COMM-ORG Papers 2004

http://comm-org.wisc.edu/papers.htm

Comparison between American and Chinese Community Building[1]

By Xi Zhang

zhangxitz@hotmail.com

© Xi Zhang, all rights reserved


Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Comparison
          Varieties of Community
          Types of Organization
          Organization Structure
          Organization Functions
          Finance
          Role of Government and Non-Government Organization
          Strategies of Community Building
Shortcomings of Chinese Community Building
Recommendations
          Fully Recognize the Importance of Community Building
          Improve Autonomy of Community
          Encourage Developing NGOs
          Enhance Sense of Community
References
About the Author


Abstract

The paper compares community building in the U.S. with that in China. The research focuses on the community organizations, especially in relation to varieties of community, types of organization, organization structure, organization functions, finance, role of government and NGOs, strategies of community building. According to the comparison, the paper points out some shortcomings in Chinese community building and submits some recommendations. The paper suggests that based on its own advantages, Chinese community building should learn more from the U.S. Recommendations include: fully recognize the importance of community building; improve autonomy of community; encourage developing NGOs; and enhance sense of community. The paper gives much emphasis to the role of NGOs and participation of residents.


Introduction

Community organizations in the U.S have a more than 200 years history. They play an important role in American society. Especially since the 1990s, many community organizations have pursued new management routes, and their organizations and functions are becoming more and more mature.

Community organizations in China are just in the beginning phase. Residential committees existed in the city for a long time before other community organizations emerged , just as the villager committees had in the countryside. With China’s reform and openness to the world , the role of community is becoming more and more distinct. How to learn more about community building from western countries is an important issue for Chinese local governments.

This paper is planning to compare community building in the U.S with that in China, and then put forward some suggestions for Chinese community building.

Comparison

Varieties of Community

In the U.S, there are various definitions of community. Some think that “ a community is a group of people united by the common objects of their love” [2]; some think a community is a group of people working together actively to achieve a common goal.[3]. Some consensus exists concerning at least three elements in the definition of community. One, community is a social unit of which space is an integral part; community is a place, a relatively small one. Two, community indicates a  configuration as to way of life, both as to how people do things and what they want--their institutions and collective goals. A third notion is that of collective action. Persons in a community should not only be able to, but frequently do act together in the common concerns of life.[4] Sometimes, a community is just a neighborhood and the population of a community maybe very large. For example, there are 63,616 people in Rogers Park, Chicago, whose density is 34.3 thousand persons per square mile.[5] With the sprawl of cities, more and more communities are forming in the suburbs, and these communities tend to specialize according to different races,  education, culture and vocations. When Americans talk about building communities, they usually refer to the low or middle-income communities, most of which are in urban areas.

In China, there are no communities in suburbs. All of the communities are located in the urban areas. The communities are transferred from the residential committee area. Usually several residential committee area were combined into a community. The area of a community is bigger than that of the residential committees but smaller than the subdistricts (towns). The scale of a community is usually over 1000 householders, 3,000 people. Because residents in communities are often living in high-rise buildings, the areas of communities are smaller than those in the U.S., which result in their functions not being perfect. Since the communities were divided artificially by the governments, the population structure of every community is also diverse. The residents may have few common characteristics. However, the residents of different communities are also different because of the prices of houses. For example, the rich people often gather in the communities located in the center of cities or beautiful places. So, when Chinese people talk about building communities, they don’t often refer to the low-income area. In fact people who live in urban communities are usually richer than the peasants living in the countryside. With the increase of unemployment these years, however, many communities also face some problems similar to the low-income communities in the U.S..

Types of Organization

In the U.S, there may be many various management organizations in a community. Some are general neighborhood organizations like the Rogers Park Community Council in Chicago, or the Chinese American Service League in Chicago's Chinatown; some are focused on one issue, such as economic development, like the DevCorps North group, which also serves Rogers Park. Some groups are focused only on health care, or school issues; Some community organizations expand beyond their own community to become umbrella organizations for other groups interested in the same topic.  Sometimes there are non-profit groups that have an interest in a topic (schools, economic development, health care, care for seniors, environmental issues) that have the appearance of neighborhood groups but are not.   Some community organizations are membership (dues paying groups) and some are not.   Some have paid staff and many do not.    Some are just block clubs (people who live on one block, or two, or three) and some organizations cover large parts of a city with their work. These organizations exist side by side. They are au pair in one community. For example, in Rogers Park there are more than 10 organizations such as Rogers Park Community Council, DevCorpNorth , Rogers Park Builders Group, West Ridge Chamber of Commerce, Rogers Park BizArts, Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society, Family Matters, and Beyond Media.[6] All these organizations are non-government organizations (NGOs).

In China, in fact, there is only one management organization in a community , which is called a community residential committee. This kind of committee manages almost anything, just as the former residential committees. There are also youth unions and women unions in the communities, but they are in practice subject to the authority of residential committees. A community often has a clinic, which is contracted with the committee and led by the health bureau, and a police station or office, which is led by the police bureau of the district, not by the community committee. Although recently some NGOs have emerged and developed, they have not penetrated deeply into the communities, and their influence is still very limited. So, in a community, the residential committee is a sole legal organization that represents the interests of residents, at least in name.

Organization Structure

In the U.S., every community organization is set up by the free will of residents themselves. The governments have no special requirements, except imposing significant “citizen participation” requirements on communities[7] for some programs funded by the government. Every organization has it’s own constitution, and can represent common interests of the residents in one or more aspects. Usually residents take an active part in the programs of community organizations because the organizations really benefit them. For example, a community council is governed by a several member board of directors composed of individuals who live and/or work in the neighborhood and who are concerned about the future of the community. A community council board is usually made up of a president, several vice presidents, one secretary, one treasurer, and several directors. In most organizations the board plays a substantial part in the beginning or end of any corporate activity, and the board appoints or removes corporate agents, executives and officers. Organization actions, as determined by the board, will be carried out by officers, employees and agents—persons chosen, directly or indirectly, by the board of directors. Any organization director relates to three parties or interests: the constituency which elects or appoints him or her; the constituency of service--that is, the something or somebody the corporation must serve; and the constituency of accountability--the parties who may question the acts or missions of the board or the individual director.[8] In the Rogers Park Community Council, there is an executive director, an associate director and directors of individual projects or programs such as the Housing Action Program, Victim Advocacy Support Program, Senior Intervention Program, Youth Program, and Community Awareness & Pride Program.[9] The tenure of a community council board member is several years, which is decided by the constitution of every community council. In some communities, every year someone is named as Citizen of the Year, and several community-intervention partners are recognized.

In China, the community residential committee is usually organized according to the Law of Residential Committee Organization of people’s Republic of China (LRCO), whose tenure is 3 years. The members of the committee must be living in the community and they are elected by the residents. Usually the director of the committee and a secretary are full time staff members, others come together only when there are some important things to be decided.  There are not long-term program directors because every action is organized by the director of the committee. The policy making level and executive level are usually not separated. And this is an important difference between American community organizations and Chinese residential communities. In addition, because the residential committees usually act as adjuncts of governments, the degree of resident participation is not very high. According to an investigation, in Shanghai 17.2% of residents think community participation is very necessary and are willing to participate, and only 3.4% of residents participate in a practical way by volunteering in the community. 56% of residents express they are willing to participate in a community activity if there is a good social organization method, and the service activity is necessary. 6.1% of residents show very little interest in community participation. [10]

