Political Science 244d Contentious Politics in Contemporary China Kevin J. O'Brien. 791 Barrows Office Hours: By Appt. (T, W, Th) 712 Barrows

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1 Political Science 244d Contentious Politics in Contemporary China Kevin J. O'Brien Spring 2012 Wednesday 12-2pm, 791 Barrows Office Hours: By Appt. (T, W, Th) 712 Barrows Course Description: Much political behavior, particularly in countries such as China, does not take place within institutionalized channels. This is mainly because the Party/State aggregates preferences poorly and the popular classes often become frustrated with existing opportunities for participation. Moreover, honest elections occur only at the lowest levels -- if at all -- and many forms of political activity are forbidden. In these circumstances, how do ordinary Chinese press for attention to their grievances and for a modicum of responsiveness? In this seminar, we will investigate how concepts developed to study social movements and collective action help (or fail to help!) us understand protest in contemporary China. Substantively, we will examine the origins, dynamics and outcomes of contention and the politics of repression and accommodation. We will range from open challenges to authority to "everyday forms of resistance," to actions that are veiled, even questionably political. We will pay particular attention to forms of contention that are somewhat noisier and more overt than everyday resistance yet still fall far short of open rebellion. Course materials: 1) Yongshun Cai, Collective Resistance in China: Why Popular Protests Succeed or Fail (Stanford, 2010) 2) Ching Kwan Lee, Against the Law: Labor Protests in China s Rustbelt and Sunbelt (California, 2007) paperback 3) Kevin J. O Brien and Lianjiang Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China (Cambridge, 2006) paperback 4) Kevin J. O Brien, ed. Popular Protest in China (Harvard, 2008) paperback 5) Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics, 3 rd edition, (Cambridge, 2011) paperback 6) Guobin Yang, The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online (Columbia, 2009) paperback 7) A packet of book chapters and articles not available on the Web 8) Articles on the web, available through UCB library electronic journals tab Course Requirements: 1

2 3 seminar papers (30% of final grade) -- Due Monday at 5pm of the three weeks for which a student is responsible. (Copies should be ed to each seminar member and to the instructor). Each paper (no more than 3-4 double-spaced pages) should critically engage the readings assigned for that week. Students may focus on gaps or conflicts in one or more of the readings and may bring in relevant material from other courses. The purpose of these papers is to stimulate class discussion. Papers should not be a summary but rather an effort to highlight an important substantive or theoretical point (or points), a methodological issue, and/or an assumption that underlies or permeates the reading(s). Efforts should be made to explore ways in which the readings relate to each other and how they help us improve our understanding of popular contention and/or Chinese politics. You might also consider how the readings speak to other areas of political science or other areas of the world with which you are familiar. During class, each author will need to be ready to explain (and expand upon) the points he or she raised. Hint: When preparing your papers, pretend you are an overburdened student racing to figure out "why this article or book is so important" the night before your qualifying exams page research paper or a take-home essay exam (50% of final grade). If there is sufficient demand, students may also opt to do a take-home exam made up of two essay questions. Class participation (20% of course grade) -- All students will be expected to participate in class discussions and to come to class prepared to consider the seminar papers for that week. Jan. 18) Introduction and Ground Rules Background Reading Jean Philippe Beja, The Massacre s Long Shadow, Elizabeth J. Perry, A New Rights Consciousness?, Ching Kwan Lee and Eli Friedman, The Labor Movement, Kevin J. O Brien, Rural Protest, Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, Middle-Class Mobilization, Guobin Yang, Online Activism, and Andrew J. Nathan, Authoritarian Impermanence, all in Journal of Democracy 20:3 (July 2009): 5-40 (on web) Jan. 25) Thinking about Contention: Concepts from the Social Movement Literature Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics (Cambridge, 2011) (entire, but skim chapters 3 and 10 focusing on summaries; pay attention to concepts over empirics and examples) Jeff Goodwin and James M. Jasper, "Caught in a Winding, Snarling Vine: The Structural Bias of a Political Process Theory," Sociological Forum 14:1 (1999): (a critique of the above for their lack of attention to culture and agency) (on web) Sidney Tarrow, Prologue: The New Contentious Politics in China: Poor and Blank or Rich and Complex? in Popular Protest in China, pp Kevin J. O Brien and Lianjiang Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China, preface 2

