Mediation and grassroots policing in China
Conflict resolution or social control
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3838694 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lingxiao Zhou (0000-0002-9122-6325, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 165-184 |
| Publication date | 2023-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | China Information (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0920-203X • E-ISSN: 1741-590X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0920203x221121716 |
| OpenAlex | W4296979061 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 20 |
This article examines the practices of mediation that have become increasingly common in contemporary grassroots governance in China. The analysis focuses on the mode of governmentality embodied in the discourse on the 'Fengqiao model', which supplies a framework for hierarchizing and managing social conflict with the goal of keeping instability at bay. Based on 10 months of ethnographical research in various political-legal organizations within a single county, I found a grassroots governance apparatus that positions a recently invented institution - the Social Governance Centre - as the core organizational locus for coordinating a broadly distributed collection of daily operations aimed at preserving social stability. Analytically, I provide ideal-typical characterizations of three distinct conflict types - ordinary, abnormal, and tricky - to describe the discretionary decision-making by which local party-state operatives perceive and react to social conflicts based on their implications for the value of social stability. Drawn from conversations in the ethnographic literature on policing, this study of street-level mediation contributes to our understanding of how social conflict is rendered policeable, and it provides a case study of the use of mediation as a mode of police work in an authoritarian context
Alternative dispute resolution · Authoritarianism · Business · Conflict resolution · Corporate governance · Democracy · Governmentality · Grassroots · Mediation · Party-directed mediation · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social conflict · Social science · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Law · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Social Psychology
Grid Governance in China's Urban Middle-class Neighbourhoods
Police Discretion and Restorative Justice in China
Harmony Ideology
Deliberating Governance in Chinese Urban Communities
The Quest for Stability
Patrolling Harmony
From the Soil
Mediating state–society disputes in China
Information capacity and social order
Chinese Policing
The Power of Instability
| Citations per year | 2.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |