Isomorphic Pressures, Epistemic Communities and State-NGO Collaboration in China

Dr. Reza Hasmath speaks on the relationship between the state and NGOs in China.

This study suggests that a lack of meaningful collaboration between the state and NGOs in China is not necessarily a result of a state that is seeking to restrict the development of the sector, or a fear of a potential opposing actor to the state. Instead, interviews with NGOs suggest that a lack of meaningful collaboration between the state and NGOs can be partially attributed to isomorphic pressures within state-NGO relations, and insufficient epistemic awareness of NGO activities and their utility on the part of the state. In fact, the evidence suggests that once epistemic awareness is achieved by the state, they will have a stronger desire to work with NGOs – with the caveat that the state will seek to utilize the material power of NGOs rather than their symbolic, interpretive or geographical capital.

Biography:

Reza Hasmath (PhD, Cambridge) is a Lecturer in Chinese Politics at the University of Oxford. He has held faculty positions at the Universities of Toronto and Melbourne, and has worked for various think-tanks, development agencies, and NGOs in Canada, USA, Australia and China. His research can be summarized in threefold: (1) analyzing evolving state-society relationships in China; (2) examining the education and labour market experiences of ethnic minorities in the Canadian, American, Australian and Chinese contexts; and (3) assessing the theories and practices of international development and differential treatment in international society. He is the author of Ethnicity in Contemporary Urban China, The Ethnic Penalty: Immigration, Education and the Labour Market, and A Comparative Study of Minority Development in China and Canada; and has edited the collections Inclusive Growth, Welfare and Development Policy: A Critical Assessment, The Chinese Corporatist State: Adaptation, Survival and Resistance (with J.Y.J. Hsu), China in an Era of Transition: Understanding Contemporary State and Society Actors (with J.Y.J. Hsu), and Managing Ethnic Diversity: Meanings and Practices from an International Perspective.

Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies