Coalitions of the “Weak”: Fighting Pollution at China’s Rural-Urban Interface

• In Event: Chinese Environmental Protests Linking Up: Towards a Broader Environmental Movement?

Abstract

This paper explores coalition formation between urban environmental activists and rural pollution victims in relation to three recent campaigns against waste incinerators in rural China. In each campaign, linkages developed between Beijing-based “elites” (including environmental NGO members, academics, and journalists) and rural dwellers opposed to incinerators. Based on fieldwork conducted in Beijing, Hebei, Sichuan, and Jiangxi in 2013 and 2014 together with my colleagues Anna Lora-Wainwright and Jixia Lu, we explore why these linkages developed, and how they influenced campaign strategies and outcomes. We also analyse reasons for variations between the three cases regarding the frequency and intensity of coalition interactions. We conclude by examining the theoretical implications for understandings of coalition formation in an authoritarian political system.

Authors

• Thomas Johnson, City University of Hong Kong

• Anna Lora-Wainwright, University of Oxford