This case is derived from Shenjiababeijie Compound of Xianyou District of Mianyang City in Sichuan Province. The Compound was established for the people of Shenjia Village, whose collectively owned land had been requisitioned by the government. It used to be noted for its large number of residents without work and high crime rate. However, now it has become a place where residents enjoy clean environment, good social order, and prosperity. A major contributing factor to such a transformation is its experiment with the governance mode by the name of “Loudongzhang + Fangdong” – meaning “building leaders plus landlords”.

Building leaders have five main responsibilities: 1) managing conflicts between neighbors; 2) managing garbage disposal and public hygiene; 3) promoting public safety; 4) registering new residents, and 5) providing services to renters. Given that many renters come from migrant population, building leaders play an important role in keeping the flow of communication between renters and Compound management. Such communication has raised Compound management’s awareness of some unique needs of migrant population, which in turn has led to targeted services for the residents from that population.

Building leaders, as a position, are rotated among 867 landlords in the Compound. This is mainly because they are the ones who benefit most economically from the buildings. These leaders have organized residents in the same building to engage in self-governance mainly in the forms of consensus building through deliberation. An added economic incentive for building leaders is the ranking of residents’ satisfaction with the management of their buildings, which is posted in major public space in the Compound. This ranking, as can be expected, has become an important criterion for renters to select their desired buildings.

The mode of “building leaders plus landlords” has improved governance of old residential communities by developing building leaders into an important player in community governance. For one thing, building leaders have enhanced the community’s self-governance capacity by motivating residents to participate in the governance of their community. For another, building leaders have facilitated effective communication among and across Compound management, residents, and migrant population, which has particularly improved services for those residents from migrant population.