Since the identification as the first pilot area of urban social governance modernization in China, Baoshan District has actively practiced the important concept of “the city of people is built by the people and for the people”, insisted on building a higher level of “safe Baoshan”, further innovated and improved the modern governance system of the leadership by Party Committee, government responsibility, group promotion, social coordination, and public participation, constantly deepened politics, rule of law, rule of virtue, autonomy, and rule of wisdom, built a “concentric circle” of city co-governance and a “command chain” of good governance, effectively prevented and resolved “five types of risks”, and embarked on a new way of city social governance with “national commonality, Shanghai individuality, and Baoshan characteristics”, contributing to Baoshan wisdom, providing Baoshan experience, and creating Baoshan model for city social governance in megacities.

Party building leads to the enhancement of the integration

“Shequtong” contributes to grass-roots governance. In Baoshan, “Shequtong”, an online community platform, has become a well-known good assistant for people living in Baoshan. As the nation’s first intelligent governance system led by the Party Committee, “Shequtong” supports and empowers grass-roots social governance with intelligence, enables village secretaries the convenience to “send orders with one click”, and endows the masses with the right to evaluate the services of problem handling. Through the establishment of “Community Center for Governing Wisdom”, community participation data has been deeply analyzed, based on which a portrait of a grass-root community is depicted. It is helpful to find the “pain points” of the masses and the “blocking points” of people’s livelihood in real time, building a community governance structure of “villagers-villages-streets and towns-districts”, effectively solving the bottleneck problems such as insufficient community participation and difficult accurate docking of demand resources, and activating the “nerve endings” of grass-roots governance to the maximum extent.

The “Red Boat of the Rule of Law” sailed into the streets, towns, and villages. Focusing on the party building brand project, Baoshan District actively meets the people’s growing demand for the rule of law and innovates the publicity methods of the rule of law. The District Law Society, the District Law Publicity Office, and the District Party Building Service Center jointly created the “Red Boat of Rule of Law -- Party Members’ Volunteer Service Base for the People”, introduced the intelligent interactive media system, realized online and offline synchronous law popularization, and formed a new brand of “Rule of Law Publicity + Party Building Service”. At the same time, they created a number of excellent courses, and organized popular publicity and legal service activities around minor protection, personal information protection, real estate transaction tax, etc., so as to expand brand influence and coverage. The theme salon of “Meet with French Afternoon Tea” was held in the secretary’s studio, driving the rule of law engine for party building to lead community governance, and continuously improving the people’s sense of gain and satisfaction.

Autonomous co-construction broadens the breadth of space.

Relying on “five villages linkage” to build a smart platform. One of the important tasks in urban social governance lies in the governance of rural areas, so as to strengthen social governance and ensure and support the full implementation of rural revitalization strategy. Luojing Town closely focuses on the rural revitalization strategy. Relying on the “five villages linkage”, the town builds a smart platform of “Safe Luojing” and “Legal Luojing”, and gradually builds a digital governance system for the whole process through the digitalization of rural space, fine management and control, and interactive governance, highlighting the work priorities of bottom line protection, fine management and control, resource guarantee, and interactive governance, and striving to create a model of digital governance at the grass-roots level, to boost high-quality rural revitalization, and to provide new modern governance experiences that can be referred, replicated, and promoted for other villages.

The “Yijie Studio” skillfully solves contradictions and disputes at the grass-roots level. The issue of residential property disputes is one of the major problems in today’s grass-roots social governance. By supporting the social organization “Yijie Studio”, Youyi Road Community participates in resolving conflicts and disputes in real estate in residential quarters, breaks through the bottleneck of the current system, optimizes the allocation of personnel in grass-roots organizations for resolving conflicts and disputes, and hands over some functions originally performed by the government to social organizations, so as to realize the benign interaction between government management and social mediation and promote the transformation of government functions. Since the establishment of “Yijie Studio”, it has received 332 property consultations, independently accepts more than 160 other property disputes in the community, carries out 18 empowerment trainings with over 720 participants, and successfully resolved 135 contradictions and disputes, promoting harmony and stability in the community.

