Government intervention and the empowerment process: Citizen involvement in the 2010 Shanghai World Expo

• Author: Ping Wang
• Published date: 01 May 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1517
• Date: 01 May 2014

■Special Issue Paper

Government intervention and the

empowerment process: Citizen

involvement in the 2010 Shanghai

World Expo

Ping Wang*

Institute of Sociology, Zhejiang Academy of Social Science, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Citizen involvement in major government initiatives is increasingly favoured in the evolving theory and practice of

public administration. As a mega project, the Shanghai Expo featured citizen involvement both as a publicity idea and

as a pragmatic approach for obtainingresources and support from citizens.Due to the lack of a participatory democratic

tradition, the Shanghai municipality has sought to promote citizen involvement through specific social projects over a

short time. The paper explores the evolution of citizen involvement from consumerism to collaborative governance,

and suggests theconcept of empowerment as a crucial perspective in the promotionof such citizen involvement. Within

this framework,two projects of the ShanghaiExpo are analysed as casestudies focusing on the empowermentprocess in

citizen involvement. In conclusion,the study offers some reflections on the current state of citizeninvolvement and puts

forward suggestions for post-Expogovernance in Shanghai. Copyright© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

As an economic and cultural centre in mainland

China, Shanghai plays a leading role in public

administration and policy innovations (Zhang,

2007). The Shanghai municipality aims to innovate

and develop experience worldwide in accordance

with the image of Shanghai as an advanced cosmo-

politan city.

Since the Shanghaimunicipality won itsbid to hold

the Expo in 2002, it hasmobilised public, private and

voluntary sectors to participate with great power in

its preparation and delivery. With the influence of a

trend for extensive participation in mega-projects,

the idea of ‘citizen involvement’became one of the

key ideas of the Shanghai Expo. From the design of

the logo to the construction of the Pavilion of Public

Participation, the concept of citizen involvement

was embodied widelyin the Expo exhibition facilities

(Lamberti et al., 2011). In addition, the municipality

tried to encourage citizen involvement through

specific citizen empowerment projects with the aid

of public agencies in the bureaucratic system,

aiming to reach general consensus and obtain

support from citizens.

However, some scholars worried that these

empowerment projects being in the hands of

government would squeeze out the true willingness

of citizens to be involved. One of the reasons cited

by respondent citizens for allegedly limited citizen

involvement in Shanghai Expo has been over-

intensive government intervention (Wang, 2009).

But other studies of the experience of the past Expos

had suggested that government should take over

the major responsibility of hosting the World Expo

(Jurong & Shichang, 2009). Furthermore, the

Chinese government is proud of the great achieve-

ments of the Beijing Olympic Games and more

familiar with the government-dominated model in

previous mega-projects. As a result, the promotion

*Correspondence to: Ping Wang,Institute of Sociology, Zhejiang

Academy of Social Science, Fengqi Road 620 Hangzhou

Zhejiang, China.

E-mail: wpsuper@hotmail.com

Journal of Public Affairs

Volume 14 Number 2 pp 130–141 (2014)

Published online 10 April 2014 in Wiley Online Library

(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pa.1517

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.