9632990 Zatz This project examines Chinese community policing during the economic reform era. Chinese informal social control practices are rooted in China's historical, social and cultural traditions. By focusing on community policing during this transitional period, this project will contribute to our understanding of community policing globally. Braithwaite's (1989) theory of reintegrative shaming serves as the theoretical framework. The primary social conditions for reintegrative shaming are communitarianism and interdependency. Although the Chinese community has been largely shaped by the state, which inevitably deviates from the Western conceptualization of community, the Chinese decentralized and informal social control strategies at the grass-roots level entail the essence of a community-based social control system. By identifying key variables central to Chinese community policing, this research will unveil how, in the Chinese context, contradictions between law and order are reconciled, the interdependent relationship between the community and the police is sustained, and residents are mobilized. The research setting consists of two communities in Shanghai, China. Sites are selected to reflect contrasting socioeconomic characteristics of the community. Multiple research methods are employed, including historical, documentary and policy analysis, field work, and a survey of neighborhood residents to test and elaborate the theory of reintegrative shaming In the: Chinese context %%%%
