Chinese residential communities are places of intense governing and an arena of active political engagement between state and society. In The Government Next Door, Luigi Tomba investigates how the goals of a government consolidated in a distant authority materialize in citizens' everyday lives. Chinese neighborhoods reveal much about the changing nature of governing practices in the country. Government action is driven by the need to preserve social and political stability, but such priorities must adapt to the progressive privatization of urban residential space and an increasingly complex set of societal forces. Tomba's vivid ethnographic accounts of neighborhood life and politics in Beijing, Shenyang, and Chengdu depict how such local "translation" of government priorities takes place.

Tomba reveals how different clusters of residential space are governed more or less intensely depending on the residents' social status; how disgruntled communities with high unemployment are still managed with the pastoral strategies typical of the socialist tradition, while high-income neighbors are allowed greater autonomy in exchange for a greater concern for social order. Conflicts are contained by the gated structures of the neighborhoods to prevent systemic challenges to the government, and middle-class lifestyles have become exemplars of a new, responsible form of citizenship. At times of conflict and in daily interactions, the penetration of the state discourse about social stability becomes clear.

Luigi Tomba's profile page

• Winner of the Joseph Levenson Prize for Books in C

Luigi Tomba is a Senior Fellow at the Australian Centre on China in the World, Australian National University. He is the author of Paradoxes of Labour Reform: Chinese Labour Theory and Practice from Socialism to the Market and coeditor of The China Journal.

Tomba's research went far beyond the somewhat soulless quantitative data of much current social science. Hundreds of interviews in which the author talked with local cadres, ordinary citizens, and others in three Chinese cities are at the heart of the fruitful ethnographic narratives in this volume. Tomba encountered varying local-center relationships, all falling on a spectrum ranging from past Leninist centralism to the neighborhood autonomy readers might expect in a developed civil society.

Choice

The Government Next Door is a great title for a book on [neighborhood] politics in China. For some, the title might invoke associations of kind, unassuming politicians who are part of the community themselves. Others might feel trepidation: after all, resident committees, though legally social organizations, are extensions of an authoritarian regime. Judging by the subtlety of argument that permeates Tomba's book, this ambiguity is intentional. Indeed, one of the book's many qualities is the clarity with which it illustrates the 'liquidity' of governance in urban China. Having been a resident in several urban [neighborhoods] enables Luigi Tomba to illustrate his penetrating analysis with lucid case studies and examples.... Even readers who are familiar with China's urban community will be guaranteed to find a great many gems — be it stories, observations or interpretations. The book is as suitable for experts as it is for beginners, and Tomba's often bold, often subtle and acute arguments will no doubt stimulate intensive discussions inside and outside the classroom. It provides food for thought for those who are attracted to Foucauldian notions of power, and is a must-read for anyone interested in China's urban governance, and state'society relations more generally.

The China Quarterly

Any visitor who stays in mainland China for a while might wonder about the country's seeming stability. Ordinary Chinese rarely conceal their grievances about increasing inequality, corruption, and the near death of society as we imagine it. Media reports about peasants” struggles against land expropriation as well as workers” protests against labour exploitation have dramaticallyincreased over recent decades. Nevertheless, these class-specific incidents are isolated while everyday conflicts remain contained, relatively peacefully, in local neighbourhoods. The Government Next Door is a significant contribution to interrogating this puzzle. With a sophisticated eye to neighbourhood politics, the book shows how political legitimacy is cultivated and grounded among local residents with various interests and status.... I am certain that this book will be discussed enthusiastically by scholars who engage in urban space, class politics, and governmentality in contemporary China.

Pacific Affairs

Tomba adopts a synthetic approach which views neighbourhoods not only as administrative institutions, but also as places created by an assortment of actors.... This book provides valuable insights on the political, social, and spatial relations in Chinese neighbourhoods.

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute