“Refinding Residents”: Experts’ Intervening and Reengineering Endogenous Impetus of Innovating Urban Grassroots Governance Model

It is a long historical tradition that the intellectual eliteshave participated in national and social governances indifferent ways in China. The solidification of bureaucratic knowledge system, the fragmentization of primary-level organization’soperational mechanism and the lack of participation of the actors (residents) are combined to shape the predicament of the current urban grassroots governance. With the help of the deep involvement from experts and scholars according to the ask of local Party Committee and government, we can see a new trend of “refinding residents” in grassroots governance to promote the response of residents’ needs in the form of residents’ participation and community consultation and the innovation of urban primary-level organization’s operation mechanism and governance system. This article takes the case of community revival in Z Street of Pudong New Area as an example, analyzes the participation experiences of experts and scholars which have greatly changed the governing form of city grassroots governance. Oriented by the needs of residents and grassroots governance, based on the professional knowledge and social prestige, experts and scholars have effectively achieved the goal of the reconstruction of the participation of community actors (residents), the reshaping of the primary-level organization’s operational mechanisms and the reconstruction of grassroots bureaucratic knowledge systems, and then constructed a new model of urban grassroots holistic governance. The article also illustrates that the scientific concept of political performance and development is an important endogenous dynamic foundation for constructing urban grassroots governance model, which is warmly welcomed by the people as well as highly recognized by the superior departments.