Organization Functions

In the U.S, the functions of community organizations are extensive, relating to economic, politics, culture, education, health, safety, housing, etc. As mentioned above, the functions or responsibilities of different organization are different. For example, the Chinese American Service League (CASL) serves over 14,000 clients annually through an array of educational and social services that ensure economic opportunities, ease culture transitions, and enhance the physical and mental health of individuals and families of all ages and backgrounds. CASL’s four departments provide service delivery that supports the whole family: Child Education and Development Service, Elderly Services, Employment and Training Services, and Family and Community Services.[11] There are 5 basic programs in the Rogers Park Community Council , and each of them has specific functions. The Housing Action Program is to identify problem buildings, meet with owners to develop improvement plans, work with neighbors on housing problems, and attend Housing Court Proceedings. The Victim Advocacy Support Program is to assist crime victims through court proceedings and provide employment counseling programs to survivors of domestic violence. The Senior Intervention Program is to assist seniors to access programs that will help them live independently; provide computer training and access to increase employment ability skills, and repair homes of seniors in order that they may remain in the community. Youth Programs provide afterschool programs for youth; provide counseling services for parents and youth with criminal problems; and organize leadership development programs with teens. The Community Awareness & Pride Program organizes community meetings on important issues; prepares and distributes the neighborhood newspaper, Rogers Park 2000; and supports local projects and initiatives such as Daycare Network. Also in this community, DevCorpNorth focuses on business, community and economic development in Rogers Park. Its mission is to improve the business and economic climate of Rogers Park through economic development and community development. The Rogers Park Builders Group's mission is to encourage and support responsible residential and commercial property investment, development, and ownership in the Rogers Park community. The West Ridge Chamber of Commerce is a nonprofit organization for business people who seek through their united efforts to attract shoppers and increase business, improve the physical appearance of the area, improve the safety of business owners and shoppers, and attract retail businesses. The Mission of Misericordia/Heart of Mercy is to support individuals with developmental disabilities in maximizing their level of independence and self-determination within an environment that fosters spirituality, dignity, respect and enhancement of quality of life.[12]

In China, in terms of the Law of Residential Committee of Republic of China, the basic functions of community committees are as follows: (1) spread constitution, laws, national policies; support the legal rights of the residents; educate the resident to implement the duties according to laws; take good care of public property; and open the activities of spiritual civilization development; (2) carry out public-spirited business; (3) mediate folks dispute; (4) assist to maintain social public safety; (5) assist governments in managing public hygiene, senior and disable people care, and teenager education ,etc ; and (6) report the suggestions of the residents to the governments.[13] In order to implement these functions the community committees have to take some administrative methods, sometimes also organize some activities, such as competitions, volunteer actions, skill training and something else. The directors undertake most tasks of them.

Finance

In the U.S, a community organization is often supported through its membership, including fundraisers and donations. There are also many foundations in the United States and community organizations can apply to them  if the purposes of their programs are in accordance with the tenets of the foundations. Most of the revenues are directed to community initiatives and program costs, some revenues are directed to administrative expenses. For example, during the fiscal Year 2003, the sources of Rogers Park Community Council income were: 65% from City of Chicago, 9% from State of Illinois, 10% from local fundraising (membership, fundraiser, contributions, newspaper ), 13% from foundations & corporations, 1% from interest income, 1% from special project income, 1% from miscellaneous income. On the other hand, the program expenses were: Victim Advocacy 29%, YouthNet & Intervention 25%, Community Awareness 18%, Housing Action 13%, and Administration 15%.[14] A community organization that applies for a community grant must submit certain required documents. This requirement is very strict.  The giving grant decisions are not arbitrary, but based on the situation of the community organizations. For example, every year the City of Chicago distributes a book of “Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Year XXXI: Program Descriptions and Selection Criteria”. Applications must be in accordance with the criteria. As for the Program of City wide Resource Centers (CRC) in 2005, applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria: "Evidence of an established program with comprehensive, up-to-date training materials and competent trainers; Ability to demonstrate how services prevent tenant landlord problems from escalating to eviction or other action; Capacity to implement program within one-year funding cycle; Capacity to provide training in low-and moderate-income community areas; Ability to identify specific groups to be trained; Capacity to track and report program activities in a timely manner; Evidence of sound financial management; Competent board of directors and staff; Satisfactory performance on existing delegate agency contracts; Ability to serve non-English-speaking persons (where applicable)" ,etc.[15]

In China, a community committee is supported from miscellaneous income (house rent fee, management fee and rubbish carrying fee), donations, and a few grants from governments. Most of the residents possess their own apartments or houses. The residents who rent the houses or apartments pay money to the private owners. But there are also a few public houses that were built for purposes of committee offices, farm market , clinic or recreation. The committees make contract with the operators, who rent the houses. The revenue is different in different communities. If there are relatively many empty public houses in one community, the rent fee will probably be an important source of income. Usually the management fee and rubbish carry fee are the main source. Although the communities must finish much work assigned by the governments, the government grants are too limited. The government grants are usually given directly to the families that need to be supported. Donations depend much on the ability of the director of the community committee or fortune. For example, if there is a big entrepreneur in a community, he will donate a large amount of money to the community. Because the revenue is so limited, the community committees can’t do many things for the communities. Most of the revenue is directed to carrying rubbish, safeguard and salary.

