How Public Squares Shape Rural Governance in China

While public squares have traditionally been associated with democratic participation, this study explores how authoritarian states can transform and utilize these spaces for monitoring and controlling democratic expression while simultaneously creating new stages for state-society interactions that may have democratic undertones. Through ethnographic fieldwork in rural Sichuan province, this project analyzes how these squares influence the political imaginations, relationships, and behaviors of both villagers and local officials. The research combines archival analysis, spatial mapping, and ethnographic observation to document the physical features, daily usage patterns, and political implications of these spaces. By examining how the Chinese state and citizenry negotiate authoritarian control and democratic participation in localized spaces of everyday politics, this study contributes to our understanding of spatial politics, democratic participation under authoritarian control, and state-society relations in contemporary China.