Thinking Vertically and Horizontally (思想纵横) The Resilient City as Dialectic--" Comprehensively promote the construction of resilient and safe cities" (全面推进韧性安全城市建设)

 

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 理论宣传是人民日报的核心优势之一。“思想纵横”栏目是理论版重点栏目。该栏目文章密切关注思想动态、理论前沿、舆论热点，紧紧围绕党中央关切、干部群众关注的时政热点问题，[Theoretical propaganda is one of the core strengths of People’s Daily. The "Thoughts" column is the key column of the theoretical edition. The articles in this column pay close attention to ideological trends, theoretical frontiers, and public opinion hot spots, and closely focus on current political hot issues that are of concern to the Party Central Committee and about which cadres and the masses ought to pay close attention.][思想纵横 中国新闻奖报纸、通讯社新闻专栏参评作品推荐表])

  Since 1990, China's People's Daily has hosted an essay program called Thinking Vertically and Horizontally (思想纵横)(website links HERE). The focus is mass line oriented--to educate the masses and at the same time to engage in a sort of horizontal dialectics (a feedback loop) that would enhance the relationship between the masses and the vanguard within the structures of Chinese Leninist engagement. That engagement, at its edges, would be shaped by the principle of democratic centralism--now transposed from its traditional location within the disciplinary and working style of Chinese Leninism, and generalized into a normative sensibility around which it would be possible, eventually, to develop an institutionalized structure for the mass line through the framework of consultative democracy-- , constrained at its outer boundaries by the principle of democratic centralism (generally HERE; Larry Catá Backer, “Whole Process People’s Democracy” (全过程人民民主) as Applied Constitutionalism: Linking People to Governing Institutions through Socialist Constitutional Democracy and Leninist Political Parties" (to be published in Guobin Zhu, Björn Ahl & Larry Catá Backer (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Constitutional Law (2024); for a recent study at the level of mass organizations and front line cadres: Jieren Hu & Tong Wu, '"Whole-Process People’s Democracy" in China: Evidence from Shanghai' (2023) Chin. Polit. Sci. Rev.).

A quite interesting review of  Thinking Vertically and Horizontally (思想纵横) was undertaken in 2020 and posted to the China Journalists Association Network ("Thinking vertically and horizontally: Recommendation form for works participating in the China New Awards newspaper and news agency news columns [思想纵横 中国新闻奖报纸、通讯社新闻专栏参评作品推荐表]).

As a theoretical "light cavalry", "Thoughts" closely focuses on the hot political issues that are of concern to the Party Central Committee and the concerns of cadres and the masses. It uses "thousand-character essays" to clarify "big principles" and uses words that cadres and the masses can understand and understand. Promoting the party's innovative theories to "fly into the homes of ordinary people" provides useful guidance for readers to understand current political events, grasp mainstream views, and deeply understand the party and the country's major policies and hot social issues. [《思想纵横》作为理论“轻骑兵”，紧紧围绕党中央关切、干部群众关注的时政热点问题，通过“千字文”阐明“大道理”，用干部群众听得懂、听得进的话语推动党的创新理论“飞入寻常百姓家”，为广大读者了解时政大事，把握主流观点，深入理解党和国家大政方针与社会热点问题提供了有益指导。] ([思想纵横 中国新闻奖报纸、通讯社新闻专栏参评作品推荐表])

One of the more interesting "thought" series recently has focused on the organization of the city. The city has assumed a sort of semiotic characteristic: it is an object, certainly, but its signification lies in the interactions among its citizens, and those interactions ae given meaning bas a function of their alignment with the vision, policy, and objectives of the vanguard in any current era of historical development (e.g., here; and here).