Role of Government and Non-Government Organizations

Obviously, in the U.S, community organizations are non-government organizations (NGOs), most of which are non-profit organizations. Except as they may receive some grants from the governments, they have almost no direct relationship with the governments, and never get tasks from the governments. On the other hand, some community organizations just have contracts with governments and get grants and don’t attempt to obtain much direct community input to their programs or projects. The governments don’t intervene directly in any affairs of community organizations. NGOs can undertake any affairs of community. In other words, communities are relatively independent from governments, and the role of NGOs is very large. According to statistics, nowadays about 8 million people engage in community services in the U.S, which is 10% of the total of employees; 90 million person hours are volunteered for community services per year. The revenues of community organizations in one year are 500 billion dollars, 70% of which is grants from governments and 30% of which is received from service and donations.[16] NGOs also create many employment opportunities, thus alleviating employment pressure for governments. The purpose of some organizations are just to serve as support for other community organizations. People in these organizations are active in service for the staff of community organizations. The relationship of service among the different community organizations forms a huge network. For example, some people act as trainers of community staff. Some people act as brokers who help the organizations to get donations. On the other hand, these various services can also ease social conflicts and problems, and play a balancing role. In some communities the parent organizations may also set up a loosely united body –a subcommittee or a “task force” to deal with a common issue. In the northeast section of the Rogers Park community area, for example, leaders of 11 organizations set up a forum addressing the unmet housing, safety and educational needs of the residents. [17] It is worth mentioning that in the U.S, the whole society is paying attention to building communities. Many enterprises and organizations donate and take part in research on building communities. At least 50 community-building initiatives have sprung up in American cities in the last 10 years. They’re funded less by government than by national foundations, community funders and, in some cities, enlightened business leaders. For example, in mid-1995, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly funded a project to broaden understanding of community building and its implications.[18]These actions have greatly prompted “community building” to move forward.

There are fewer non-government organizations in Chinese communities. The community residential committees still follow the way of old residential committee. There is a vertical ‘district --subdistrict--residents committee’ hierarchy administration system in local urban governance, and the main function of a community committee is to carry out government tasks .The subdistrict is the representative organization to district government, and the residents committee is the practical representative organization to the subdistrict. Based on the survey in Shanghai, according to its practical operation, 38.4% of the citizens perceive the residents committee as “government”, 34.9% citizens perceives the residents committee’s function as “managing residents with empowerment of government”, and only 13.3% citizens agree that the residents committee serves as an “autonomic local organization”. Meanwhile, 50.7% residents “do not know the names of residents committee staffs”, 27.5% citizens “just know the name of residents committee staffs but have no contact with them”, and only 7.7% citizens express they are “very familiar with residents committee staffs”. It is a typical  ‘command—obedience’ pattern. [19] However, there may be a few other NGOs in communities. The problem is that most NGOs are highly dependent on government support, and sometime still are imbedded within the government administrative system. In addition, youth committees and women committees are very consanguineous to the governments. The management of communities is still half-official.

