Smart Community Governance from an Empowerment Perspective: A Case Study of the Guidong Community Residents' Innovation Lab Empowerment Project

With the acceleration of urbanization and the deepening of grassroots democratization, residents' demands for participation in and decision-making regarding community public affairs are increasing. However, traditional community consultation and deliberation methods often suffer from problems such as monotonous forms, low participation, and low decision-making efficiency, making it difficult to meet the diverse needs of residents in the process of community governance, while also lacking the professional participation of social workers. This study takes the Chengdu Guidong Community Resident Innovation Lab Empowerment Program as an example to explore how social workers can play a role in trustworthy community governance. As an innovative practice of grassroots governance in Chengdu, trustworthy community governance, by introducing the concept of trust, enables the community to build a sustainable development relationship of mutual benefit, win-win cooperation, mutual assistance, and mutual trust among all stakeholders, reducing trust deficiencies, lowering communication and collaboration costs, and improving the effectiveness of grassroots governance through co-construction, co-governance, and shared benefits.