3 Feb. 1) Thinking About Contention: Forms of Resistance Jocelyn A. Hollander and Rachel L. Einwohner, Conceptualizing Resistance, Sociological Forum 19:4 (2004): (on web) Everyday Resistance: James C. Scott, Everyday Forms of Resistance, in Forrest D. Colburn (ed.), Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (M.E. Sharpe, 1989), pp (in reader) More Noisy, Overt Forms of Resistance under State Socialism: Kevin J. O Brien and Lianjiang Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China, Rightful Resistance, chapter 1 Jeremy Brooke Straughn, Taking the State at its Word : The Arts of Consentful Contention in the German Democratic Republic, American Journal of Sociology, 110:6 (May 2005): (focus on similarities and differences with O Brien/Li chapter) (on web) Kathy Lemons Walker, From Covert to Overt: Everyday Politics in China and the Implications for Transnational Agrarian Movements, Journal of Agrarian Change 8:2 and 3 (April and July 2008): (on web) Feb. 8) Applying Theories to China: First Cuts Social Movement Concepts Meet Chinese Cases Kevin J. O Brien, Collective Action in the Chinese Countryside, China Journal 48 (July 2002): (rural protest sorted by social movement concepts) (on web) Kevin J. O Brien and Rachel E. Stern, Studying Contention in Contemporary China, in Popular Protest in China, pp (what s been done and an agenda for the future) Elizabeth J. Perry, Challenging the Mandate of Heaven: Popular Protest in Modern China, Critical Asian Studies 33:2 (2001): (doubts about this enterprise and the case for more attention to history) (on web) Everyday Resistance in China 3

4 Calvin Chen, Work, Conformity, and Defiance: Strategies of Resistance and Control in China s Township and Village Enterprises, in Jacob Eyferth, How China Works: Perspectives on the Twentieth-Century Industrial Workplace (Routledge, 2006), pp (in reader) Lucien Bianco, The Weapons of the Weak: a Critical View, China Perspectives 22 (March-April 1999): 4-16 (a critique of the Kelliher/Zhou line on decollectivization) (in reader) Feb. 15) Opportunities to Act Up David S. Meyer, Protest and Political Opportunities, Annual Review of Sociology 30 (2004): (on web) Kevin J. O Brien and Lianjiang Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China, Opportunities and Perceptions, chapter 2 (quasi-structuralists who still want to make room for perceptions) Teresa Wright, "Student Movements in China and Taiwan, in Popular Protest in China, pp (opportunities in comparative perspective) Jonathan Hassid, China s Contentious Journalists: Reconceptualizing the Media, Problems of Post-Communism 55:4 (July/August 2008): (also attention to grievances) (on web) Xi Chen, Collective Petitioning and Institutional Conversion, in Popular Protest in China, pp (historical institutionalism comes to the social movement field) Bin Xu and Xiaoyu Pu, "Dynamic Statism and Memory Politics: A Case Analysis of the Chinese War Reparations Movement," China Quarterly No. 201 (March 2010): (on web) Rachel E. Stern and Kevin J. O Brien, Politics at the Boundary: Mixed Signals and the Chinese State, Modern China (March 2012), forthcoming (on web at Modern China s online first tab) + Review Tarrow (pp ) Feb. 22) Framing and Claiming Focus on Workers and Their Response to Dislocation 4

