a lower total pollution than in the case where each individual citizen acts on his own interest. However the emission level brought out by the neighbourhood committees is not Pareto-optimal. On the other hand, extending the first coalitional game by a supplementary stage focused on bargaining between the neighbourhood committees, allows us to define a participative democracy procedure. This two-stage procedure brings about a Pareto-optimal pollution level.

Public Participation in the Emergency Response Phase of Flooding: A Case Study of the Red River Basin

The emergency response phase of flood management is often controversial because of the nature of the decisions that are made, such as the decision to evacuate. The limited literature on public involvement in response efforts indicates that conflict and dissatisfaction often mar emergency response due to the absence of public input. This paper examines the role that the public currently plays in emergency flood response in order to identify how public involvement might be better incorporated into this phase of flood management. The context of the study is the 1997 Red River Flood, the “flood of the century”, where some dissatisfaction and conflict characterized emergency response efforts. The evaluation is grounded in criteria defined by research participants. The methodology was qualitative and interactive and included semi-structured interviews and a review of documents. The results suggest that members of the public are the first responders to a flood threat, and play a critical role in reducing the damage by undertaking individual and group activities such as moving furniture to upper floors and participating in neighbourhood committees. Their role in provincial and state decisions, such as evacuation, is however, minimal at best. Despite the popular opinion of senior decision-makers, opportunities are identified to involve the public more in both preparation and response through vehicles as simple as a town hall meeting.