Broker and Buffer: Why Environmental Organizations Participate in Popular Protests in China

• In Event: 3451 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 4. Environmental Movements and Eco-Catastrophe

Abstract

Social movement literature often considers institutional allies a form of political opportunity structure that facilitates movement mobilization and favorable movement outcomes, but it has not sufficiently analyzed how such alliance emerges and endures. This gap becomes even more significant in non-democratic settings, where institutional support of popular protests may be strictly monitored, restricted, and suppressed. Drawing upon more than 50 in-depth interviews conducted in 2008, 2012, and 2018, this article examines and explains the variations of environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) participation in four nationally-renowned, popular protests in four cities of China: Xiamen (2007), Beijing (2007), Guangzhou (2009), and Kunming (2013). This research finds that environmental NGOs collaborated with grassroots protesters to varying degrees, ranging from minimal presence of information provision, policy advocacy, coalition building, to pervasive participation including protest mobilization. The degree of NGO participation in popular protests, this article argues, cannot be explained by organizational resources, civic communities, or political environments; rather, it hinges on the capacity of skillful agencies to broker otherwise disconnected actors and resources and buffer political pressure for their partners. The further binding of such brokers produces robust coordinated actions and durable alliance in contentious movements. My article contributes to both the relational approach to social movements and emerging studies on the nuanced relationship between social movements, NGOs, and the authoritarian state.

Author

• Yang Zhang, American University