To strengthen and innovate in social governance is to put all measures of social governance into effect, focus on the outstanding problems that affect urban security, restrict development and provoke debate among the public, thus bringing a sense of gain and happiness to the people. In the past five years, through the remarkable achievements made in the fields of social construction, grassroots governance reform and urban management innovation, Shanghai has managed to work out a new approach to social governance in line with the characteristics and laws of megalopolises.

First of all, the joint efforts for social governance work have basically taken shape, and the relations have been further straightened out. The municipal Party committee, focusing on the principle that "people are the core, urban and rural communities are the emphasis and  institutional innovation is the key", carries out special investigations every year, establishes and improves the coordination mechanism and guides the units stationed in the communities, community and social organizations and community residents to actively participate in community governance in order to form systems and clarify responsibilities, and the management teams responsible for housing management, greening and city appearance etc. have carried out their work in streets and towns of each district. Second, the reform of grass-roots governance has been progressing in an orderly manner, and the strength of the grassroots team has been further enhanced. The  Opinions on Further Innovating Social Governance and Strengthening Grassroots Construction and 6 supporting documents have been issued, which specify the cancellation of the streets’ function to attract investment, the guarantee to undertake the streets’ whole expenditures, the exploration of the delegation of responsibilities of municipal and district functional departments and the strengthening of public services, public administration and public safety in the streets; the enhancement of the autonomy of residents (villagers) and the improvement of the list and access mechanism for the urban (village) committees to assist administrative matters in accordance with the law; the necessity of strengthening the construction of community grassroots teams, improving the professional training and occupational development mechanisms, and actively implementing the policy that Secretaries of residential districts are treated in line with their posts. Actively expanding the scale of community workers, and raising their salaries; completing the construction of the public management platform for the municipal government to purchase services, strengthening the construction of service centers of social organizations, and basically establishing such centers in all districts and towns. Third, urban management has been gradually improved, and the comprehensive and grid management of the city further deepened. Improve the population management mechanism of "real population, real housing, real units", and explore the integral system management measures for personnel to Shanghai; explore the unified code of social credit and the "integration of three examinations into one" reform, and gradually realize the interaction among urban grid management and large linkage, joint logistics, "12345" public service hotline; pay close attention to the outstanding "five violations" issues including the illegal use of land, illegal construction, illegal operation, illegal sewage and illegal residence, and make efforts to solve the problems relating to city management; the grid management platform has been completed in all streets and towns, grid management extends from town to village, and the management content covers many fields directly related to people's life. 2017 is a crucial year for the implementation of the "13th Five-Year Plan" in Shanghai, and also marks continuous improvement in social construction. Shanghai shall actively implement the "four new acts", continue to promote the comprehensive reform and long-term infrastructure in the social sector, and ensure the sustained development of the vitality and power of social development. Therefore, we must continue to exert great efforts and deepen the innovation of urban social governance in the following five aspects: First, continue to exert great efforts, deepen constantly, improve the ability of social governance, and enhance the vitality of social development. First of all, strengthen the Party building at the grass-roots level and actively promote autonomy and multi-governance in community. Second, continue to deepen the social governance innovation at the grass-roots level, pay more attention to the benefits of the masses, and always focus on solving the outstanding issues the masses react strongly, so that the masses have a real sense of access. Third, actively promote the town to explore the establishment of community funds (association), open diversified investment channels for community governance, improve the bottom-up formation mechanism of community multi-governance issues, fully implement public services list, two-way claim system in the community, and form two-way service and co-construction and sharing between community and resident units. Second, strengthen the practice of governing by law, make good use of legal thinking and legal means to solve the problems in city governance, and make efforts to form a new pattern of the legalization for urban comprehensive management. First of all, improve the overall capacity of city governance, enhance the ability of grass-roots team in legal thinking, legal knowledge and administration of law and management, strengthen the standardized management of law enforcement auxiliary personnel, and continuously test the ability level of grass roots team in improving weak points. Second, build the one-stop "Internet plus" public service platform, so that the government's administration by law and its public decision-making should be more scientific and precise under the background in which the services economy in Shanghai has accounted for 70%, and the city management level has been in a higher stage of development. Third, actively develop the major administrative decision-making, solicit public opinion on the rules of procedure, actively pilot major livelihood decision-making matters, carry out the investigation system of public opinions, so that the introduction of urban management and community governance public policy can better reflect the people's wishes, public opinion, and meet the reasonable expectations of the public. Third, intensify the intelligent management, improve urban management standards, and make more use of the Internet, big data and other information technology means to increase the scientific, fine and intelligent management level of the city. First of all, strengthen the use of smart city technology in the social field, speed up the construction of urban comprehensive management data resource center, and combine various modern technical means to improve the refinement and accuracy of urban operation management. Secondly, rely on information technology to promote the integration and sharing of educational resources, build the medical convenience service system, and provide more convenient and integrated transportation service information. Third, rely on the construction of e-government, further implement the matters relating to basic living and security of residents in the community, and solve problems in the neighborhood, as well as any service hall within the city, and improve service convenience. Fourth, focus on intelligent pension and actively create the convenient, inclusive intelligent community life. Fourth, speed up improving the weak points, focus on the outstanding issues that affect urban security, restrict development and provoke debate among the masses, strengthen the comprehensive administration, form a normal and long-term management mechanism, and strive to make the city more orderly, safer and cleaner. First of all, strengthen urban public safety and risk management. implement territorial management responsibility of personnel intensive, key places, and strengthen investigation of the hidden dangers in urban traffic trunk and urban lifeline corridor; strengthen the mail, express delivery concerns and logistics transportation safety management activities, adhere to the prevention and control of financial fraud and fraud telecommunications network; strengthen the comprehensive management and departments linkage, and reduce public security and public security problems caused by disorderly flow of population; strengthen the management of the outstanding problems such as food safety, and focus on regulation and supervision of Internet sales, online ordering and third party trading platform. Second, actively prevent and resolve social conflicts, improve the multiple resolving mechanism of contradictions and disputes, and play the unique role of social forces in resolving conflicts and disputes; focus on grassroots property disputes, medical disputes, traffic accident disputes, strengthen the construction of professional mediation work platform; better play the function of petition work as social relief valve. Fifth, give full play to the role of society in all its aspects, stimulate the vitality of the whole society, discuss matters concerning the masses with the masses themselves, and encourage everyone to participate in such matters. First of all, actively promote social forces to participate in community governance, support the development of community social organizations, and play the role of public management platform for government purchasing services. Second, on policies concerning urban management and major livelihood issues, decision-making departments and policy enforcement departments shall consider solving the problems the masses are "worried about and looking forward to solving", and pay attention to the balance of multiple interests, make more efforts to give explanations and guide social expectations. Third, further optimize the supportive policies such as finance and taxation, develop public welfare, social service organizations and grass-roots social organizations; perfect the service mechanism for government purchasing services of social organization, establish and improve operation of public management platform for government purchasing services in urban and district areas; establish and perfect the corporate governance structure and operation mechanism, and improve the council and board of supervisors and other internal management institutions.

Yang Xiong           Researcher of Institute of Sociology of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences