Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T11:15:55.412Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Navigation, Circumvention and Brokerage: The Tricks of the Trade of Developing NGOs in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2017

Hans Jørgen Gåsemyr
Hans Jørgen Gåsemyr*
Affiliation:
University of Bergen, Norway and Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Chinese NGOs face strong coercive pressures and limitations yet have still emerged as notable actors in several issue areas. This article studies why and explains how a group of NGOs working on AIDS-related issues have been able to progress into relatively large and vibrant operations. It documents how NGO leaders have learned to navigate opportunities and risks, circumvent formal restrictions and broker pragmatic and largely informal arrangements that have enabled their organizations to grow and advance within China's authoritarian settings. The article contributes to the literature on Chinese NGO development and new institutionalism theory, and introduces a framework for studying NGOs based on their organizational forms and activities.

摘要

中国的非政府组织面临着强大的管控压力和限制, 但它们在一些领域仍然承担着重要角色。本文研究并解释了为什么一些参与艾滋病项目的非政府组织能够取得相对快速的发展并充满活力。研究阐释了在中国威权主义的背景下, 非政府组织领导者如何学会通过辨别机会和风险、规避正式限制, 并设法以务实的且主要是非正式的安排使他们的组织取得进步和发展。本研究不仅有助于丰富对中国非政府组织发展的研究和新制度主义理论, 而且建立了一个基于组织形式和活动研究非政府组织的研究框架。

Keywords

ChinaNGOcivil societyAIDSHIVinstitutions中国非政府组织民间社会艾滋病艾滋病病毒制度
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 229 , March 2017 , pp. 86 - 106
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alagappa, Muthiah. 2004. “Civil society and political change: an analytical framework.” In Alagappa, Muthiah (ed.), Civil Society and Political Change in Asia, Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 25–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J., and Powell, Walter W.. 1991. “The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields.” In Powell, Walter W. and DiMaggio, Paul J. (eds.), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. London: The University of Chicago Press, 63–82.Google Scholar
Gåsemyr, Hans Jørgen. 2015. “Twenty years of mobilising around AIDS in China: the main actors and influences behind organisational growth.” Asian Studies Review 39(4), 609–627.Google Scholar
Hall, Peter A., and Taylor, Rosemary C.R.. 1996. “Political science and the three new institutionalisms.” Political Studies 44(5), 936–957.Google Scholar
Hasmath, Reza, and Hsu, Jennifer Y.J.. 2014. “Isomorphic pressures, epistemic communities and state–NGO collaboration in China.” The China Quarterly 220, 936–954.Google Scholar
Hatton, Cecilia. 2015. “100 women: China's feminists undeterred by detentions,” BBC.co.uk, 2 December, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34971739. Accessed 2 December 2015.Google Scholar
He, Alex Jingwei, and Huang, Genghua. 2015. “Fighting for migrant labor rights in the world's factory: legitimacy, resource constraints and strategies of grassroots migrant labor NGOs in South China.” Journal of Contemporary China 24(93), 471–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hildebrandt, Timothy. 2013. Social Organizations and the Authoritarian State in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Howell, Jude. 2015. “Shall we dance? Welfarist incorporation and the politics of state–labour NGO relations.” The China Quarterly 223, 702–723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howell, Jude, and Pearce, Jenny. 2001. Civil Society and Development: A Critical Exploration. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Hsu, Carolyn L., and Jiang, Yuzhou. 2015. “An institutional approach to Chinese NGOs: state alliance versus state avoidance resource strategies.” The China Quarterly 221, 100–122.Google Scholar
Hsu, Jennifer Y.J., and Hasmath, Reza. 2014. “The local corporatist state and NGO relations in China.” Journal of Contemporary China 27(87), 516–534.Google Scholar
Huang, Yanzhong, and Jia, Ping. 2014. “The Global Fund's China legacy.” IIGG Working Paper, Council on Foreign Relations, New York.Google Scholar
Jing, Yijia. 2015. “Between control and empowerment: governmental strategies towards the development of the non-profit sector in China.” Asian Studies Review 39(4), 589–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, Joan. 2009. “The role of NGOs in China's AIDS crisis: challenges and possibilities.” In Schwartz, Jonathan and Shieh, Shawn (eds.), State and Society Responses to Social Welfare Needs in China. London: Routledge, 156–173.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Pan, Jennifer and Roberts, Margaret E.. 2013. “How censorship in China allows government criticism but silences collective expression.” American Political Science Review 107(2), 326–343.Google Scholar
Liu, Peifeng. 2007. “Reflections on NGO legislation in China.” Social Sciences in China 2007(2), 105–115.Google Scholar
Ma, Qiusha. 2006. Non-governmental Organizations in Contemporary China: Paving the Way to a Civil Society? London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mahoney, James, and Thelen, Kathleen. 2010. “A theory of gradual institutional change.” In Mahoney, James and Thelen, Kathleen (eds.), Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency and Power. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1–37.Google Scholar
Saich, Tony. 2000. “Negotiating the state: the development of social organizations in China.” The China Quarterly 161, 124–141.Google Scholar
Salamon, Lester M., Woijciech Sokolowski, S. and List, Regina. 2004. “Global civil society: an overview.” In Salamon, Lester M. and Woijciech Sokolowski, S. (eds.), Global Civil Society: Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 3–60.Google Scholar
Shallcross, David, and Kuo, Nana. 2012. “The expectations and realities of NGO registration: a study of HIV/AIDS groups in Sichuan and Yunnan.” China Development Brief, http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.cn/?p=1353. Accessed 26 March 2013.Google Scholar
Stern, Rachel E., and O'Brien, Kevin. 2012. “Politics at the boundary: mixed signals and the Chinese state.” Modern China 38(2), 174–198.Google Scholar
Sun, Jianping, Liu, Hui, Li, Hui, Wang, Liqiu, Guo, Haoyan, Shan, Duo, Bulterys, Marc, et al. 2010. “Contributions of international cooperation projects to the HIV/AIDS response in China.” International Journal of Epidemiology 39, ii14–ii20.Google Scholar
Tam, Jonathan, and Hasmath, Reza. 2015. “Nagivating uncertainty: the survival strategies of religious NGOs in China.” Journal of Civil Society 11(3), 283–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teets, Jessica C. 2014. Civil Society under Authoritarianism: The China Model. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tsai, Kellee S. 2007. Capitalism without Democracy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Nations, United. 2002. “HIV/AIDS: China's titanic peril, 2001 update of the AIDS situation and needs assessment report.” Theme Group on HIV/AIDS in China, http://www.hivpolicy.org/Library/HPP000056.pdf. Accessed 17 November 2016.Google Scholar
Wang, Yanguang. 2006. Aizibing yufang zhengce lunli (A Study on Chinese AIDS Preventive Policy and Ethical Issues) . Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press.Google Scholar
Wong, Edward. 2010. “AIDS activist leaves China for US, citing pressure,” The New York Times, 10 May, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/world/asia/11beijing.html. Accessed 10 September 2014.Google Scholar
Yang, Guobin. 2005. “Environmental NGOs and institutional dynamics in China.” The China Quarterly 181, 46–66.Google Scholar
Yang, Katja M., and Alpermann, Björn. 2014. “Children and youth NGOs in China: social activism between embeddedness and marginalization.” China Information 28(3), 311–337.Google Scholar
Young, Nick. 2003. “Does this cat catch mice?” China Development Brief, 1 July, http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.com. Accessed 20 February 2007.Google Scholar
Zhang, Yuanfeng. 2015. “Dependent interdependence: the complicated dance of government-nonprofit relations in China.” Voluntas 26, 2395–2423.Google Scholar