On 20 March 2024, The People's Daily published an article by Wen Hong, "Comprehensively promote the construction of resilient and safe cities (Vertical and Horizontal Ideology)" [文 宏 全面推进韧性安全城市建设（思想纵横]. Its focus is on the necessary for a system of measures--hard and soft, that responds to safety risks, including those that might touch on unspecified emergencies. In the process, however, the essay provides a quite useful window into the city as an ideological metaphor and its physical manifestations. As important, it suggests (and here the vertical and horizontal) the role of the masses within these systems to ensure optimal performance.  It is only one small step from this imagery to the algorithmic and generative complexities of smart cities. Of particular interest is the nexus between the operation of the city as object, signification, and ideological phenomenology in action and its resilience (an interesting choice of term) in the face of emergency. Resilience suggests an elasticity from which it is possible to stretch or change shape or form to meet surrounding conditions. The end of a resilient state, however, can vary.  Taking resilience as a dialectical process, the resilient city ought to come away from emergency different from (and if successful "better" as those things are measured as a function of the structuring ideology); yet taking resilience elasticity within a stable semiotic complex (eg, the city), then  reliance are semiotic "shock absorbers" to the vehicle that is the city. New Era theory's focus on innovation might suggest the more radical phenomenology--emergency as transforming dialectic in the forward progress of the city (re)shaped by stress which moves both practice and the theoretical foundations against which it is measured and framed, along with it. The more conservative approach--more likely to be appealing at the provincial and city level, however, might understand the emphasis on 不以规矩，不成方 [One cannot draw either square or circle without compass and ruler (ed: nothing can be accomplished without rules)] rather than on, for example, 六个必须坚持 [Six Musts] and its emphasis on 必须坚持守正创新 [We must adhere to integrity and innovation] or the reminder of 重大关系 （六个）[Significant Relationships (six)] emphasis on 正确处理守正与创新的关系 [Correctly handle the relationship between integrity and innovation ] (eg here). That is what makes the essay particularly interesting from the perspective of applied theory at the local and provisional levels.  And especially respecting the ideological value of emergency planning that is correctly mass centered (e.g.g 以人民为中心推进城市建设 上海市习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心 2020年06月16日 ['Promote urban construction with people as the center,' Shanghai Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era June 16, 2020]

The essay appears below in the original Chinese and in a crude English translation.  Also below the quite interesting exposition of the role of the Thinking Vertically and Horizontally column within the communications working style of the vanguard aligned with its mass line duties as elaborated  in China Journalists Association Network ("Thinking vertically and horizontally: Recommendation form for works participating in the China New Awards newspaper and news agency news columns [思想纵横 中国新闻奖报纸、通讯社新闻专栏参评作品推荐表]).

 

全面推进韧性安全城市建设（思想纵横）

文 宏 《 人民日报 》（ 2024年03月20日   第 09 版）

　　城市是社会生产生活的重要场所，承载着经济、政治、文化、社会等多方面功能。2023年，习近平总书记在上海考察时强调：“全面推进韧性安全城市建设”。韧性安全城市是指城市具有较强抗压、适应、恢复和可持续发展能力，能够预防和抵御内外多种风险冲击。全面推进韧性安全城市建设是应对当前城市安全发展形势的客观要求，是推动城市治理现代化的重要内容，也是提升人民群众获得感幸福感安全感的必然要求。

　　当今时代，城市已成为一个复杂社会系统。在城市的有限空间场域内，发展需求剧增，生产要素快速流动，各类传统和非传统安全风险也大大增多。这就要求提升城市治理体系和治理能力现代化水平，增强城市抗风险能力，及时防范和有效化解各类风险。同时，城市要实现高质量、可持续发展，需要形成安全高效的发展模式，完善安全治理格局，提高各种资源使用效率，疏解城市运行压力，确保城市健康运转。

　　城市韧性体现在许多方面，如经济韧性、社会韧性、空间韧性、生态韧性、治理韧性等。作为一项复杂系统工程，建设韧性安全城市要在尊重城市发展客观规律的基础上，从管理、技术、制度等多个方面持续推进城市治理现代化，统筹发展和安全，切实提升城市应急管理能力和可持续发展能力。