Strategies of Community Building

As mentioned before, in the U.S the community building movement has been developing since the 1990s, and these practices have created many new thoughts and strategies. Among these achievements, a report from the Rockefeller Foundation “ Stories of Renewal: Community building and the Future of Urban America ” written by Joan Walsh,  is the most influential. It summarizes that there are five effective strategies in building American communities: (1) Engaging Government System. None of the initiatives has changed the way government spends its funds. Success to date has meant engaging political leadership, but more help is needed in the form of block grants and devolution. At its heart, community building is a delicate political undertaking, an attempt to orchestrate a powerful constituency for social change in neighborhoods that political and economic forces have marginalized. None of the initiatives has changed the way government spends its funds. (2) Building Local Institutions. Successful initiatives take stock of the individual and institutional resources in a community, create a vision of supports that a healthy community requires, and invest in a "civic infrastructure" needed to ensure progress even after the initiative ends. It even may be better to build a new organization from the ground up. (3) Investing in Outreach and Organizing. With the partner organization sometimes pushing Community Building in Partnership's (CBP) agenda rather than letting residents set their own. Outreach is important but engaging residents is hard to do without having an "adversary" to rally the community around. One approach has been "consensus organizing," which looks for common ground and focuses on relationship building. (4) Involving the Corporate Sector. The synergy between corporate partners and community-based leaders has proven critical at some juncture in every city. However, The private sector can help "make the case for public jobs creation" and "ensure that new employment projects aren’t simply make-work jobs." (5) Developing New Structures. Developing a structure that could include elites and grassroots, bureaucrats and clients, non-profits and funders is useful. The community builders’ emphasis on fostering relationships and social networks in poor neighborhoods is beginning to pay off. It is worth emphasizing that all the strategies need the common sense of community. One of the successful outcomes of American community building is to enhance the sense of community. The governments have no special requirement, but impose significant “citizen participation” requirements on communities. The Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 requires, among other things, “ The applicant shall make reasonable efforts to insure continuity of involvement. Citizens shall be provided adequate and timely information…Citizens, particularly low and moderate income persons and residents of blighted neighborhoods, shall be encouraged to submit their views and proposals.” [20] Some cities seem to be working toward making their programs more "community sensitive." These programs include public works, policing, and some other service programs, as well as traditional community development activities. This sometimes means decentralizing operating responsibilities within agencies and it almost always means giving community residents more of a voice in program planning and priority setting and finding ways to employ community residents directly in city-sponsored improvement and service initiatives.[21] Most efforts have centered on four kinds of common needs: the need for mutual security and safety ,the need for reciprocity or to know what is expected of neighbors and institutions, the need for fellowship or the feeling of belong to the community, and the need for a common standard of justice against which to measure behavior and ideas. [22]They even use principles of the Preamble to the Constitution as a civic framework for building community on the blocks and in the neighborhoods, e.g., setting up “social contract projects” to tie national spirit with community sense.[23]

In China, since community building is still a new issue, the experience is very little. However, since 1999 the Civil Administration Ministry of the People’s Republic of China decided to conduct community building experiments in 26 downtowns in 19 provinces, and these areas have also achieved such as: (1) Establish new community autonomic organizations. Some cities emphasize that the policy-making level and executive level must be separated. (2) Identify the contexts of community building. They have agreed that the basic tasks are community organization, community service, community sanitation, community culture, community environment and community safety. (3) Reform the personnel system of the community residential committee. These experiment areas recruit staff of community openly. They encourage graduates to work in the community residential committees. (4) Build leadership mechanisms of community building in various levels of government. The governments call for the whole society to participate in community building. (5) Relocate communities. They combined the old residential committees into new community committees. Almost every community’s population is more than two times larger than old residential committee areas.  In fact these actions can’t be called strategies. They are substantially the groundwork of community building. They also pay little attention to building a sense of community. The work lags far behind that of the U.S. Furthermore, some actions and experience may be not rational and feasible.

Shortcomings of Chinese Community Building

By comparison above, the strong points of American community building and weaknesses of Chinese community building can be summarized as follows: First, the communities in the U.S are planned and located in terms of different categories. In a same community, residents often have similar backgrounds of race, skin, culture, language, education, custom, and behavior.  Therefore, it is relatively easy to manage these communities. In contrast, the residents in a similar community in China are complex.  Therefore it is relatively difficult to administrate. Second, there are no organizations established by governments in the communities in the U.S so, generally speaking, the administration of a community is democratic and self-governing. In the U.S. the board of policy making and the executive level are separated. The participation of the residents in management is encouraged. There is little intervention by government. The non-governmental organizations play an important role in community management and service. In contrast, the management of communities in China is half-official, the committees get many tasks from the governments, but provide little service for the communities (in fact it is governments, not community organizations or other NGOs, that undertake most of social functions including community service). Many residents are not interested in participating with the management of communities. To some extent the committee election is formalistic. The non-government organizations play a small role in the management of communities. Third, governments in the U.S support community building through grants, which amount to over 70% of the total revenue of communities. In contrast, direct grants from governments for community building in China are few. Fourth, in the process of community management in the U.S, organizations are good at responding to residents in a way that the residents will accept and understand.  People are used to obeying laws. In China, many community committees don’t know how to adapt to residents’ changing needs and thoughts under market system conditions. People’s consciousness of law is also weak. Fifth, in the U.S, people have developed many effective strategies of community building.  They pay much attention to cultivating a sense of community, but China is still in the phase of grounding. The experience is very limited, sometimes even incorrect..

