The Xiamen Environmental Protests. An Empirical Investigation of Successful Civil Unrest under an Authoritarian Regime

• In Event: 463 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 20. Technology and Social Movement Mobilizing

Abstract

The Xiamen mass demonstrations in spring 2007 were the largest demonstrations after the 1989 Tiananmen protests. Unlike 1989, the internet and cell phones played a crucial role in the Xiamen protests. Several studies on the Xiamen environmental protests attempt to explain the events. The novel aspect of our study is that we use empirical data from a survey of the Xiamen population to explain the citizens’ participation in the protests. Findings are not only important for a deeper understanding of environmental protests in China. They also shed a light on various hypotheses from social movement literature.

Authors

• Andreas Diekmann, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich

• Zhijia Zhou, University of Xiamen