　　工欲善其事，必先利其器。推进韧性安全城市建设需要“软硬兼顾”，既要有能够有效应对各类风险的硬设施，又要有能够防范化解各类风险的软系统。习近平总书记指出：“要强化智能化管理，提高城市管理标准，更多运用互联网、大数据等信息技术手段，提高城市科学化、精细化、智能化管理水平。”要用智能技术为城市治理赋能，打造标准化的智慧城市大脑，特别是充分利用大数据、人工智能等信息技术，对灾害和风险进行动态感知、监测预警，建立数字化综合响应平台。要强化顶层设计，把韧性安全城市建设目标纳入城市总体规划，提升城市规划水平，完善韧性安全城市评价指标体系和标准体系，健全制度、完善政策，不断提高民生保障和公共服务供给水平。

　　建立健全应急预案体系，是提高城市安全韧性的重要保障。城市风险应急预案体现着对城市安全的前瞻性和科学性考量。由于城市风险因素多样多变，要对城市安全风险变化进行精准研判，及时把握安全风险的规律特点，采取有针对性的应对措施。这就要求将风险意识贯穿于应急预案体系建设全过程，在城市建设规划中充分考虑安全因素，强化安全准备。同时对重点领域、重大风险严防严控，做到心中有数、应对有方，切实防范化解城市运行中的各类风险。

　　不以规矩，不成方圆。制度是韧性安全城市建设的重要保障。一方面，在韧性安全城市建设涉及的规划、建设、管理、更新等各个环节，建立健全制度规范，以制度化、标准化、法治化方式，应对和化解城市运行的各类风险。另一方面，人是城市的核心。习近平总书记强调：“推进城市治理，根本目的是提升人民群众获得感、幸福感、安全感。”要坚持以人民为中心的发展思想，把增进民生福祉作为城市建设和治理的出发点和落脚点，认真解决涉及群众切身利益的问题，将人民城市人民建、人民城市为人民理念体现到韧性安全城市建设的具体实践中。我们要不断增强城市治理的安全韧性，构建宜居、宜业、宜学、宜游的城市生活环境，为在高质量发展中推进高水平文明城市建设打下坚实安全基础。

 Comprehensively promote the construction of resilient and safe cities (Vertical and Horizontal Ideology)

Wen Hong "People's Daily" (Page 09, March 20, 2024)

Cities are important places for social production and life, carrying economic, political, cultural, social and other functions. In 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during his inspection in Shanghai: "Comprehensively promote the construction of a resilient and safe city." Resilient and safe cities refer to cities that have strong capabilities to withstand stress, adapt, recover and sustainably develop, and are able to prevent and withstand various internal and external risk shocks. Comprehensively promoting the construction of resilient and safe cities is an objective requirement to respond to the current urban security development situation, an important part of promoting the modernization of urban governance, and an inevitable requirement to enhance the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security.

In today's era, the city has become a complex social system. In the limited space of the city, development needs have increased sharply, production factors have moved rapidly, and various traditional and non-traditional security risks have also greatly increased. This requires improving the modernization level of the urban governance system and governance capabilities, enhancing the city's ability to resist risks, and timely preventing and effectively resolving various risks. At the same time, if cities want to achieve high-quality and sustainable development, they need to form a safe and efficient development model, improve the safety governance pattern, improve the efficiency of the use of various resources, relieve the pressure on urban operations, and ensure the healthy operation of the city.

Urban resilience is reflected in many aspects, such as economic resilience, social resilience, spatial resilience, ecological resilience, governance resilience, etc. As a complex system project, building a resilient and safe city requires continuing to promote the modernization of urban governance from management, technology, systems and other aspects on the basis of respecting the objective laws of urban development, coordinating development and safety, and effectively improving urban emergency management capabilities and sustainable development capabilities.

If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools. Promoting the construction of a resilient and safe city requires "both soft and hard" measures. It requires both hard facilities that can effectively respond to various risks, and soft systems that can prevent and resolve various risks. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "It is necessary to strengthen intelligent management, improve urban management standards, make more use of information technology means such as the Internet and big data, and improve the level of scientific, refined and intelligent urban management." Intelligent technology must be used for urban governance Empower and create a standardized smart city brain, especially making full use of big data, artificial intelligence and other information technologies to dynamically perceive, monitor and warn disasters and risks, and establish a digital comprehensive response platform. It is necessary to strengthen top-level design, incorporate the goal of building a resilient and safe city into the city's overall planning, improve the level of urban planning, improve the evaluation index system and standard system for a resilient and safe city, improve systems and policies, and continuously improve people's livelihood security and public service supply.

