Fighting Covid-19 in rural communities: coordinated mobilization and reconstruction of community order in a village in Northern China

ABSTRACT Taking a remote village in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as a case study, this paper discusses how coordinated mobilization constructed a temporary grassroots-level emergency order in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The study reveals that the temporary emergency order was established through a combination of state power, villagers’ understanding of the infection risks of the coronavirus, and village self-management traditions. It finds that party members, elites, and villagers made a coordinated effort to mobilize and fight Covid-19. The paper concludes the state can effectively mobilize loosely-knit rural communities to face major risks such as the Covid-19 pandemic.