Intellectual governance supports the acceleration of Baoshan development

In the implementation of the first national pilot area of social governance modernization in all the cities, Baoshan, as the only pilot area in Shanghai that claims the creation of “intellectual governance support”, firmly grasps the important strategic opportunity of the city’s digital transformation, creates excellent and crucial projects with characteristics, explores and establishes the “Baoshan intellectual governance model” of urban social governance in megacities, and provides a powerful boost for Baoshan District to build the main position of the city’s science and technology innovation center.

Build a digital base and create a “reservoir” of data resources. Through the technical infrastructure of “one cloud”, “one pool”, “two centers”, “three platforms”, 20,000 video surveillance channels, and 26,000 new Internet of Things (IoT) sensing terminals, Baoshan District has built a city operation and command center that can be seen, used, and linked. The management contents of various fields of urban operation are gradually integrated into the “1 +3 + N” system of urban transportation, and the district big data resource platform, district video IoT perception data sharing platform, and district electronic map sharing system have been built successively, and multiple theme libraries such as urban transportation and epidemic prevention and control have been constructed to realize one-time data collection and multiple utilization. Baoshan District focuses on creating a “dual cores and five circles” digital transformation demonstration ecosystem, taking Nanda Future Digital City as the model of urban information model, basically forming Nanda CIM model, and integrating digitalization into the whole life-cycle construction of Nanda Digital City. The district has also completed the construction and online test of the simplified version of visual AI algorithm platform. Since the pilot project, 1,186 incidents have occurred in only half a month, which strongly promotes the fine management of cities. Baoshan District creates a “two-dimensional code” management platform for urban physical components, realizing centralized empowerment and composite application across fields and departments, and creating a “digital portrait” for urban components.

Innovate digital application and enable the foreseeing capability of public security prevention and control. Since it was awarded the first batch of demonstration cities for networking application of public safety video surveillance in China in 2016, Baoshan District has always insisted on fighting through science and technology, continuously deepened the construction and application of “Keen Sight Project +” and “Smart Public Security” series projects, and completed the fourth phase of “Keen Sight Project” by the end of 2020, realizing full coverage of closed communities, open areas and buildings with urban “neuron” such as face recognition, vehicle recognition, and high-definition monitoring. At the same time, “Keen Sight Project” and “Smart Public Security” will be included in “smart city” and “smart government”, fully empowering the city to “manage by one network”, linking information, grid, and emergency departments to promote the implementation of the “Six ones” technical path of the district urban transportation center. 26,000 channels of non-police information, images, and video data are shared in real time. These information contributes to the establishment of a peacetime-wartime combination mechanism based on grid and emergency management. Baoshan plays an active role in building a “one network unified management” for urban operation, so as to build a comprehensive city safety skynet and ecology management to improve the actual performance of security construction.

Leverage technology empowerment to serve as a “good housekeeper” of social governance. By deploying AI + video structured system on the district urban transportation cloud, the urban transportation center can find and identify the scenes such as (non-)motor vehicles parking indiscrimination, garbage and muck accumulation, private construction, unsealed transportation of muck trucks/trucks with buckets, damage to public facilities such as manhole covers, water accumulation (damage) on the road surface, unclean water areas, and people trampling on green spaces. Through video surveillance and artificial intelligence analysis of community garbage classification, a closed-loop case processing has been effectively formed, and the intelligent and digital process of urban operation management can be further promoted.

Consolidate intelligent service and serve as a “shop assistant” for government service. With the goal of improving the quality of government services and enhancing the satisfaction and sense of gain of business enterprises and the masses, Baoshan District makes full use of modern information technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data, deepens the reform of “Government Online-Offline Shanghai” of government services, and promotes the online management of “AI + Government Online-Offline Shanghai” according to the work requirements of “immediate management, online management, nearby management, and one-time management”, effectively boosting the process of “time and space integration” of government services. Baoshan takes the lead in piloting the “Digital Source Project” in the whole city, launches the special services of “Intelligent Baoshan”, “Capable Baoshan”, and “Beneficial Baoshan”, continuously improves the systematization, integration, and intelligence level of government services, and promotes the transformation of “Government Online-Offline Shanghai” from “capable management” to “easy management”, and “willing management”.