5 William Hurst, Mass Frames and Worker Protest, in Popular Protest in China, pp (a structural, bottom-up take on framing) Feng Chen, Worker Leaders and Framing Factory-Based Resistance, in Popular Protest in China, pp (note contrasts with Hurst article) Marc J. Blecher, Hegemony and Workers Politics in China, China Quarterly 170 (June 2002): (on web) Isabelle Thireau and Hua Linshan, The Moral Universe of Aggrieved Chinese Workers: Workers Appeals to Arbitration Committees and Letters and Visits Offices, China Journal 50 (July 2003): (on web) Framing by Others Kevin J. O Brien and Lianjiang Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China, Boundary- Spanning Claims, chapter 3 Chengxin Pan, Contractual Thinking and Responsible Government in China: A Constructivist Framework for Analysis, China Review 8:2 (Fall 2008): (in reader) Patricia Thornton, "Framing Dissent in Contemporary China: Irony, Ambiguity and Metonymy," China Quarterly 171 (September 2002): (on web) Review Tarrow (pp ) Feb. 29) Elite Allies? Michael Lipsky, Protest as a Political Resource, American Political Science Review 62:4 (1968): (a classic, too little read these days) (on web) Find a copy of Zhang Yimou s film Qiu Ju Goes to Court and watch it The Search for Allies: Hualing Fu and Richard Cullen, Weiquan (Rights Protection) Lawyering in an Authoritarian State: Building a Culture of Public-Interest Lawyering, China Journal 59 (January 2008): (on web) Lianjiang Li, Political Trust in Rural China, Modern China 30:2 (April 2004): (on web) Transnational Allies? 5

6 Eli Friedman, External Pressure and Local Mobilization: Transnational Activism and the Emergence of the Chinese Labor Movement Mobilization 14:2 (June 2009): (on web) Rachel E. Stern, Unpacking Adaptation: The Female Inheritance Movement in Hong Kong, Mobilization 10:3 (October 2005): (on web) Not Finding Allies Ethan Michelson, Justice from Above or Justice from Below? Lessons from Rural China for the Study of Disputing, China Quarterly (March 2008) (the most sustained critique of the focus on allies) (on web) Mar. 7) Mobilizing Structures Space, Cyberspace, and International Linkages Dingxin Zhao, "Ecologies of Social Movements: Student Mobilization during the 1989 Prodemocracy Movement in Beijing," American Journal of Sociology 103:6 (May 1998): (on web) (the classic statement on place ) Chris King-chi Chan and Pun Ngai, The Making of a New Working Class? A Study of Collective Actions of Migrant Workers in South China, China Quarterly, No. 198 (June 2009): (on web) Patricia Thornton, Manufacturing Dissent in Transnational China: Boomerang, Backfire or Spectacle? in Popular Protest in China, pp Networks Carsten Vala and Kevin J. O Brien, Recruitment to Protestant House Churches, in Popular Protest in China, pp Yongshun Cai, Collective Resistance in China, chapter 5, pp Organization (or Lack of It) James Tong, An Organizational Analysis of the Falun Gong: Structure, Communications, Financing, China Quarterly 171 (September 2002): (on web) Yuen Yuen Tang, When Peasants Sue En Masse: Large-scale Collective ALL Suits in Rural China, China: An International Journal 3:1 (March 2005): (on web) Neil J. Diamant, Veterans, Organization, and the Politics of Martial Citizenship in China, Journal of East Asian Studies 8 (2008): (on web) 6

7 Review Tarrow (pp ) Mar. 14) Repertoires of Contention: Taking History Seriously Charles Tilly, Contentious Repertoires in Great Britain, , Social Science History 17:2 (Summer 1993): (focus on concepts over the detailed empirics) (on web) William H. Sewell Jr. Collective Violence and Collective Loyalties in France: Why the French Revolution Made a Difference, Politics and Society 18:4 (1990): (a critique of Tilly, focus on concepts over the empirics) (on web) Elizabeth J. Perry, Rural Violence in Socialist China, China Quarterly 103 (September 1985): (on web) (the reactive, proactive, competitive distinction applied to China) Elizabeth J. Perry, Permanent Rebellion? Continuities and Discontinuities in Chinese Protest, in Popular Protest in China, pp Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, "Student Protests in Fin-de-Siecle China," New Left Review 237 (September/October 1999): (comparing 1989 and 1999) (on web) Huaiyin Li, Confrontation and Conciliation Under the Socialist State: Peasant Resistance to Agricultural Collectivization in China in the 1950s, Twentieth Century China 33:2 (April 2007): (on web) Ho-fung Hung, Changes and Continuities in the Political Ecology of Popular Protest: Mid-Qing China and Contemporary Resistance, China Information 21:2 (July 2007): (on web) + Review Tarrow (pp , ) Mar. 21) Tactics, Tactical Innovation, and Leadership Contemporary Tactics Disruption and Misdirection Yongshun Cai, Collective Resistance in China, chapters 2, 6, and 7, pp , Xi Chen, The Power of Troublemaking : Protest Tactics and Their Efficacy in China, Comparative Politics (July 2009): (on web) 7

