From Residents’ Participation to Effective Co-Creation: Collaborative Governance of Urban Community Spaces in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China

Expanding resident participation is an important objective of participatory planning and collaborative governance in urban communities, yet attending activities, contributing resources, or holding representative positions does not necessarily enable residents to influence public decisions. Focusing on four urban communities in Erdaoqiao Subdistrict, Tianshan District, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, this study draws on fieldwork, participant observation, interviews and field conversations with 93 participants, community documents, and supplementary follow-ups. It employs hybrid inductive–deductive thematic analysis centered on concrete governance events to examine residents’ involvement in spatial use, service co-production, public-plan negotiation, and oversight of shared resources. The findings show that internal spatial reallocation, negotiated sharing of external venues, and support for pre-existing resident self-organization can lower barriers to participation. Contributions of money, skills, labor, and organizational effort can supplement public services and facility maintenance but do not automatically produce decision influence. Dissent may exert practical influence when it reaches an agenda, prompts verification, and leads to revisions of proposals, although the evidence primarily concerns negotiation within particular projects. The link between formal representation and effective oversight depends on access to information, control of accounts, traceability of resources, and the capacity to obtain correction; resident representatives must themselves remain accountable. Access, contribution, decision influence, and actionable accountability are therefore treated as potentially connected or disconnected analytical dimensions rather than a fixed ladder of empowerment. Community space is a form of governance infrastructure shaping participation opportunities and collaborative conditions. Effective co-creation depends on the connection of residents’ needs, knowledge, contributions, and dissent to revisable public decisions and actionable oversight. The study provides a contextualized explanation drawn from urban communities in western China.