Roots of the State: Neighborhood Organization and Social Networks in Beijing and Taipei

摘要

In Roots of the State, Benjamin Read provides an in-depth and cross-sectional analysis of neighbourhood organizations, which he regards as a form of "administrative grassroots engagement." The social networks built upon the neighbourhood organization and informal everyday services provided at the neighbourhood level, according to the author, form the "roots of the state." Read goes beyond the state-society dichotomy and zooms in on local urban spaces to reveal the foundation of state governance. His work is an impressive extension of our understanding of neighbourhood lives and state governance in socialist mainland China as described by Whyte, Parish and Walder.