Establishing and improving an emergency plan system is an important guarantee for improving urban safety and resilience. Urban risk emergency plans reflect forward-looking and scientific considerations for urban security. Since urban risk factors are diverse and changeable, it is necessary to accurately study and judge changes in urban safety risks, grasp the patterns and characteristics of safety risks in a timely manner, and adopt targeted response measures. This requires risk awareness to be integrated throughout the entire process of emergency plan system construction, safety factors to be fully considered in urban construction planning, and safety preparations to be strengthened. At the same time, we will strictly prevent and control key areas and major risks, so that we can be aware of them and respond well, and effectively prevent and resolve various risks in the operation of the city.

One cannot draw either square or circle without compass and ruler [ed: nothing can be accomplished without rules]. Institutions are an important guarantee for building a resilient and safe city. On the one hand, in all aspects of planning, construction, management, and renewal involved in building a resilient and safe city, establish and improve institutional norms to respond to and resolve various risks in urban operation in an institutionalized, standardized, and legalized manner. On the other hand, people are the core of the city. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "The fundamental purpose of promoting urban governance is to enhance the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security." We must adhere to the people-centered development idea and take improving people's livelihood and well-being as the starting point and goal of urban construction and governance. , conscientiously resolve issues involving the vital interests of the masses, and embody the concept of a people's city built by the people and a people's city for the people into the specific practice of building a resilient and safe city. We must continuously enhance the safety and resilience of urban governance, build an urban living environment that is suitable for living, working, studying, and traveling, and lay a solid security foundation for promoting the construction of a high-level civilized city in high-quality development.

 

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China Journalists Association Network ("Thinking vertically and horizontally: Recommendation form for works participating in the China New Awards newspaper and news agency news columns [思想纵横 中国新闻奖报纸、通讯社新闻专栏参评作品推荐表]).

理论宣传是人民日报的核心优势之一。“思想纵横”栏目是理论版重点栏目。该栏目文章密切关注思想动态、理论前沿、舆论热点，紧紧围绕党中央关切、干部群众关注的时政热点问题，从不同角度进行阐释、解读、探讨，旨在让理论贴近人们的思想和工作实际，用干部群众听得懂、听得进的话语推动党的创新理论“飞入寻常百姓家”，巩固马克思主义在意识形态领域的指导地位、巩固全党全国人民团结奋斗的共同思想基础。栏目文章定位理论“轻骑兵”，通过“千字文”阐明“大道理”。刊发文章选题精当、分析透彻、文风活泼、针对性强，善于以理论逻辑、历史逻辑、实践逻辑说服人。尤其突出问题意识，力戒泛泛而谈、无的放矢，为广大干部群众了解时政大事、把握主流观点、深入理解党和国家大政方针与社会热点问题提供有益指导。栏目创办31年来，始终保持正常出版态势，累计刊发稿件近2000篇，2020年度刊发稿件125篇。栏目文章具有以下特点：站位高，始终与党中央保持高度一致；选题准，聚焦党和国家关注、干部群众关心的重大问题，回应时代关切；思想性强，说理深刻透彻、严谨周密，努力帮助读者认识事物的本质和规律；作者权威广泛，大多为理论大家或知名学者，还包括热点人物、英雄模范等；时效性强，第一时间对中央最新精神和思想理论热点问题进行解读阐释。栏目积极推进媒体深度融合发展。多篇稿件被中宣部《学习活页文选》、《新华文摘》、《中国社会科学文摘》、《文摘报》等纸媒二次转载。网络平台转载全域推开，重点文章被中央网信办全网推送，人民日报媒体矩阵（人民网、人民日报两微一端、人民日报中央厨房、人民日报系子报子刊）转载传播；新华网等主流网站、新浪网等商业网站以重点文章进行转载；学习强国等官方APP、今日头条等商业平台均进行转发。栏目文章点击量高，产生多篇爆款文章。如张定宇《平凡人也能成为真英雄》，新浪微博文章话题“#张定宇人民日报撰文#”阅读量4150万次，进入热搜前20位；张桂梅《传承红色基因 培育时代新人》，新浪微博文章话题“#张桂梅在人民日报撰文#”阅读量破亿，进入热搜第7位。栏目注重创新媒体融合发展形式，在人民日报全媒体新闻平台（中央厨房）、全国党媒信息公共平台、学习强国平台等开设专号，积极扩大文章的传播覆盖面。

China Journalists Association Network ("Thinking vertically and horizontally: Recommendation form for works participating in the China New Awards newspaper and news agency news columns [思想纵横 中国新闻奖报纸、通讯社新闻专栏参评作品推荐表]).

Theoretical propaganda is one of the core strengths of the People’s Daily. The "Thoughts" column is the key column of the theoretical edition. Articles in this column pay close attention to ideological trends, theoretical frontiers, and public opinion hot spots, and focus on current political hot issues that are of concern to the Party Central Committee and to which cadres and the masses ought to pay close attention. They are interpreted, interpreted, and discussed from different angles, aiming to make the theory closer to people's thoughts and work practices. , use words that cadres and the masses can understand and listen to to promote the party's innovative theories to "fly into the homes of ordinary people", consolidate the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological field, and consolidate the common ideological foundation for the united struggle of the entire party and the people of the country. The column article positions the theoretical "light cavalry" and explains the "big principles" through the "thousand-character essay". The published articles have well-chosen topics, thorough analysis, lively writing style, and strong pertinence, and are good at persuading people with theoretical logic, historical logic, and practical logic. In particular, we highlight problem awareness and strive to avoid generalized and untargeted remarks, so as to provide useful guidance for the broad masses of cadres and the masses to understand current political events, grasp mainstream views, and deeply understand the party and the country's major policies and social hot issues. Since the column was founded 31 years ago, it has always maintained a normal publishing trend, with a total of nearly 2,000 articles published, and 125 articles published in 2020. The column articles have the following characteristics: they have a high position and are always highly consistent with the Party Central Committee; they select topics accurately, focus on major issues that are of concern to the party and the country, cadres and the masses, and respond to the concerns of the times; they are ideologically strong, and their reasoning is profound, thorough, rigorous and thoughtful, and they strive to help Readers understand the nature and laws of things; the authors have broad authority, and most of them are theorists or well-known scholars, including hot figures, heroic models, etc.; they are timely and can interpret and explain hot issues in the latest spiritual and ideological theories of the Central Committee as soon as possible. The column actively promotes the in-depth integration and development of media. Many manuscripts have been reprinted by print media such as "Study Loose-leaf Collection" of the Central Propaganda Department, "Xinhua Digest", "Chinese Social Sciences Digest", and "Digest Newspaper". Online platforms have reprinted the entire network, and key articles have been pushed to the entire network by the Central Cyberspace Administration of China. The People's Daily media matrix (People's Daily, People's Daily Weibo and One Terminal, People's Daily Central Kitchen, and People's Daily sub-newspapers and sub-magazines) have reprinted and disseminated them; Xinhuanet Mainstream websites such as Sina.com and commercial websites such as Sina reprint key articles; official apps such as Xuexue Qiangguo and commercial platforms such as Toutiao reprint them. Column articles have a high number of clicks and produce many popular articles. For example, Zhang Dingyu's "Ordinary People Can Become True Heroes", Sina Weibo's article topic "#张定宇People's Daily Author#" has been read 41.5 million times and entered the top 20 hot searches; Zhang Guimei's "Inheriting the Red Gene to Cultivate New Generations of the Era", Sina Weibo's The blog post topic "#张Guimei writes in People's Daily#" has been read more than 100 million times and ranked seventh in the hot search. The column focuses on innovative forms of media integration and development, and has opened special accounts on the People's Daily All-Media News Platform (Central Kitchen), the National Party Media Information Public Platform, and the Learning to Strengthen the Country Platform to actively expand the dissemination coverage of articles.