Implementing bottom-up practices with top-down identities: the processes and strategies for renovating community spaces

Community space renovation is a core topic in community social work; however, the mainstream top-down construction model often suffers from insufficient local characteristics, limited resident participation, and neglect of its social and political aspects. Taking a social work team’s renovation practice as an example, this study proposes an alternative path: practitioners leverage their top-down identities to promote bottom-up practices. It further analyses three action strategies: community orientation, social network utilisation, and participatory empowerment. The study argues that despite China’s persistent strong state/weak society structure, government-supported practitioners still have room to adopt bottom-up approaches in community development through their own choices and actions.