Therefore, some problems are emerging. Chinese community building can’t adapt to new economic and social changes . This can be seen from at least four aspects: (1) Management system . Market economy makes the society more mobile. More and more peasants are pouring into the cities; people are no longer "unit persons", but "society persons"; the old situation where every one was in an organization is broken. It is reported that there are 100 million people who are flowing, more than 20 million unemployed people and a large number of self-employed people. [24]These people are not organized well, and are in an unstable situation. In this situation, governments are no longer “almighty governments”, some of the functions have to be separated and transferred to the society, including communities. In other words, the residential committees managed people according to the registered permanent residences, but now the registered permanent system doesn't exist.  The community committee must manage people from various areas, so the old management system of residential committees can't work. The functions of the community committee must be separated from those of the former residential committee. Otherwise, the community services are still in a "vacuum district". (2) Management method. With economic development and urbanization, the population of cities is increasing fast, the old downtowns are extending, more new urban districts are emerging, and thus more new communities are emerging. If the new community committees are still half-official, the degree of autonomy is not improved, and the participation of residents is weak, the services of communities will not meet the needs of residents. (3) Service means The needs of city resident are tending to be diverse. They are no longer satisfied with food and clothing, but want a beautiful living environment, good social public order, convenient living conditions and harmonious neighborhood relationship, which puts forward the higher request to the community. The focus of  social services has already obviously been moved to communities, and the amounts of community services are booming. But many communities lack a service center that can provide education, culture, recreation meanwhile. (4) Scale of community. As mentioned above, nowadays many communities are combined from several residential committees, the communities are relatively small (both population and area), so therefore the jurisdiction area of a community is too small to implement resource sharing. (5) Personnel's capability. At present, the great majority of the staff of residential committees are still retired people. Their knowledge and energy can’t meet the challenges of new work (the large amounts, computerizing of management, etc).

On the other hand, however, the work of community building in China during these years is very beneficial. It is a good start. That community organizations in China can directly contact governments, to some extent, is not a completely bad thing. First, it makes it easy to reflect the thoughts of the residents and to carry out the laws and policies of the country and governments. Therefore it facilitates focusing on developing the strength to provide for the commonweal. Furthermore, Chinese governments are able to fully organize and utilize resources of different communities to deal with common social problems in an area, such as safety and health care. Third, Chinese governments often conducts comprehensive planning of cities, including different communities, and thus can avoid the situation that the plans of different communities contradict each other. There are many successful experiences in these aspects. It is relatively difficult for the communities in the U.S to do this.

Recommendations

Based on the analysis above, we can know American community building is really more mature than that of Chinese community building. In order to improve Chinese community building, it is essential for China to learn from the U.S and combine the advanced experience and strategies with it’s own advantages. Hear are some recommendations:

Fully Recognize the Importance of Community Building

Nowadays, Chinese governments are paying much attention to community building. They have conducted  experiments in many provinces, issued many documents, and set up many leadership organizations. All these actions indicate that they have known the importance of community building, to some extent. The problem is to what extent they know. Some areas are satisfied with setting up some leadership organization and renaming the residential committees and recruiting some new staff. The substantial work has not been effectively deployed. The outcomes reflect that they haven’t fully recognized and understood the importance of community building. Community building can play an important role in economic and social development. In the U.S, community building initiatives can make an important difference in people's lives; they can enhance opportunities for those now impoverished and, probably more important, equip them much more powerfully to take advantage of opportunities that become available to them.[25] Therefore it can help people to diminish poverty. In China, since social advancement lags behind economic development, the role of community building has broad prospects. If the government couldn’t recognize this point, community building would probably lose its direction, even be involved in formalism. It is very important to improve public awareness of the importance of community building.

