Suchergebnisse

A plethora of new actors has in recent years entered China's environmental arena. In Western countries, the linkages and diffusion processes between such actors often drive environmental movements. Through a study of Chinese anti-incineration contention, *Chinese Environmental Contention: Linking Up against Waste Incineration* investigates how the different contentious actors in China's green sphere link up, and what this means for environmental contention. It addresses questions such as: What lies behind the notable increase of environmental protests in China? And what are the potentials for the emergence of an environmental movement? The book shows that a complex network of ties has emerged in China's environmental realm under Hu Jintao. Affected communities across the country have connected with each other and with national-level environmentalists, experts and lawyers. Such networked contention fosters both local campaigns and national-level policy advocacy. Beyond China, the detailed case studies shed light on the dynamics behind the diffusion of contention under restrictive political conditions.

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.