Chinese homeowner associations (HOAs) are citizen-initiated, self-governing neighborhood organizations that emerged very recently in urban China. HOAs take various legal, political, and social actions to deal with neighborhood issues. However, there are large discrepancies in the effectiveness of these actions. Using data collected from in-depth interviews with leaders of 91 registered HOAs in Beijing, this study investigates the contextual and organizational factors that explain this heterogeneity of outcome. The results show that the factors affecting HOAs’ ability to solve the two most prominent types of neighborhood issue—issues involving developers, and issues involving property management companies—are quite different. Issues involving property management companies are more effectively solved by mobilizing organization resources and encouraging resident participation. Solving developer-related issues, however, requires broader legal and political support.
AlexanderG.1989. “Dilemmas of Group Autonomy: Residential Associations and Community.” Cornell Law Review75 (1): 1-61.
2.
AustinD. M.1991. “Community Context and Complexity of Organizational Structure in Neighborhood Associations.” Administration & Society22 (4): 516-31.
3.
BlandyS.DixonJ.DupuisA.2006. “Theorizing Power Relationships in Multi-owned Residential Developments: Unpacking the Bundle of Rights.” Urban Studies43 (13): 2365-83.
4.
BlandyS.WangF.2013. “Curbing the Power of Developers? Law and Power in Chinese and English Gated Urban Enclaves.” Geoforum47:199-208.
5.
BrysonJ. M.AckermanF.EdenC.2007. “Putting the Resource-Based View of Strategy and Distinctive Competencies to Work in Public Organizations.” Public Administration Review67 (4): 702-17.
6.
CaiY.2007. “Civil Resistance and Rule of Law in China: The Defense of Homeowners’ Rights.” Harvard Contemporary China Series14:174-95.
7.
ChenX.2007. Homeowners’ Self-Governance: On the Basis of Proportional Property Rights. [In Chinese.] Beijing: Peking Univ. Press.
8.
ChenY.2007. “Property Rights and Self Governance: A Case Study on Homeowners’ Organizations in Transition of Chinese Society.” In The Nonprofit Sector: Its Governance, Interactions with Other Sectors and Social Innovation, edited by QiuC., 89-118. [In Chinese.] Taipei: Taiwan Zhisheng Culture Enterprise.
CressD. M.SnowD. A.1996. “Mobilization at the Margins: Resources, Benefactors, and the Viability of Homeless Social Movement Organizations.” American Sociological Review61 (6): 1089-1109.
11.
DavisD. S.2006. “Urban Chinese Homeowners as Citizen-Consumers: Questioning Consumption in East Asia and the West.” In The Ambivalent Consumer, edited by GaronS.MaclachlanP., 281-99. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
12.
EdwardsB.McCarthyJ. D.2004. “Resources and Social Movement Mobilization.” In The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, edited by SnowD. A.SouleS. A.KriesiH., 116-52. Oxford: Blackwell.
GlaszeG.WebsterC.FrantzK.2006. Private Cities: Global and Local Perspectives. London: Routledge.
18.
GuiY.2001. “An Exploration of the Possibilities of the Development and the Achievement of Urban Local Democracy.” [In Chinese.] Journal of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Social Science Edition)15 (1): 24-27.
19.
GuoZ.PanW.2008. “A study on Urban Old Residence Community Management Models.” [In Chinese.] Special Zone Economy6:121-22.
20.
HeskinA. D.1991. The Struggle for Community. Boulder: Westview.
21.
HutchesonJ. D.PratherJ. E.1988. “Community Mobilization and Participation in the Zoning Process.” Urban Affairs Quarterly23 (3): 346-68.
22.
KnokeD.1988. “Incentives in Collective Action Organizations.” American Sociological Review53:311-29.
23.
KnokeD.WoodJ.1981. Organized for Action. New Brunswick: Rutgers Univ. Press.
24.
LiL.McKinnellK.WalkerA.2000. “Convergence of the Land Tenure Systems of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan?” Journal of Property Research17 (4): 339-52.
25.
LiL. H.WangC.2006. “Real Estate Agency in China in the Information Age.” Property Management24 (1): 47-61.
26.
LiSYiZ.2007. “The Road to Homeownership under Market Transition.” Urban Affairs Review42 (3): 342-68.
27.
LiebmannG. W.2000. Solving Problems without Large Government: Devolution, Fairness and Equality. Westport: Praeger.
28.
LinN.2001. Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
29.
LoganJ. R.RabrenovicG.1990. “Neighborhood Associations: Their Issues, Their Allies, and Their Opponents.” Urban Affairs Quarterly26 (1): 68-94.
30.
MahonM.CinneideM. O.2009. “Governance Deficits in Residential Housing Estates in Ireland.” Urban Studies46 (1): 93-116.
31.
McKenzieE.1994. Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.
32.
