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Negotiating Political Spaces: Social and Environmental Activism in the Chinese Countryside

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  • Bondes, Maria

Abstract

The proliferation of social organizations in China has engendered a lively debate about how to conceptualize these social forces. This paper argues that such a conceptualization should take into account the role that both the party-state and social actors attribute to social organizations. With an empirical case study from the western Chinese countryside, this paper explores how social organizations both adapt to the restrictive authoritarian framework and negotiate the spaces opening up to society in the realms of environmental and social politics. The study shows that while the party-state understands organizations as consultants and partners in service provision, they have a deviating self-image with the Western concepts of NGO and civil society becoming increasingly relevant as frames of reference. While their practices remain within the limits imposed by the authoritarian framework, they impact policy formulation, local political participation, and the formation of social networks according to their own self-image as members of a budding Chinese civil society.

Suggested Citation

  • Bondes, Maria, 2011. "Negotiating Political Spaces: Social and Environmental Activism in the Chinese Countryside," GIGA Working Papers 173, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:gigawp:173
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. White, Gordon & Howell, Jude A. & Shang Xiaoyuan,, 1996. "In Search of Civil Society: Market Reform and Social Change in Contemporary China," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198289562.
    2. Peter Ho, 2001. "Greening Without Conflict? Environmentalism, NGOs and Civil Society in China," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 893-921, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bondes, Maria & Heep, Sandra, 2012. "Frames We Can Believe In: Official Framing and Ideology in the CCP's Quest for Legitimacy," GIGA Working Papers 187, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.

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