Improve Autonomy of Community

Autonomy of community is not only a mark of democracy but is also a key for improving the participation of residents and thus cultivating a common sense of community. The most important thing is that government must transfer its role in community building. Governments must not directly intervene in community affairs, let alone give many tasks. The former “district-subdistrict-community” administration system, in which community committees are regarded as appendages of governments, must be changed. The mode of “almighty government” needs to be transferred to that of “almighty community”. Furthermore, the government should support community by giving some grants and establishing a good mechanism to enforce community building across society. This mechanism should include job training and placement, child care, schools, police, health services, public assistance, and social services. It is not enough for governments to issue some documents or stop at oral encouragement. Third, the community committee should separate the policy making level from the executive level, and change its own management method, using for reference the management mode of enterprise. This may tie residents’ interests with community building more closely, thus improving the effectiveness of community committees. Here, the personnel system of community also needs to be reformed. Some new blood should be absorbed and the staffs should be trained. Improving the autonomy of community doesn’t mean being self-contained. These communities not only need support from governments, but should also mount initiatives to partner with outside institutions (social service agencies, police departments, local business and philanthropic groups, universities) in ways that will serve their own interests and strengthen their own internal institutions.[26]

Encourage Developing NGOs

NGOs can play an important role in community building in China just as in U.S.. They are the main organizers and providers for dealing with social affairs, and serve as mediating organizations between government and the public. They are providing professional service, and are supported by public financing, government grants and business donations.[27]After the reform and open policy was adopted, similar to government returning economic resource distribution power to the market, government should also empower social organizations to handling social affairs. In China NGOs have huge development potential. One of the tasks of government is to encourage the development of NGOs, and let them actively join in civic affairs and take social responsibility. In fact, NGOs need cooperation from government and non-government institutions. The broad group of nongovernmental and governmental institutions should expand their efforts and find new ways to collaborate. In this case, governments at all levels should break down various obstacles before NGOs ,take some measures to reward NGOs that exert positive influence on community building, and make policies to encourage governmental institutions to cooperate with NGOs, thus creating a good environment for various organizations to participate in community building.

Enhance Sense of Community

It is very important that people get a sense of belonging, and sense of meaning about their life in a community because otherwise people lack the experience of casual day- to- day contact and occasional friendship that are the texture of the community.[28]  In China, how to cultivate a common sense of community and improve participation of residents is a distinct weakness. Many residents lack a sense of identification with the communities. The community organizations should let them know that they not only live in a common area but also have common interests. The community must play the central role in devising and implementing strategies for its own improvement. Success also depends on a substantial share of the residents being directly involved in that process. As Feixiaotong, a famous Chinese sociologist said, a system in which the residents serve for both themselves and others should be established.[29] NGOs can play a role. Civil associations can provide the "networks of civic engagement" within which reciprocity is learned and enforced, trust is generated, and communication and patterns of collective action are facilitated.[30] It will be helpful to shape the community consciousness regarding contributing to social responsibility in local society. More work to advance citizen participation and volunteering activity is needed.

In addition, Chinese governments should also adjust community plans and layouts. It will be essential that the area and population of many communities be enlarged. Its purpose is the as same as that of tailoring community scale, which is advocated in some neighborhoods in the U.S.[31] Both focus on facilitating resource sharing, mutual trust, friendship and resident participation.

References

[1] This research and writing was instructed by Professor William Markle. I thank him for his instructions and comments on drafts of this paper. I also thank Ms.Cary Steinbuck ,the executive director of the Rogers Park Community Council ,and Professor Randy Stoecker,the editor of COMM-ORG for their sincere help.

[2]St. Augustine, The City of God, http://www.ccel.org/fathers/NPNF1-02/ .

[3] Ed Schwartz(1991) ,Building Community in a Neighborhood from Building Community, http://www.iscv.org/Community/CommNeigh/commneigh.html .

[4] Kaufman, Harold ( 1959),Towards an Interactional Conception of Community, Social Forces, 38(1):8-17.

[5] The data was provided by DevCorpNorth organization in Rogers Park.

[6] Rogers Park Community Groups, http://www.rogerspark.com .

[7] See Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 , John M. Levy, Contemporary Urban Planning,, Pearson Education, Inc, New, Jersey, 2003, sixth edition, pp182.This point will be stated in section “ Strategies of community building” below..

