Popular Politics And The Quest For Justice In Contemporary China

The rise of popular politics is among one the most significant social and political developments the People’s Republic of China has witnessed in the post-Mao era. People from all walks of life have responded to rising inequalities and the privatization of collective goods with a new quest for justice. Although China has remained a censorial society under the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party, state-society relations are being remade by interventions of emergent publics through word and action. In this book, a group of anthropologists, specializing in Chinese society, examine various facets of popular politics, which are animated by the pursuit of justice, fairness and good government. The ethnographic chapters collectively analyse how ‘the political’ arises in particular judicial situations, provoking public judgements or other forms of critical engagement. Focusing on the interplay between private and public spaces, between morality and law and between speech and action, the contributors in this book explore how such engagements are changing Chinese society from the bottom-up. As the first systematic exploration of the relationship between popular politics, emergent publics and notions of justice in contemporary China, this book will be useful for students of Chinese Studies, Politics and Anthropology.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction - Judging the state: emerging publics and the quest for justice in contemporary China -- 1 'Battles over green space': land disputes, rights activism, and emerging publics in urban China -- 2 Making personal life political: political trajectories of everyday conversations in China's online communities -- 3 Marginalizing the law: corporate social responsibility, worker hotlines and the shifting grounds of rights consciousness in contemporary China -- 4 Judging publics and contested exclusion: the moral economy of citizenship in China -- 5 Policy documents: imaginations of the state and the struggle for justice in a Chinese land-losing village -- 6 Fighting for one's life: the making and unmaking of public goods in the Yunnanese countryside -- 7 Public Buddhist philosophy: civic engagement and discursive space among a religious group in Shanghai -- 8 Concealing and revealing senses of justice in rural China -- A brief afterword -- Index.

This book argues that a major part of the Chinese government’s road map, formulated in 2017, to modernise China comprehensively by 2049 is the process of social disciplining. It contends that the Chinese state sees that modernisation and modernity encompass not only economic and political–administrative change but are also related to the organisation of society in general and the disciplining of this society and its individuals to create people with “modernised” minds and behaviour; and that, moreover, the Chinese state is aspiring to a modernity with “Chinese characteristics”. The question of modernising by disciplining was extensively dealt with in the twentieth century by leading Western social scientists including Max Weber, Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault, who argued that disciplining, extending from external coercion towards the internalisation of restraints, is indispensable for achieving social order and thereby for “civilisation” –but defined from a European perspective, in relation to developments in Europe. This book therefore not only discusses the Chinese experience of social disciplining, but also, by looking at a non-Western society, identifies universal tendencies of societal change and social disciplining and separates them from particular occurrences.

As China rises as an economic and an international power, new relationships are being forged with all areas of the world including Central and Eastern Europe. This book explores how this relationship is developing. It considers how China’s links with Central and Eastern Europe fit in to China’s overall international relations strategies. It looks at economic and trade ties, diplomatic initiatives and the role of the European Union, and examines China’s bilateral relations with the different states of the region. These relationships are particularly interesting because before the end of communism in Eastern Europe China had many direct links with the countries of the region.

This book brings together multidisciplinary perspectives to explore how political values and acts of resistance impact the delivery of social justice in post-colonial states. Everyday life in post-colonial states, such as South Africa and Zimbabwe, is characterized by injustices that have both a historical and contemporary nature. From fishers in Cape Town accused of poaching, to residents of Bulawayo demanding access to water, this book focuses on the relationship between the state and groups that have been historically oppressed due to being on the margins of the political, economic and social system. It draws on empirical research from 12 scholars looking at cases in Brazil, India, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Chapters explore questions such as what citizens, especially those from marginalized groups, want from the state. The book looks at the political values of citizens and how these are formed in the process of engaging with the state and through everyday injustices. It also asks why and how citizens resist the state, with examples of protest, as well as less visible forms of resistance reflecting complex histories and power relations. Finally, the book explores how narratives and counter-narratives reveal the nature of political values and perceptions of what is just. Taken together these elements show the evolution of post-colonial social contracts. Examining important themes in political science, anthropology, sociology and urban geography, this book will appeal to scholars and students interested in political values, justice, social movements and resistance.

Has the current political system in the People's Republic of China lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the Chinese public? On the basis of three carefully drawn surveys of Beijing residents between 1995 and 1999, the author finds that diffuse support for the current political system—based on attitudes toward institutions and values—remains strong, at least among city-dwellers, though it is gradually declining. Specific support for current political authorities, as measured by evaluations of their performance in major policy domains, is much weaker, with many citizens evaluating the authorities' performance as mediocre. In analyzing the longitudinal data presented here, the author finds that the same set of key sociodemographic attributes and sociopolitical orientations variably influence citizens' attitudes toward the political system and their evaluations of leaders' performance. Further, the study shows that citizens' attitudes toward the system, on the one hand, and their evaluation of incumbents' performance on the other, have different impacts on forms of political participation, such as voting and contacting authorities.

How can the poor and weak 'work' a political system to their advantage? Drawing mainly on interviews and surveys in rural China, Kevin O'Brien and Lianjiang Li show that popular action often hinges on locating and exploiting divisions within the state. Otherwise powerless people use the rhetoric and commitments of the central government to try to fight misconduct by local officials, open up clogged channels of participation, and push back the frontiers of the permissible. This 'rightful resistance' has far-reaching implications for our understanding of contentious politics. As O'Brien and Li explore the origins, dynamics, and consequences of rightful resistance, they highlight similarities between collective action in places as varied as China, the former East Germany, and the United States, while suggesting how Chinese experiences speak to issues such as opportunities to protest, claims radicalization, tactical innovation, and the outcomes of contention.