The Practice Course, Realistic Landscape and Optimization Paths of Community Development in China

Community is the basic unit of urban and rural social governance, and community development bears on the foundation of the modernization of China’s state governance and on the well-being of the people. Since the reform and opening up, China’s community development has undergone continuous evolution from community service to community building and then to community governance, achieving remarkable progress in the institutional system, the service system, the governance pattern and the workforce. On the basis of reviewing the theoretical foundations and policy context of community development, this paper systematically examines the realistic landscape of community development in China, analyzes in depth such prominent problems as the bureaucratization of grassroots self-governing organizations, insufficient resident participation, structural imbalance between service supply and demand, shortcomings of the workforce, the digital divide, and imbalances in urban and rural development, and then proposes path choices for promoting high-quality community development from six dimensions: upholding party-building leadership, clarifying the boundaries of rights and responsibilities, deepening digital empowerment, strengthening talent support, coordinating urban and rural development, and cultivating community consciousness, with a view to providing academic reference and practical implications for community development in the new era.