[8] George W. Overton, Guidebook for Directors of Nonprofit corporations, Section of Business Law &, American Bar Association,pp7.

[9] Rogers Park Community Council Annual Report 2002-2003, http://www.rogerspark.org   .

[10]Yuan Ren , NGOs, Public Participation and Urban Community Development: Social Reform in Local Urban Governance in China, http://mumford.cas.albany.edu/chinanet/conferences/Yuan.doc .

[11] The material was provided by Chinese American Services League.

[12] Rogers Park Community Council Annual Report, http://www.rogers.org .

[13] Law of Residential Committee Organization of Republic of China(1989), section 3, http://www.lawbase.com.cn/LAWDATA/search.asp .

[14] Rogers Park Community Council Annual Report, http://www.rogerspark.org .

[15] City of Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley: Community Development Block Grant Year XXXI(2005):program Descriptions and Selection Criteria.

[16] Xielingli, Investigation of American NGOs and thoughts of Chinese Medi-organizations, http://www.cn_social.com/sqiszd/zltj9.htm .

[17] The material is directly got from North of Howard Leadership Forum.

[18] James O. Gibson, G. Thomas Kinsley, Joseph B. McNeely(1997), Community Building: Coming of Age, http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=307016 .

[19]Yuan Ren , NGOs, Public Participation and Urban Community Development: Social Reform in Local Urban Governance in China, http://mumford.cas.albany.edu/chinanet/conferences/Yuan.doc .

[20] See John M. Levy, Contemporary Urban Planning,,Pearson Education, Inc, New, Jersey, 2003, sixth edition, pp182.However, the HUD language is directed at city and state governments, which then turn around and make non-profit organizations follow the same requirements. This language only applies to some funding programs from HUD, not all government funding to organizations. For example, there are public involvement requirements for decisions about transportation investments, but such requirements are mostly form and little substance

[21] James O. Gibson, G. Thomas Kinsley, Joseph B. McNeely(1997), Community Building: Coming of Age, http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=307016 .

[22] Jane Shull: The Case for Community Development, gopher://gopher.civic.net:2400/00/cdiscv/cmtyandneighb/case .

[23] See Building Community in the American Tradition, http://www.iscv.org/Community/buildhom/buildhom.html . Most significant has been a "Block Club Social Contract" drafted in 1994 by community leaders and activists from all parts of the City. The preamble to this social contract suggests how important the Preamble to the Constitution was in putting it together: We, the residents of Philadelphia's neighborhoods--block captains, members of block associations, and participants in agencies and organizations that support them--pledge to work together to build communities that are attractive, safe, economically viable, and decent places in which to live and raise children.

[24] Wangyongping, Enforce community building by searching for a new way, http://www.cn-social.com/sqjszd/zltj.htm

[25] James O. Gibson, G. Thomas Kingsley, Joseph B. McNeely(1997), Community Building: Coming of Age, http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=307016 .

[26] James O. Gibson, G. Thomas Kingsley, Joseph B. McNeely!(1997),CommunityBuilding: Coming of Age, http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=307016.

[27]Yuan Ren , NGOs, Public Participation and Urban Community Development: Social Reform in Local Urban Governance in China, http://mumford.cas.albany.edu/chinanet/conferences/Yuan.doc  .

[28] Jane Shull: The Case for Community Development, gopher://gopher.civic.net:2400/00/cdiscv/cmtyandneighb/case .

[29] Feixiaotong(2000), Some Thoughts about Current Urban Community building, Everybody Speaks Magazine, No.8.

[30] Michael W. Foley & Bob Edwards, The Paradox of Civil Society, Journal of Democracy 7.3 (1996) 38-52.                    

[31] James O. Gibson, G. Thomas Kingsley, Joseph B. McNeely (1997),Community Building: Coming of Age, http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=307016


About the Author

Xi Zhang works in the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Taizhou City,Zhejiang, China.  He acts as the Vice-director of the Committee of Education, Technology, Culture and Health. He received a Master's Degree in Law from Peking University (China) in2002 and a Master's Degree in Public Administration from Illinois Institute of Technology (USA) in 2004.