• Journal of East-Asian Urban History
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.65-85
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• 2020

Examining how the CCP operated social services in Shanghai neighborhood[linong] in early 1950s, this article reveals the hidden relation between social service and rectification of neighborhood organizations in 1954. One of the main purpose of 1954 rectification was to guarantee provision of grassroots level of the city by recruiting local cadres, the implementers of social services. Though series of social service, such as night patrol, cleaning and public charity were indispensable for residents' life and welfare(fuli)[福利] of neighborhood, the social services was the something most of the Shanghai residents were reluctant to do. The result was the shortage of human resource for social service, triggering the "nominal position(gua ming)[掛名] " phenomenon. During political rectification of neighborhood organizations in 1954 Shanghai Municipal government tried to solve this 'decline of human resource in social services' problem by attracting the unemployed to the position of basic level cadre. To be specific, it demanded jobless person in neighborhood to be registered in time if they want a job placement. And it used that registration as the nominee of cadre in re-election process of the rectification campaign. The government measures were closely related to Shanghai people's inclination to rely on party-state when they try to get a job. Hence political rectification in neighborhood organizations become the strategic tool of city governance to mobilize residents in operating social services. So this article suggests that the CCP's urban governance was a complex and nuanced process to induce urban residents' interest and voluntarism beyond the suppression-oriented totalitarian perspective.