Cultural alchemy of the state: effectiveness, standardization, and the governance of grassroots public cultural services in China

Abstract

This paper critically investigates the cultural politics inherent in China’s pursuit of enhanced grassroots public cultural service effectiveness. Drawing on a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of 51 national demonstration projects, the study identifies four configurational pathways to effectiveness: resource-dependent, strategy-outcome oriented, process-driven, and comprehensive multi-dimensional types. These pathways correspond to varying regional resource endowments and development contexts. Resource assurance capacity emerges as a pivotal condition, but its significance extends beyond material support: it functions as a governance tool through which the state establishes administrative dependency, requiring localities to conform to standardized models in exchange for resources. This dependency, compounded by the state’s imperative to replicate “successful models,” systematically erodes endogenous cultural vitality. It does so through two mechanisms: standardized formats displace informal local practices, and communities’ capacity for autonomous cultural innovation atrophies. The findings illuminate a core tension: while the state strengthens governance capacity by incorporating local innovations into replicable models via resource control, this very standardization suppresses local variations and diminishes grassroots cultural distinctiveness. Theoretically, this study advances understanding of cultural governance by revealing how performance metrics function as technologies of “governance at a distance,” transforming complex cultural practices into calculable outputs while masking the political work they perform. Practically, it offers policymakers a diagnostic framework for recognizing when standardization threatens cultural diversity and provides guidance for designing tiered governance approaches that balance efficiency gains with the preservation of local cultural vitality.