The Many Forms of Environmental Activism in China: Linking Local and Global?

Featured Speaker: Mujun Zhou, Center for Chinese Studies postdoctoral fellow 2015-2016
Panelist/Discussant: Peter Lorentzen, Political Science, UC Berkeley

Sponsors: Center for Chinese Studies (CCS), Institute of East Asian Studies

The reconstruction of China’s civil society in the 1990s started from environmental activism. Liberal intellectuals and activists saw the environmental movement as an ideal starter for China’s democratization, as environmental protection was a relatively desensitized topic compared to many other political issues in the country. Today, despite authoritarian repression, environmental activism of various kinds are flourishing, and becoming increasingly professional and specialized. This talk introduces three forms of activism: “rights-defending campaigns” organized by victims of environmental hazards; education campaigns with urban middle-class residents as their major participants; and NGO-organized campaigns targeted on China’s enterprises investing oversea. Using data collected from ethnographic study in China, the speaker will focus on the question of “scale:” To what extent and in what way could activists grown out of local struggles be mobilized to engage issues at a more general level? What are the constraints for activism at local, or even national level in China to become an organic part of the global civil society?

Part of the Environmental China series.