Grid Managers, the Moral Logic of Guan, and State–Society Dynamics in China

This essay aims to provide a nuanced understanding of China’s grid management system. It looks into the system’s often-oversimplified function of service provision to argue that grid managers constitute a middle layer between the Party-State and Chinese society, generating new dynamics between the two. It also argues that lying behind such dynamics is a moral logic well described by the popular use of the term guan (管), which can mean both ‘care’ and ‘control’ and implies a ready acceptance of the state’s presence in people’s everyday lives.