Semiformal Organizations and Control During the COVID-19 Crisis in China

Abstract

Scholars often compare China and Western societies in terms of dichotomous forms of control—formal and informal. Recent research indicates a nuanced form of social control—semiformal. Using a survey data collected during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in China, this study investigated the prevalence and importance of semiformal organizations, formal organizations, and informal groups participating in social control and social service and the predictors of the perceived importance of these three forms of social control mechanisms. Findings from this study revealed that formal organizations, the semiformal organizations, and informal groups all participated in community control and service. Semiformal organizations had the highest level of participation. This study found that education and age are the two major predictors of the views on the importance of formal, informal, and semiformal control and control mechanisms.

The Prevalence and Importance of Semiformal Organizations and Semiformal Control in Rural China: Insights from a National Survey

“…Previous studies of Chinese disputes or conflict resolutions suggest that forms of mediations are associated with types of disputes (Jiang & Wu, 2015 ; Jiang et al, 2021 ; Michelson, 2007 ). In 1985, Albert Hunter proposed that three levels of social orders—the private, the parochial, and the public—are “arrayed along a continuum of decreasing affect or sentiment” (Hunter, 1985 , p. 232).…”

“…Only one recent study has been found to quantitatively examine the prevalence and importance of semiformal organizations and control. Based on a survey of 632 respondents, Jiang et al ( 2021 ) investigated semiformal organizations and control during the initial COVID-19 crisis in China. The study compared the prevalence and importance of semiformal organizations, formal organizations, and informal groups participating in six community control and social service activities.…”

“…Thus, as a semiformal organization, a village committee has advantages to deal with disputes within a village, compared to either formal organizations such as police and other government agencies or informal groups/individuals such as xiangxian . Limited empirical studies revealed that when disputes occur among villagers and between villager and village, the village committee, rather than government agencies or the criminal justice system, is the more frequent mediator (Michelson, 2007 ) and has a higher participation level than other control mechanisms (Jiang et al, 2021 ). Accordingly, we hypothesized that: Disputes within a village are more likely to be mediated by a village committee than other control mechanisms.…”

“…Scholars have a growing interest in China’s semiformal control (Huang, 1993a , b , 2008 , 2019 ; Jiang et al, 2013 , 2015 , 2019 , 2021 ; Messner et al, 2017 ; Zhang et al, 1996 , 2007 ). This body of literature describes and defines semiformal control in different ways.…”

Regular COVID-19 Pandemic Containment in Communities: A Risk Governance Perspective

“…One recipe of China’s success in combating the COVID-19 lies in the emergency management relying on citizens, which is called “mass prevention and defense”, which involved crowds and movement avoidance, health screening, material supplies, sanitization, and information distribution. 24 Therefore, communities as the frontline of the COVID-19 battle represent the most effective defense or the most vulnerable transmission hubs. In addition to fast testing and laborious epidemiological investigation locking down the high-risk areas, most other areas remain unaffected under the grid management enabling rapid responses to the resurgence (see brief comparison in Table 2 ).…”