Managing Boundaries in Urban China: Nonprofit Social Work Agencies’ Strategies in Community Governance

Abstract

Nonprofit social work agencies (NSWAs) play increasingly important roles in community governance by combining professional social work values with nonprofit organizational mandates. However, little is known about how these agencies manage organizational boundaries in state-led community governance contexts. Drawing on Organizational Boundary Theory, this study employs a qualitative case study of NPO Q in urban China. The analysis is based on 22 interviews with stakeholders from the public, private, and third sectors, as well as nonparticipant field observations and organizational documents. Findings show that NSWAs encounter spatial, institutional, and professional boundaries, which they manage through resident mobilization and incentives, professional embedding, and resource integration. Based on the findings, we conceptualize nonprofit boundary management as a boundary recalibration cycle. This framework advances existing theory by highlighting the recursive nature of boundary management in state-led governance systems and bridges nonprofit and social work scholarship by demonstrating how NSWAs strategically recalibrate organizational boundaries to balance governmental mandates, community needs, and professional values.