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. 2025 Jun 26:13:1604293.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1604293. eCollection 2025.

Administrative logic of grassroots community epidemic prevention from the perspective of attention allocation: evidence from Wuhan City

Yanhua Zhang  1 , Zuying Xu  2 , Jiaxi Xu  3
Affiliations

Administrative logic of grassroots community epidemic prevention from the perspective of attention allocation: evidence from Wuhan City

Yanhua Zhang et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Chinese grassroots governments utilize fewer administrative resources to carry out tasks assigned by higher levels of government. They have refined their attention allocation into two dimensions: intensity and span, and have developed different action models for routine and non-routine tasks. This management style is becoming increasingly common in Chinese grassroots government operations.

Methods: This paper presented a multiple case study of policy practices in Wuhan City, Hubei Province. The study analyzed the attention allocation practices of China's grassroots government in high-pressure situations, particularly during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Results: Grassroots governments can conserve attention resources by allocating attention efficiently and flexibly to deal with the dilemma of 'too many tasks with too little power'. We summarized three models of coping by grassroots governments: (1) Attention allocation model in routine tasks; (2) Attention model in non-routine tasks; and (3) Routinization model through attention diversion.

Conclusion: This paper presented a framework for explaining grassroots government behavior from an attention allocation perspective. We also identified some limitations of this model, both as a complement to attention allocation research and for a better understanding of grassroots government behavior in China.

Keywords: attention allocation; attention intensity; attention spans; emergency management; epidemic prevention; grassroots government.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Attention allocation in routine and non-routine task scenarios.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Attention changes in non-routine task scenarios.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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