Fostering Citizen Trust in Local Government Through Coproduction of Crisis Response: Does It Really Work?

Does citizen coproduction of crisis response foster trust in local government? This study addresses this question by developing and testing a framework proposing that participation in community coproduction of crisis response (CCCR) enhances citizen trust through sense of control over daily life and perceived social capital generated during CCCR, and these processes are further conditioned by citizens’ pandemic risk perception. Using survey data collected from 1,106 urban residents during the 2022 COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai, China, we find that participation in CCCR generally strengthens trust in municipal government. The results show that this effect occurs primarily because participation in CCCR increases perceived social capital, whereas no evidence is found for the proposed role of sense of control. Moreover, the trust-enhancing effect disappears when risk perception is high, because elevated risk perception reduces the extent to which CCCR generates perceived social capital. These findings contribute evidence from a crisis context to the longstanding debate on whether coproduction enhances trust and provide explanations on how participatory arrangements can sustain governance legitimacy.