Author: Peter Ho
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134080549
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 277
Book Description
In recent years China has been remarkable in achieving extraordinary economic transformation, yet without fundamental political change. To many observers this would seem to imply a weakness in Chinese civil society. However, though the idea of democracy as multitudes of citizens taking to the streets may be attractive, it is simultaneously misleading as it disregards the nature of political change taking place in China today: a gradual shift towards a polity adapted to a pluralist society. At the same time, one may wonder what the limited political space implies for the development of a social movement in China. This book explores this question by focusing on one of the most active areas of Chinese civil society: the environment. China’s Embedded Activism argues that China’s semi-authoritarian limitations on the freedom of association and speech, coupled with increased social spaces for civic action has created a milieu in which activism occurs in an embedded fashion. The semi-authoritarian atmosphere is restrictive of, but paradoxically, also conducive to nationwide, collective action with less risk of social instability and repression at the hand of the governing elite. Rich in case studies about environmental civic organizations in China, and written by a team of international experts on social movements, NGOs, democratization, and civil society, this book addresses a wide readership of students, scholars and professionals interested in development, geography and environment, political change, and contemporary Chinese society.
China's Embedded Activism
Author: Peter Ho
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134080549
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 277
Book Description
In recent years China has been remarkable in achieving extraordinary economic transformation, yet without fundamental political change. To many observers this would seem to imply a weakness in Chinese civil society. However, though the idea of democracy as multitudes of citizens taking to the streets may be attractive, it is simultaneously misleading as it disregards the nature of political change taking place in China today: a gradual shift towards a polity adapted to a pluralist society. At the same time, one may wonder what the limited political space implies for the development of a social movement in China. This book explores this question by focusing on one of the most active areas of Chinese civil society: the environment. China’s Embedded Activism argues that China’s semi-authoritarian limitations on the freedom of association and speech, coupled with increased social spaces for civic action has created a milieu in which activism occurs in an embedded fashion. The semi-authoritarian atmosphere is restrictive of, but paradoxically, also conducive to nationwide, collective action with less risk of social instability and repression at the hand of the governing elite. Rich in case studies about environmental civic organizations in China, and written by a team of international experts on social movements, NGOs, democratization, and civil society, this book addresses a wide readership of students, scholars and professionals interested in development, geography and environment, political change, and contemporary Chinese society.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134080549
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 277
Book Description
In recent years China has been remarkable in achieving extraordinary economic transformation, yet without fundamental political change. To many observers this would seem to imply a weakness in Chinese civil society. However, though the idea of democracy as multitudes of citizens taking to the streets may be attractive, it is simultaneously misleading as it disregards the nature of political change taking place in China today: a gradual shift towards a polity adapted to a pluralist society. At the same time, one may wonder what the limited political space implies for the development of a social movement in China. This book explores this question by focusing on one of the most active areas of Chinese civil society: the environment. China’s Embedded Activism argues that China’s semi-authoritarian limitations on the freedom of association and speech, coupled with increased social spaces for civic action has created a milieu in which activism occurs in an embedded fashion. The semi-authoritarian atmosphere is restrictive of, but paradoxically, also conducive to nationwide, collective action with less risk of social instability and repression at the hand of the governing elite. Rich in case studies about environmental civic organizations in China, and written by a team of international experts on social movements, NGOs, democratization, and civil society, this book addresses a wide readership of students, scholars and professionals interested in development, geography and environment, political change, and contemporary Chinese society.
The Other Digital China
Author: Jing Wang
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674980921
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
A scholar and activist tells the story of change makers operating within the Chinese Communist system, whose ideas of social action necessarily differ from those dominant in Western, liberal societies. The Chinese government has increased digital censorship under Xi Jinping. Why? Because online activism works; it is perceived as a threat in halls of power. In The Other Digital China, Jing Wang, a scholar at MIT and an activist in China, shatters the view that citizens of nonliberal societies are either brainwashed or complicit, either imprisoned for speaking out or paralyzed by fear. Instead, Wang shows the impact of a less confrontational kind of activism. Whereas Westerners tend to equate action with open criticism and street revolutions, Chinese activists are building an invisible and quiet coalition to bring incremental progress to their society. Many Chinese change makers practice nonconfrontational activism. They prefer to walk around obstacles rather than break through them, tactfully navigating between what is lawful and what is illegitimate. The Other Digital China describes this massive gray zone where NGOs, digital entrepreneurs, university students, IT companies like Tencent and Sina, and tech communities operate. They study the policy winds in Beijing, devising ways to press their case without antagonizing a regime where taboo terms fluctuate at different moments. What emerges is an ever-expanding networked activism on a grand scale. Under extreme ideological constraints, the majority of Chinese activists opt for neither revolution nor inertia. They share a mentality common in China: rules are meant to be bent, if not resisted.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674980921
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
A scholar and activist tells the story of change makers operating within the Chinese Communist system, whose ideas of social action necessarily differ from those dominant in Western, liberal societies. The Chinese government has increased digital censorship under Xi Jinping. Why? Because online activism works; it is perceived as a threat in halls of power. In The Other Digital China, Jing Wang, a scholar at MIT and an activist in China, shatters the view that citizens of nonliberal societies are either brainwashed or complicit, either imprisoned for speaking out or paralyzed by fear. Instead, Wang shows the impact of a less confrontational kind of activism. Whereas Westerners tend to equate action with open criticism and street revolutions, Chinese activists are building an invisible and quiet coalition to bring incremental progress to their society. Many Chinese change makers practice nonconfrontational activism. They prefer to walk around obstacles rather than break through them, tactfully navigating between what is lawful and what is illegitimate. The Other Digital China describes this massive gray zone where NGOs, digital entrepreneurs, university students, IT companies like Tencent and Sina, and tech communities operate. They study the policy winds in Beijing, devising ways to press their case without antagonizing a regime where taboo terms fluctuate at different moments. What emerges is an ever-expanding networked activism on a grand scale. Under extreme ideological constraints, the majority of Chinese activists opt for neither revolution nor inertia. They share a mentality common in China: rules are meant to be bent, if not resisted.
Environmental Activism in China
Author: Lei Xie
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415478693
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 231
Book Description
This book, based on extensive original research, adopts a multi-disciplinary research approach to examine environmental activism in China, focusing on four cities. It analyses the nature, characteristics, strategies, organizational modes and influence of what could be labeled a Chinese environmental movement in-the-making.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415478693
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 231
Book Description
This book, based on extensive original research, adopts a multi-disciplinary research approach to examine environmental activism in China, focusing on four cities. It analyses the nature, characteristics, strategies, organizational modes and influence of what could be labeled a Chinese environmental movement in-the-making.
Environmental Activism, Social Media, and Protest in China
Author: Elizabeth Brunner
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793606137
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 201
Book Description
Environmental Activism, Social Media, and Protest in China: Becoming Activists over Wild Public Networks builds upon existing social movement scholarship in communication studies, China studies, and sociology by analyzing China’s vibrant contemporary environmental protests. Using news reports, social media feeds, and conversations with witnesses and participants in the protests, Elizabeth Brunner examines three important antiparaxylene (PX) protests: the 2007 protests in Xiamen, the 2011 protests in Dalian, and the 2014 protests in Maoming. Brunner argues for the treatment of protests as forces majeure and asserts the legitimacy of wild public networks. Brunner stresses that scholars must take a networked approach to social movements as new media become valid platforms for furthering social change, especially in areas where censorship is common.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793606137
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 201
Book Description
Environmental Activism, Social Media, and Protest in China: Becoming Activists over Wild Public Networks builds upon existing social movement scholarship in communication studies, China studies, and sociology by analyzing China’s vibrant contemporary environmental protests. Using news reports, social media feeds, and conversations with witnesses and participants in the protests, Elizabeth Brunner examines three important antiparaxylene (PX) protests: the 2007 protests in Xiamen, the 2011 protests in Dalian, and the 2014 protests in Maoming. Brunner argues for the treatment of protests as forces majeure and asserts the legitimacy of wild public networks. Brunner stresses that scholars must take a networked approach to social movements as new media become valid platforms for furthering social change, especially in areas where censorship is common.
Russian Civil Society: A Critical Assessment
Author: Alfred B. Evans
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317460456
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 387
Book Description
A vibrant civil society - characterized by the independently organized activity of people as citizens, undirected by state authority - is an essential support for the development of freedom, democracy, and prosperity. Thus it has been one important indicator of the success of post-communist transitions. This volume undertakes a systematic analysis of the development of civil society in post-Soviet Russia. An introduction and two historical chapters provide background, followed by chapters that analyze the Russian context and consider the roles of the media, business, organized crime, the church, the village, and the Putin administration in shaping the terrain of public life. Eight case studies then illustrate the range and depth of actual citizen organizations in various national and local community settings, and a concluding chapter weighs the findings and distills comparisons and conclusions.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317460456
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 387
Book Description
A vibrant civil society - characterized by the independently organized activity of people as citizens, undirected by state authority - is an essential support for the development of freedom, democracy, and prosperity. Thus it has been one important indicator of the success of post-communist transitions. This volume undertakes a systematic analysis of the development of civil society in post-Soviet Russia. An introduction and two historical chapters provide background, followed by chapters that analyze the Russian context and consider the roles of the media, business, organized crime, the church, the village, and the Putin administration in shaping the terrain of public life. Eight case studies then illustrate the range and depth of actual citizen organizations in various national and local community settings, and a concluding chapter weighs the findings and distills comparisons and conclusions.
Mobilizing Without the Masses
Author: Diana Fu
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108420540
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 211
Book Description
How do weak activists organize under repression? This book theorizes a dynamic of contention called mobilizing without the masses.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108420540
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 211
Book Description
How do weak activists organize under repression? This book theorizes a dynamic of contention called mobilizing without the masses.
