The paper, based on seven months of intensive ethnographic fieldwork in two neighbouring villages in north China, describes a more complicated relationship between members' political involvement and community social development than is generally perceived in literature. The intriguing mechanisms and contents of political participation presented call for a close examination of grassroots political economy, local authority, democratic institutions, and community organizing in the specific social contexts of post-socialist rural China under reforms. The study argues that a context-sensitive understanding of participatory democracy and community development is necessary for the success of macro social work practices, and therefore needs to be built into the curriculum of community organizing and international social work and addressed in social work professional training.

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