Document Type
Journal Article
Department/Unit
Department of Sociology
Language
English
Abstract
An extensive literature on social movements points to the role of social networks in movement recruitment and development. It is anomalous, therefore, that treatments of Chinese social movements seldom acknowledge the importance of guanxi networks. Theories of social movements are typically constructed on the basis of US and European cases and draw upon the intellectual formations of these regions. Through an examination of social movements in contemporary China it is shown that guanxi is not only relevant to the operation of social movements but to our understanding of how social movements are formed and also how they are suppressed and undermined by the state. It will be shown that by theorising social movements in China in terms of guanxi there is scope to augment social network approaches to social movements.
Keywords
collective action, framing, guanxi, repression, social movement, social networks
Publication Date
2017
Source Publication Title
Sociology
Volume
51
Issue
1
Start Page
111
End Page
126
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed
1
DOI
10.1177/0038038516656993
ISSN (print)
00380385
ISSN (electronic)
14698684
APA Citation
Qi, X. (2017). Social Movements in China: Augmenting Mainstream Theory with Guanxi. Sociology, 51 (1), 111-126. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038516656993