Digital Governance in Ethnic Minority Regions: A Supportive Community Pathway from Structural Support to Governance Effectiveness

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-699-9_34How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Supportive Community; Digital Governance; Ethnic Minority Regions; Embeddedness Theory; Counterpart Assistance

Abstract

Digital governance in rural ethnic minority regions often runs into what practitioners call “technological suspension”-a disconnect between externally introduced technologies and the social structures they are meant to serve. Drawing on years of targeted assistance experience in Aba Prefecture, this study introduces the concept of a “supportive community” and builds an analytical framework that traces a trajectory from structural support, through adaptive embedding, to governance effectiveness. The findings show how external assistance and recipient communities interact to create the social conditions that allow digital governance to take root. Structural support works through resource investment, institutional grafting, and emotional bonding. Adaptive embedding follows, weaving technology into local life through technological translation, institutional buffering, and cultural adaptation. The result is governance effectiveness that shows up in better public services, stronger local industries, and more cohesive communities. By shifting the focus from technology deployment to social integration, this study extends governance community theory and offers a grounded perspective on the social foundations of digital governance-with implications for digital economy development and management practice in complex socio-cultural settings.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Baiyu Hu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/02
TI  - Digital Governance in Ethnic Minority Regions: A Supportive Community Pathway from Structural Support to Governance Effectiveness
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 4th International Conference on Digital Economy and Management Science (CDEMS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 313
EP  - 331
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-699-9_34
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-699-9_34
ID  - Hu2026
ER  -