Disaggregating the state: Networks and collective resistance in Shanghai

China Quarterly

Volumn , Issue 186, 2006, Pages 314-332

  Shi, Fayong ^a   Cai, Yongshun ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GOVERNMENT; POLITICAL POWER; SOCIAL PARTICIPATION; STATE BUILDING;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; SHANGHAI;

EID: 33745807957     PISSN: 03057410     EISSN: 14682648     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0305741006000178     Document Type: Article

References (54)

1. See, for example, Elizabeth Perry, "Shanghai's strike wave of 1957," The China Quarterly, No. 137 (1994), pp. 1-27;
2. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Student Protests in Twentieth-Century China: The View from Shanghai (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991).
3. Kevin O'Brien and Lianjiang Li, "Popular contention and its impact in rural China," Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 38, No. 3 (2005), pp. 235-259;
4. Yongshun Cai, "The resistance of Chinese laid-off workers in the reform period," The China Quarterly, No. 170 (2002), pp. 327-344.
5. Kevin O'Brien, "Rightful resistance," World Politics, Vol. 49, No. 1 (1996), pp. 31-55.
6. See, for example, Craig Calhoun, Neither Gods nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).
7. Unless otherwise specified, the materials used in this study were collected in the author's fieldwork in Shanghai from 2000 to 2002. The more than 50 people we interviewed included not only action leaders and participants but also government officials and media workers. We tried to reduce bias by taking account of the views of different parties involved in this event.
8. See, amond many others, Thomas Gold, Doug Guthrie and David Wank (eds.), Social Connections in China: Institutions, Culture and the Changing Nature of Guanxi (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
9. Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1996)
10. Mayfair Yang, Gifts, Favors and Banguets: The Art of Social Relationships in China (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994).
11. Yang, Gifts, Favors and Banquets, p. 465.
12. For example, see Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993), ch. 6
13. James Coleman, "Social capital in the creation of human capital," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 94 (1988), pp. 95-120.
14. See, among others, Bert Klandermans and Dirk Oegema, "Potentials, networks, motivations, and barriers: Steps toward participation in social movements," American Sociological Review, Vol. 52 (1987), pp. 519-531;
15. Gerald Marwell, Pamela Oliver and Ralph Prahl, "Social networks and collective action: A theory of the critical mass III," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 94 (1998), pp. 502-534.
16. Yongshun Cai, "Civil resistance and rule of law in China: The case of home owners' rights defense," paper presented at the Conference on "Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China," Harvard University, 29-31 October 2004.
17. Jiang Yihe and Song Yang, "Zhongchan jeceng yigu wenhe er jianding de liliang" ("The middle class: A modest but firm force") Xinwen zhoukan (China Newsweekly), 25 March 2002, pp. 31-33.
18. Residents in this community included blue-collar workers, white-collar workers, teachers, managers, business people and government officials.
19. Fang is not the real name of this person.
20. Benjamin L. Read, "Revitalizing the state's urban 'nerve tips'," The China Quarterly, No. 163 (2000), pp. 806-820.
21. About 41,000 households were under the jurisdiction of this street office.
22. Yongshun Cai, "Managed participation in China," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 199, No. 3 (2004), pp. 425-451;
23. Laura M. Luehrmann, "Facing citizen complaints in China, 1951-1996," Asian Survey, Vol. 43, No. 5 (2003), pp. 845-866;
24. Dong Qingmin, "Renmin neibu tufaxing qunti maodun de tedian jiqi chuli yuanze" ("The characteristics of the sudden collective action and the principles for resolution"), Lilun qianyan (Theoretical Frontiers), No. 13 (1999), pp. 7-9.
25. Xi Chen, "Chinese petitioners' tactics and their efficacy," paper presented at the conference on "Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China," Harvard University, 29-31 October 2004.
26. This may be due to the influence of the traditional way of addressing one's problems through the work unit system rather than direct confrontation with the state authority. See Tianjian Shi, Political Participation in Beijing (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997).
27. In Chinese society, it is common for students to respect their former teachers and maintain the teacher-student relationship after their graduation.
28. The committee checked whether Fang was organizing collective resistance by talking to some of her neighbours with whom the committee staff were familiar.
29. Tan is not the real name of this person.
30. Zhu Cuixia, "Beijing dongzhuang: Jijiang xiaoshi de shangfang cun" ("Dongzhuang of Beijing: A village of appealers that is to disappear"), Xinwen zhoukan, 1 April 2002, pp. 22-27.
31. China Journalism Yearbook 2000, p. 572.
32. The number of residents who participated in the collective resistance over the years was estimated to be less than 1,000.
33. Benjamin L. Reed, "Democratizing the neighborhood? New private housing and home-owner self-organization in urban China," The China Journal, Vol. 49 (2003), pp. 31-60.
34. These cadres started work before 1949 and thus received different retirement benefits from those who started work after 1949.
35. The ownership of the greenbelt was not specified in residents' deeds of ownership. But the municipal government regulated that greenbelts could not be destroyed without its permission.
36. Yongshun Cai, "Managed participation in China."
37. Dong Qingmin, "The characteristics of the sudden collective action and the principles for resolution."
38. There were people on duty in the complaints office at night.
39. This method did not work well because some work units were more sympathetic to their employees when they knew the truth.
40. As discussed later, this deputy acknowledged that she was cheated by the street affairs office.
41. Lianjiang Li, "Political trust in rural China," Modern China, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2003), pp. 228-258.
42. Tan reported that he believed that one previous activist betrayed him after persuasion by local cadres.
43. Wenhuibao is under the municipal Party committee, and the street office was not in a position to stop its journalists from helping the residents.
44. Li Kuisheng, "Renmen cheng wo 'fatan guaijie'" ("I am called a 'maverick' in the legal field"), Lushi yu fazhi (Lawyer and Law), No. 3 (1998), pp. 29-30.
45. Jiang Xiao, "'Fankui' zhong de fazhi guannian" ("Legal consciousness in the follow-up reports"), Xinwen zhanxian (News Frontier), No. 7 (2000), pp. 4-5.
46. Jiang Xiao, "'Fankui zhong de fazhi guannian" (Legal consiousness in the follow-up reports"), Xinwen zhanxian (News Frontier), No. 7 (2000), pp. 4-5.
47. Ni Ming, "'Jiaodian fangtan' menwai de liangzhi gongguan duiwu," ("Two lines outside the 'report on the focal issue'"), Neibu canyue (Reference), No. 8 (1999), pp. 15-16.
48. Dennis Chong, Collective Action and Civil Rights Movements (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
49. Elizabeth Perry and Li Xun, Proletarian Power: Shanghai in the Cultural Revolution (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997)
50. Yongshun Cai, "The resistance of Chinese laid-off workers in the reform period."
51. The term is from Robert Mnookin and Lewis Kornhauser, "Bargaining in the shadow of the law: The case of divorce," Yale Law Journal, Vol. 88 (1979), p. 950.
52. Kevin O'Brien, "Neither transgressive nor contained: Boundary-spanning contention in China," Mobilization, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2003), pp. 51-64.
53. The trust between Tan and that leader also contributed to his being offered the award twice more in 2001 and 2002.
54. Based on our collection, more than 30 reports on the BG case were published or broadcast by the local media.