Resolve contradictions and satisfy the people

Create a “golden signboard” for resolving contradictions and disputes in grass-roots communities. The current social governance is faced with problems of how to effectively resolving contradictions and disputes, how to ensure people to live and work in peace and contentment, and how to maintain social stability and order. The “Zhu Zhiren People’s Mediation Studio” in Gaojing Town has made an active exploration in this respect. Relying on the role and unique advantages of mediation system, the Studio creates a “golden signboard” for resolving contradictions and disputes in grass-roots communities in Baoshan District, applying the methods of “specialty + responsibility”, “jurisprudence + psychology”, “method + sincerity”, “online + offline”, and “teaching + helping”. Since the establishment of “Zhu Zhiren People’s Mediation Studio” in May 2013, the studio has received more than 500 batches of legal consultations, accepted more than 2,500 person, successfully mediated more than 250 contradictions and disputes, drafted more than 100 legal documents on behalf of others, and held dozens of lectures on “explaining law by cases”, which was well received by the masses and was praised as an activity “aiming at promoting the law for the people, while benevolent and responsible for people’s worries”.

Pay attention to psychological care and start the practice of good governance. Social psychological service is an important part of social governance. The Baoshan District Mental Health Center, which is the only professional mental health medical institution in the district, has given full play to its professional advantages, highlighted its discipline characteristics, and carried out psychological services ever since it carried out the pilot work of social psychological service system construction in the whole district, helping the people of the district greatly improve their mental health. In 2022, the center launched a psychological assistance project for grassroots personnel under the epidemic situation, focused on the psychological needs of front-line epidemic prevention personnel including village cadres and volunteers, and completed the video recording of 16 original psychological care courses. All grass-roots units and departments can choose courses according to their needs. The center helped relevant personnel cope with the negative effects of anxiety, insomnia, and occupational exhaustion caused by the epidemic, guided the grassroots personnel to do a good job of self-psychological care, and at the same time built a professional and high-quality social psychological service team to provide suitable psychological services for people in need, effectively resolving and reducing social contradictions and promoting the formation of a social governance psychological defense system of co-construction, governance, and sharing.

Moral education contributes to spiritual improvement.

The “most beautiful family” leads the new healthy atmosphere. Family is the cell of society and an important foundation of grass-roots social governance. “When one family becomes humane, the whole country will be stimulated to become humane”. Family education is also an important part of the moral community of the whole society. In recent years, the District Women’s Federation has taken the establishment and improvement of the civilized family selection mechanism as its entry point. Every year, the selection activity of “the most beautiful family in Baoshan District” is carried out in the whole district, and by holding a series of activities such as “Warm Family Culture Festival”, the typical characteristics such as “green family”, “scholarly family”, and “anti-epidemic family” are cultivated and found, and the touching stories of “the most beautiful family” lead the whole society to respect morality and be good and kind.

“Little Gentleman in Community” participates in social governance. Teenagers are the future of the motherland, the hope of the nation, and the continuous strugglers of the Party’s cause. The Communist Youth League Committee and the District Education Bureau uphold the educational practice idea of Tao Xingzhi’s small teacher system, which is inherited and internalized in local culture. They strengthen systematic planning, find out the matching point, foundry the working spirit of the Young Pioneers in the new era, and build close combination with the people’s concept of urban construction and the requirements of innovative community governance. The mechanism of “Little Gentleman in Community” has been introduced, which guides the Young Pioneers to start from an early age, from themselves, from their sides, and from small things, and drives their families to provide voluntary service and participate in community governance in the community, thus achieving the benefits of students, the willingness of parents, and the satisfaction of the community.

Social security reflects the city’s warm atmosphere.

In-depth visit and investigation ensure “safe and care”. Carrying out the “safe and care” action for drug addicts and minor children is an important measure to encourage drug addicts to return to society, help them establish a positive attitude towards life, and maintain social stability. Since 2020, Baoshan District Anti-drug Office has found that the minor children of 26 drug addicts are faced with problems such as no household registration, no student status, illness, and disability. The District Anti-drug Office timely communicates with relevant departments and towns in the district, and provides them with accurate support such as household registration, student status application, medical security, psychological counseling, and academic counseling. Xiao Zhang, the son of a drug addict, has been out of school for many years due to the household registration problem. The District Anti-drug Office, through coordinating the public security and education departments of the district, handled the household registration for Xiao Zhang in time, arranged him to attend school in the corresponding grade, and help him with his study by asking university student volunteers for help. The support strengthened Zhang’s confidence in quitting drug addiction and returning to society as soon as possible.