Traces of Grand Peace
Author: Jaeyoon Song
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1684170826
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 453
Book Description
Since the second century BC the Confucian Classics, endorsed by the successive ruling houses of imperial China, had stood in tension with the statist ideals of “big government.” In Northern Song China (960–1127), a group of reform-minded statesmen and thinkers sought to remove the tension between the two by revisiting the highly controversial classic, the Rituals of Zhou: the administrative blueprint of an archaic bureaucratic state with the six ministries of some 370 offices staffed by close to 94,000 men. With their revisionist approaches, they reinvented it as the constitution of state activism. Most importantly, the reform-councilor Wang Anshi’s (1021–1086) new commentary on the Rituals of Zhou rose to preeminence during the New Policies period (ca. 1068–1125), only to be swept into the dustbin of history afterward. By reconstructing his revisionist exegesis from its partial remains, this book illuminates the interplay between classics, thinkers, and government in statist reform, and explains why the uneasy marriage between classics and state activism had to fail in imperial China.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1684170826
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 453
Book Description
Since the second century BC the Confucian Classics, endorsed by the successive ruling houses of imperial China, had stood in tension with the statist ideals of “big government.” In Northern Song China (960–1127), a group of reform-minded statesmen and thinkers sought to remove the tension between the two by revisiting the highly controversial classic, the Rituals of Zhou: the administrative blueprint of an archaic bureaucratic state with the six ministries of some 370 offices staffed by close to 94,000 men. With their revisionist approaches, they reinvented it as the constitution of state activism. Most importantly, the reform-councilor Wang Anshi’s (1021–1086) new commentary on the Rituals of Zhou rose to preeminence during the New Policies period (ca. 1068–1125), only to be swept into the dustbin of history afterward. By reconstructing his revisionist exegesis from its partial remains, this book illuminates the interplay between classics, thinkers, and government in statist reform, and explains why the uneasy marriage between classics and state activism had to fail in imperial China.
Associations and the Chinese State: Contested Spaces
Author: Jonathan Unger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317476336
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
What role do Chinese popular associations play in the expansion of civil society and democratization? Under Mao few associations were permitted to exist, while today over 200,000 associations are officially recognized. Are they important foundations of civil society, or vehicles for state corporatism and control? In this book leading China specialists examine an interesting range of associations, from business associations to trade unions, to urban homeowners associations, women's groups against domestic violence, and rural NGOs that develop anti-poverty programs. The contributors find different important trends underway in different parts of China's economy and society. Their findings are nuanced, insightful - and often not what might be expected.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317476336
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
What role do Chinese popular associations play in the expansion of civil society and democratization? Under Mao few associations were permitted to exist, while today over 200,000 associations are officially recognized. Are they important foundations of civil society, or vehicles for state corporatism and control? In this book leading China specialists examine an interesting range of associations, from business associations to trade unions, to urban homeowners associations, women's groups against domestic violence, and rural NGOs that develop anti-poverty programs. The contributors find different important trends underway in different parts of China's economy and society. Their findings are nuanced, insightful - and often not what might be expected.
Civil Society Networks in China and Vietnam
Author: A. Wells-Dang
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230380212
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
This book brings a fresh, original approach to understand social action in China and Vietnam through the conceptual lens of informal environmental and health networks. It shows how citizens in non-democratic states actively create informal pathways for advocacy and the development of functioning civil societies.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230380212
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
This book brings a fresh, original approach to understand social action in China and Vietnam through the conceptual lens of informal environmental and health networks. It shows how citizens in non-democratic states actively create informal pathways for advocacy and the development of functioning civil societies.
Urban Mobilizations and New Media in Contemporary China
Author: Lisheng Dong
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317003705
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212
Book Description
Popular protests are on the rise in China. However, since protesters rely on existing channels of participation and on patronage by elite backers, the state has been able to stymie attempts to generalize resistance and no large scale political movements have significantly challenged party rule. Yet the Chinese state is not monolithic. Decentralization has increased the power of local authorities, creating space for policy innovations and opening up the political opportunity structure. Popular protest in China - particularly in urban realm- not only benefits from the political fragmentation of the state, but also from the political communications revolution. The question of how and to what extent the internet can be used for mobilizing popular resistance in China is hotly debated. The government, virtual social organizations, and individual netizens both cooperate and compete with each other on the web. New media both increases the scope of the mobilizers and the mobilized (thereby creating new social capital), and provides the government with new means of social control (thereby limiting the political impact of the growing social capital). This volume is the first of its kind to assess the ways new media influence the mobilization of popular resistance and its possible effects in China today.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317003705
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212
Book Description
Popular protests are on the rise in China. However, since protesters rely on existing channels of participation and on patronage by elite backers, the state has been able to stymie attempts to generalize resistance and no large scale political movements have significantly challenged party rule. Yet the Chinese state is not monolithic. Decentralization has increased the power of local authorities, creating space for policy innovations and opening up the political opportunity structure. Popular protest in China - particularly in urban realm- not only benefits from the political fragmentation of the state, but also from the political communications revolution. The question of how and to what extent the internet can be used for mobilizing popular resistance in China is hotly debated. The government, virtual social organizations, and individual netizens both cooperate and compete with each other on the web. New media both increases the scope of the mobilizers and the mobilized (thereby creating new social capital), and provides the government with new means of social control (thereby limiting the political impact of the growing social capital). This volume is the first of its kind to assess the ways new media influence the mobilization of popular resistance and its possible effects in China today.