The “Back-Basket Line” as an Institutional Experiment of Inclusive Redundant Capacity— A Mechanistic Analysis of Human-Centered Governance, Inclusive Service, and Governance Modernization in Megacities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18063/lne.v3i6.1172Keywords:
Back-Basket Line, Human-Centered Governance, Inclusive Service, Governance Modernization, Inclusive Service UnitAbstract
This report examines Chongqing’s “Back-Basket Line” as a case study, engaging with the problem nexus of human-centeredness—shared inclusivity—governance modernization. It introduces the institutional concept of Inclusive Service Unit (ISU), defined as “inclusive redundant capacity,” and proposes a social welfare increment function (ΔW) as an evaluative framework. This function incorporates vegetable farmers’ profits, urban consumers’ surplus, and inclusivity/trust dividends on the benefit side, while accounting for operational expenditures, capital amortization, farebox opportunity costs, and externality governance costs on the burden side. Methodologically, the study employs qualitative case analysis, stakeholder mapping via a “governance community” model, and cost–benefit estimation, triangulated through multi-method cross-validation. Findings show that under non-peak windows with soft constraints (caps, time slots, packaging/cleanliness protocols), typical farmers realize a daily net income gain of about 78.5 RMB, or ~18,840 RMB annually. Additional benefits include annual cash savings on transport (~4,560 RMB), time savings (~768 hours), and indirect gains such as lower spoilage and price premiums. Conversely, when peak-hour overlap remains low, farebox opportunity costs fall within “noise” levels, though risks of capital return dilution and congestion externalities require caution. The report distills four transferable design principles: verifiable redundancy, low-interference embedding, micro-cost hedging, and end-to-end closure. The contribution lies in translating the normative rhetoric of “urban warmth” into an auditable and comparable metric framework, furnishing falsifiable propositions and a toolbox-style pathway. It offers theoretical and policy reference for megacities seeking low-marginal-cost incremental equity within existing infrastructure.
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