“Guardian Alliance” gives full play to the advantages of mass prevention and treatment. Group defense and group governance has always been an important working principle in the work of safety building. Under the new situation, how to give full play to the advantages of group defense and group governance and build the most solid cornerstone of building peace are the important topics for the continuous exploration and practice of political and legal work in the whole district. In recent years, the Political and Legal Committee of the District Party Committee and the District Public Security Bureau have carefully worked out the plan, accurately grasped the functional orientation, finely promoted the construction links, scientifically selected the construction sites to build 390 “Guardian Alliances” in crowded places such as large business districts, key units such as hospitals, schools, gas stations, and convenience stores, as well as various enterprises, institutions and residential quarters, which integrated the five functions of serving the people, preventing publicity, discovering hidden dangers, coordinating emergency response, and safeguarding security, including 137 “Safe houses”, 48 “Safe Merchants Alliances” and 205 “Care Guardian Groups”. Widely mobilize community property security, campus and hospital security, gas station and convenience store staff, duty personnel of enterprises and institutions, merchant employees, community activists, etc. to build a three-dimensional street patrol control and community care group guard system in Baoshan.

The rule of law guarantees the accuracy of innovative services

Optimize the business environment and adhere to the concept of goodwill and civilized implementation. The construction of social credit system is an important part of the construction of rule of law. District courts take the lead in actively exploring credit repair and trustworthy incentive mechanisms, issue the Certificate of Automatic Performance to the person subject to execution who voluntarily performs his/her obligations, broaden the effectiveness of the Certificate of Automatic Performance with standardized guidance, and supporting guarantee, improve the quality and efficiency of court execution, encourage the executed person to take the initiative to perform from the source by means of diversified social governance, create a good atmosphere of encouraging automatic performance and supporting honesty and trustworthiness, boost the construction of social credit system, optimize the business environment, and make “being punished for breaking promises” and “benefiting from keeping promises” become social consensus. It is an important manifestation of implementing the concept of good faith and civilized implementation and deepening the business environment ruled by law by service guarantee in the judicial field.

Inspection and adjustment docking make mediation more convenient and quicker. District procuratorates constantly practice and develop the “Fengqiao experience” in the new era, innovate working mechanisms, effectively resolve contradictions and disputes, and promote social harmony. In March 2022, the District Procuratorate and the District Judicial Bureau set up the city’s first mediation studio, and introduced third-party professional institutions to participate in the mediation of cases such as minor injuries, so as to deeply analyze legal principles, understand things and be reasonable, and promote the parties to reach a settlement. And 14 cases have been successfully mediated. In view of the special circumstances such as epidemic prevention and control, and the inconvenience of the parties, mobile working modes such as door-to-door mediation and online mediation are adopted to extend the studio to the people’s doorsteps, making mediation more convenient and faster.

Public safety shows the strength of governance.

Keep a close eye on “key little things” and do a good job in “people’s livelihood events”. Public safety is an important embodiment of social stability and good social order, and an important guarantee for people to live and work in peace and contentment. In recent years, Baoshan District Construction and Management Committee has been keeping a close eye on “key small things”, doing a good job in “people’s livelihood events”. The Committee coordinated gas companies to update 14.8 kilometers of potential risk pipelines in the community, led the public security department to crack down on “unsafe gas and bottles”, investigated 208 cylinders and 26 people received administrative detentions, promoted 10,000 residents in old communities to install gas leakage alarms, and installed “safe boxes” for old communities, organized various media and “community communication” to carry out publicity on safe gas use for 20 times, all of which greatly improved people’s sense of security and satisfaction.

Actively explore new modes of industry governance. Baoshan, as a traditional industrial base in the city, has many production-oriented enterprises within the district, and the hidden dangers of safety production cannot be ignored. In addition, traditional management concept and means are often applied in the way of working, which causes difficulties for management and poor governance effect. In this regard, the District Emergency Management Bureau changed the way of thinking, took the lead in the refrigerant transformation of ammonia-related refrigeration enterprises in the whole district, and actively explored a new mode of industry governance from post-event supervision to pre-event governance. Since the work was carried out in 2019, the original 19 ammonia-related refrigeration enterprises in the whole district have been reduced to eight, one of which has completed the overall transformation, three have completed the phased transformation, two are under transformation, and two are in the scheme design, involving more than 110 tons of liquid ammonia, effectively reducing the risk of safe operation in the whole city.