Research on Behavior of Residents’ Participation in Community Environmental GovernanceAnalysis based on the Framework of “Context-Process-Impact”

Promoting residents’ participation is not only an important part of community environmental governance, but also a prerequisite for the application of governance theory at community level. However, the issue of behavior evaluation and influencing factors of residents’ participation has not received enough attention. In this paper, the concept of residents’ participation intensity was put forward from the perspective of environmental social governance. Based on the survey data of 1896 residents in Taiyuan and Kunming, the theoretical framework of “context-process-impact” was constructed and structural equation model was adopted to analyze the relationship between participation intensity, influencing factors and possible impact of residents’ participation in community environmental governance. The results are as follows. (1) Residents’ average participation intensity and the participation level were not high, especially the participation in the public sphere and behaviors for decision-making were insufficient. (2) The “context” factors had a significantly positive impact on residents’ participation intensity and satisfaction, and the impact of social capital and governance elements was higher than that of institutional environment. (3) Residents’ participation intensity had a significant positive impact on satisfaction, and a significant mediating effect in the relationship of “context” factors and satisfaction. (4) There are significant differences in the relationship path of “context-process-impact” for residents with different genders, educational levels and living areas. (5) Cultivating community governance elements and improving residents’ participation intensity were the core measures for promoting effective implementation of governance theory and the benign operation of community environmental governance. This study is of great significance to understanding residents’ participation behavior and the applicability of governance theory.