Contested ground: community and neighbourhood

An extraordinary consequence of China’s market reforms is the fundamental change within rural villages and urban neighbourhoods where signs of grass - roots autonomy seem to alter the pre-existing pattern of social infrastructure and pose a challenge to the Chinese state. Indeed, revival of communal groups, emergence of property-based organizations as well as collective actions have tempted many observers to interpret villages and neighbourhoods as spring - boards of civil society, in sharp contrast to organized dependence during the pre-reform era (Derleth and Koldyk 2002; 2004; Lei 2001; Lin 2002; Xu 1997; Pekkanen and Read 2003).