8 Tactical Innovation? Doug McAdam, Tactical Innovation and the Pace of Insurgency, American Sociological Review 48 (December 1983): (on web) Kevin J. O Brien and Lianjiang Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China, Tactical Escalation, chapter 4 Yu Jianrong, Emerging Trends in Violent Riots, China Security 4:3 (Summer 2008): (in reader) Leadership Lianjiang Li and Kevin J. O Brien, Protest Leadership in Rural China, China Quarterly 193 (March 2008): 1-23 (on web) Apr. 4) Outcomes Marco G. Giugni, Was it Worth the Effort? The Outcomes and Consequences of Social Movements, Annual Review of Sociology 98 (1998): (on web) Doug McAdam, The Biographical Consequences of Activism, American Sociological Review 54 (1989): (on web) Kevin J. O Brien and Lianjiang Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China, Outcomes and Implications for China, chapters 5 and 6 Yongshun Cai, Collective Resistance in China, chapters 7 and 8, pp Yang Su and Xin He, Street as Courtroom: State Accommodation of Labor Protest in South China, Law and Society Review 44, No. 1 (2010): (on web) Guobin Yang, The Liminal Effects of Social Movements: Red Guards and the Transformation of Identity, Sociological Forum 15:3 (2000): (on web) Yanfei Sun and Dingxin Zhao, State-Society Relations and Environmental Campaigns, in Popular Protest in China, pp Review Tarrow (pp ) Apr. 11) Taking Grievances Seriously 8

9 David A. Snow et al., Disrupting the Quotidian: Reconceptualizing the Relationship Between Breakdown and the Emergence of Collective Action, Mobilization 3:1 (1998): 1-22 (on web) Ethan Michelson, Climbing the Dispute Pagoda: Grievances and Appeals to the Official Justice System in Rural China, American Sociological Review 72 (June 2007): (on web) Feng Chen, "Subsistence Crises, Managerial Corruption and Labor Protests in China," China Journal, no. 44 (July 2000): (on web) William Hurst and Kevin J. O Brien, China s Contentious Pensioners, China Quarterly 170 (June 2002): (on web) Ching Kwan Lee, From the Specter of Mao to the Spirit of the Law: Labor Insurgency in China, Theory and Society 31 (2002): (on web) Feng Chen, Privatization and its Discontents in Chinese Factories, China Quarterly, (March 2006): (on web) Apr. 18) Regional Comparisons Ching Kwan Lee, Against the Law: Labor Protests in China s Rustbelt and Sunbelt (entire) William Hurst, Understanding Contentious Collective Action by Chinese Laid-Off Workers: The Importance of Regional Political Economy, Studies in Comparative International Development 39:2 (Summer 2004): (on web) Focus on Xinjiang (Before and after the 2009 Riots) Gardner Bovingdon, The Not-So-Silent Majority: Uyghur Resistance to Han Rule in Xinjiang, Modern China 28:1 (January 2002): (on web) Justin V. Hastings, Perceiving a Single Chinese State: Escalation and Violence in Uighur Protests, Problems of Post-Communism 52:1 (January/February 2005): (the unavailability of allies in some places and for some issues) (on web) Justin V. Hastings, Charting the Course of Uyghur Unrest, China Quarterly, No. 208 (December 2011): (on web) 9

10 Apr. 25) New Forms of Protest: Cyberprotest in China Guobin Yang, The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online (entire) 10