MengW.2005. “Constructing Citizen Politics: Homeowners’ Collective Action and Logics—The Case of Rights Protection in Yingshuishanzhuang Neighborhood of Baoan District, Shenzhen City.” [In Chinese.] Journal of Huazhong Nomal University (Humanities and Social Sciences)5:67-79.
33.
MeschG. S.1996. “The Effect of Environmental Concerns and Governmental Incentives on Organized Action in Local Areas.” Urban Affairs Review31 (3): 346-66.
34.
MeyerJ. W.RowanB.1977. “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony.” American Journal of Sociology83:340-63.
35.
NelsonR. H.2006. “New Community Associations for Established Neighborhoods.” Review of Policy Research23 (6): 1123-41.
36.
OliverC.1991. “Strategic Responses to Institutional Processes.” Academy of Management Review16 (1): 145-79.
37.
OliverE. J.2001. Democracy in Suburbia. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.
38.
OropesaR. S.1989. “The Social and Political Foundations of Effective Neighborhood Improvement Associations.” Social Science Quarterly70:723-43
39.
PattonM. Q.2002. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. 3rd ed.London: Sage.
40.
PeterafM. A.1993. “The Cornerstones of Competitive Advantages: A Resource-Based View.” Strategic Management Journals14 (3): 179-91.
41.
QinB.2007. “Hallway Democracy.” [In Chinese.] Paper Read at International Conference on Community Governance: Multi-cultural Perspective, at Renmin University of China, Beijing.
42.
RabrenovicG.1996. Community Builders: A Tale of Neighborhood Mobilization in Two Cities. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.
43.
RichR. C.1980. “The Dynamics of Leadership in Neighborhood Organizations.” Social Science Quarterly60 (4): 570-87.
44.
SampsonR. J.MorenoffJ.Gannon-RowleyT.2002. “Assessing Neighborhood Effects: Social Processes and New Directions in Research.” Annual Review of Sociology28:443-78.
45.
SchwirianK. P.MeschG. S.1993. “Embattled Neighborhoods: The Political Ecology of Neighborhood Change.” In Research in Urban Sociology, edited by HutchinsonR., 83-110. Greenwich, CT: JAI.
46.
SeidmanI. E.1991. Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and Social Sciences. New York: Teachers College Press.
47.
ShiF.CaiY.2006. “Disaggregating the State: Networks and Collective Resistance in Shanghai.” The China Quarterly186 (1): 314-32.
48.
TanS.2000. “To What Degree Do Neighborhood Property Management Committees Play Their Roles?” [In Chinese.] http://nb.focus.cn/news/2000–08-19/8618.html (accessed July 12, 2007).
49.
TombaL.2005. “Residential Space and Collective Interest Formation in Beijing’s Housing Disputes.” The China Quarterly184:934-51.
50.
VerbaS.SchlozmanK. L.BradyH. E.1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
51.
WaltersM.KentP.2000. “Institutional Economics and Property Strata Title—A Survey and Case Study.” Journal of Property Research17 (3): 221-40.
52.
WangF.2010. “Regulations and the Imbalance of Power Relationships in Newly Developed Residential Neighbourhoods in Urban China.” In Multi-owned Housing: Law, Power and Practice, edited by BlandyS.DixonJenniferDupuisAnn, 125-44. Aldershot: Ashgate.
53.
WangF.YinH. T.ZhouZ. R.2012. “The Adoption of Bottom-Up Governance in China’s Homeowner Associations.” Management and Organization Review8 (3): 559-83.
54.
WangY.MurieA.1999. “Commercial Housing Development in Urban China.” Urban Studies36 (9): 1475-94.
55.
WeiC.TangH.2007. “Owner Occupiers’ Committee: Potential Carrier of Democratic Growth in City Community.” [In Chinese.] Journal of Guangdong Institute of Public Administration19 (2): 76-81.
56.
WilliamsonT.2002. “Sprawl, Politics, and Participation: A Preliminary Analysis.” National Civic Review91 (3): 235-44.
57.
WuY.2010. “From Instrumental Rhetoric to Proactive Claims: The Constructive Significance of Homeowners’ Rightful Protest.” Paper Read at A Symposium on Homeowners Associations and the Reinvention of Grassroots Government in Urban China, City University of Hong Kong, China, August 17–19.
58.
XuC.LiuR.2005. “Homeowner Associations in Guangzhou.” [In Chinese.] Community2:7.
59.
YatesD. T.1973. Neighborhood Democracy: The Politics and Impacts of Decentralization. Lexington: Heath.
60.
ZaldM. N.1992. “Looking Backward to Look Forward: Reflection on the Past and Future of the Resource Mobilization Program.” In Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, edited by MorrisA. D.MuellerC. M., 326-48. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.
61.
ZhangL.2005. “Homeowner’s Rights Protection Movement: Reasons and Mobilization Mechanisms—Case Studies on Several Beijing Neighborhoods.” [In Chinese.] Sociology Studies6:1-39.
