Technological Implicit Control and Vertical Empowerment of Departments——A Case Study of the Urban Management Department in P District
In the context of a territorial management system characterized by strong upper-level directives and weaker local enforcement,existing research generally posits that,even with operational guidance authority,su-perior functional departments increasingly struggle to influence the operations of subordinate local management departments.However,the Urban Management Bureau in P District has emerged as a theoretically improbable case:Through the implementation of the"Smart Urban Management"platform,the P District Urban Manage-ment Bureau has achieved vertical empowerment over street-level teams.Grounded in the three control at-tributes of technology within organizations,this paper constructs an analytical framework for understanding technological implicit control and the vertical empowerment of departments.Through an in-depth analysis of the P District Urban Management Department case,it is revealed that the bureau,leveraging the"Smart Urban Management"platform,established a three-tier command platform,developed smart demonstration roads,and formulated data operational requirements.This facilitated the phantomization and hardening of vertical relation-ships,the technologicalization of power symbols in situ,and the role-based reconfiguration of actor relation-ships.These efforts propelled the production and reproduction of(residual)control authority,enhanced the u-tilization capacity of statutory powers,and acquired new technological control rights.The article demonstrates the agency of individual departments within formal systems,uncovering the micro—level power mechanisms that underlie the technological restructuring of vertical power relations between departments and the impact on the operational dynamics of hierarchical organizations.
Vertical Empowerment of DepartmentsTechnological Control RightsTechnological Implicit Control"Smart Urban Management"PlatformMarket Supervision Administration
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