From Social Management to Mobilisation: The Evolving Grid Management System in Shenzhen

This article examines the grid management system in Shenzhen. I argue that it is built on three pillars: data standardisation, community collaboration, and information centralisation. The standardisation of addresses and urban landscape elements means that responsibilities of information collection shift from grid members to outside actors. Gathered information is then centralised and analysed in grid management centres, which then distribute it to government agencies in the form of tasks. As a result, the grid can increasingly rely on and mobilise outside actors such as building supervisors, landlords, and property management agencies. This shifts the grid’s function from directly managing the urban population to coordinating and deploying actors for grassroots governance and the Party-state’s objectives.