Towards a constructed order of co-governance: Understanding the state-society dynamics of neighbourhood collaborative responses to COVID-19 in urban China.

The state-society relationship in neighbourhood governance has been a focal topic in the urban governance literature, though the existing scholarship was primarily drawn from non-crisis situations. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, this study investigates the intricate state-society dynamics manifested at the neighbourhood scale as state and societal actors collaborated during China's COVID-19 responses. Our study reveals a pattern of collaborative rather than confrontational dynamics between resident committees and other stakeholders during pandemic responses, which reflects the emergence of a constructed order of neighbourhood co-governance in urban China. Previous community-building reforms consolidated the political legitimacy, power and capacity of resident committees, which were empowered to play a critical coordinating role in bridging hierarchical state mobilisation and horizontal stakeholders in the collaborative pandemic responses. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of neighbourhood co-governance in the international literature and provide lessons for resilience governance from a comparative lens.

Government responsiveness and public acceptance of big-data technology in urban governance: Evidence from China during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to nations and cities worldwide. Governments have adopted Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to rapidly control the spread of a novel coronavirus. As an innovative but controversial ICT-based tool, health QR code plays a vital role by assisting rapid contact tracing. Yet, whether and how citizens accept this policy tool remains an unknown theoretical and empirical question. In this paper, we study the sources that determine citizens' acceptance of health QR code in city governance. Based on a nation-wide online survey covering 28 major provincial-capital cities in China, we find that individual experiences and political identities affect citizens' acceptance of QR code. Even though public opinion regarding this issue is diverse, the government's responses to citizens' requests play a critical role in enhancing their acceptance of using QR code both in the current and future stages. Specifically, as the citizens perceive a higher level of city government responsiveness, they are less worried about privacy leaks and more likely to perceive the effectiveness of health QR code in improving public health, thus resulting in a higher acceptance. The results offer broad policy implications for smart cities and urban governance.

Collaborative neighborhood governance and its effectiveness in community mitigation to COVID-19 pandemic: From the perspective of community workers in six Chinese cities.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a governance challenge for nations and cities across the world. While early observations have primarily focused on government actions, neighborhoods are at the frontline for coordinating grassroots level joint actions to fight against the pandemic. We draw from the collaborative governance theory and develop a theoretical framework for understanding the horizontal and hierarchical dynamics of collaborative neighborhood governance during crisis responses in urban China. Using a large-scale questionnaire survey of frontline community workers operated in six Chinese cities in February 2020, we conduct statistical analyses and find that the effectiveness of neighborhood collaboration in the pandemic control is predicted by both neighborhood social capital (i.e. civic engagement and citizen participation) and hierarchical steering by the government through setting policy priorities and providing support. Our research contributes to the international literature on neighborhood governance dynamics and provides policy lessons for improving neighborhood governance capacity in crisis response situations.

Multi-Level Governance, Policy Coordination and Subnational Responses to COVID-19: Comparing China and the US

The study adopted the multi-level governance theory for a comparative analysis of how the structure and modes of policy coordination shaped subnational policy responses to COVID-19 in Hubei Province, China, and New York State, USA. It was found that both countries showed a hybrid form of vertical and horizontal coordination in COVID-19 responses despite different political systems. Hubei depended more on vertical steering and horizontal support whereas New York took the primary coordinating role while a nationwide strategy was missing. Contingent upon each country's political legacy, effective multi-level governance in crisis responses should balance national leadership with local autonomy and societal engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Comparative Public Policy Analysis of COVID-19 as a Naturally Occurring Experiment

This collection presents an effort to draw on the COVID-19 global pandemic, as a rare "naturally occurring experiment", to advance the comparative public policy scholarship and disseminate knowledge on international policy approaches to this extreme crisis situation. From a comparative lens, these articles reveal how factors such as partisan politics, intergovernmental relationships, culture, and state capacity shape crisis policy responses in contrast to normal policymaking. This collection also provides important lesson drawing: national–local coordination, social safety nets, and a well-organized sector of community workers are all part of a society's capacity and resilience in a time of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)