本书是由德国科学联合会（DFG）和德国经济合作部共同资助的“关于中国地方参与进程中的政治意识研究”的最终成果之一。作者对中国六个省份或经济特区的社区和村庄进行了考察，对相关人员进行了多次访谈。在大量比较研究的基础上，研究了制度变迁在草根层面上（农村和城市社区）对相关人员（农民、普通市民和地方干部）的意识的影响。本项目共分为两卷，第一卷即本卷致办于中国城市的研究；第三卷致力手农村地区的研究。一本卷从稳定和合法性的角度、从中国农村和城市的政治意识的角度，研究农村和城市居民区的转型及其对地方政府的政权稳定的影响和对全国层面的影响。

In this first scientific survey of political participation in the People's Republic of China, Tianjian Shi identifies twenty-eight participatory acts and groups them into seven areas: voting, campaign activities, appeals, adversarial activities, cronyism, resistance, and boycotts. What he finds will surprise many observers. Political participation in a closed society is not necessarily characterized by passive citizens driven by regime mobilization aimed at carrying out predetermined goals. Beijing citizens acknowledge that they actively engage in various voluntary participatory acts to articulate their interests. In a society where communication channels are controlled by the government, Shi discovers, access to information from unofficial means becomes the single most important determinant for people's engaging in participatory acts. Government-sponsored channels of appeal are easily accessible to ordinary citizens, so socioeconomic resources are unimportant in determining who uses these channels. Instead, voter turnout is found to be associated with the type of work unit a person belongs to, subjective evaluations of one's own economic status, and party affiliation. Those most likely to engage in campaign activities, adversarial activities, cronyism, resistance, and boycotts are the more disadvantaged groups in Beijing. While political participation in the West fosters a sense of identification, the unconventional modes of participation in Beijing undermine the existing political order.