Neighbourhood Governance in Vietnam for Tackling the COVID-19 Pandemic: Focus on Megacities, Social Capital, Hierarchical Steering, and Collaborative Governance Theory

The concept of governance has gained widespread attention in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While community-centred governance has gained popularity, the current understanding of neighbourhood governance remains incomplete. Based on the collaborative governance theory, this study revisits a previous conceptual framework to analyse the dynamics of neighbourhood governance in Vietnam during the COVID-19 response. We surveyed 366 social workers in residential quarters, sub-quarters, and community COVID groups in two Vietnamese megacities (e.g., Hanoi capital, Ho Chi Minh City). The findings show the presence of collaboration drivers in the country’s neighbourhood governance. Specifically, neighbourhood social capital and governmental hierarchical steering emerge as two dynamics of effective neighbourhood governance. This research contributes to the current understanding of collaborative governance theory and the dynamics of neighbourhood governance and addresses previous discussions on assessing its effectiveness. From a practical perspective, this research offers a valuable tool for evaluating the effectiveness of neighbourhood governance and scholarship on enhancing its collaborative capacity.