The growing track record of polarization in China has led to increasing concern about poverty reduction. From an institutional arrangement standpoint, how the poverty-reduction institution are able to be well fitted into the market-driven system would be considered as a key component of the structural transformation of Chinese society. This research deals with how the empowerment of the poor could link to institutional innovation, and how the community becomes the crucial field where the subjectiveness of the poor could be constructed and practicable. The subjectiveness and intersubjectiveness of the poor is designed to be the logical start point of this research. They could be constructed during an integrated process, within which participatory methodology initiates the institutional arrangement on self- organization, building up public sphere or civil society. Participatory methodology shows its impact on the organizational innovation through entitlement for the poor, and challenges the power nexus in poor communities. This research also places the institutional construction for the poor in the discourse of modernity, rather than that of modernization.
