Anotace
Many assume that civil society in China is insignificant or
almost non-existent. However, recent developments in Chinese
civil society might challenge this conventional view. In the
past decade, Chinese civil society groups have achieved
significant success in their policy advocacy attempts,
including policy and law changes on the national level. How can
weak civil society groups have such a significant policy impact
in an authoritarian state?
To answer this question, I engaged in three months of
participant observation in an NGO in Beijing and conducted 20
semi-structured interviews with Chinese civil society groups.
This fieldwork reveals that there is something particular in
the rhetoric and repertoires of the groups who are able to
conduct successful policy advocacy in the current Chinese
context. I have discovered that the framing strategies and
action tactics of effective groups and less effective groups
differ to a large extent. However, in contrast to previous
studies, I argue it is not these toolkits, but the mechanism of
cultural resonance achieved (or not) through the symbolic codes
embodied by these toolkits that explains whether advocacy
succeeds (or fails).
Building on the cultural pragmatic theory of social performance
and social movement theory on framing, I conceptualize cultural
resonance as a mechanism composed by actors, audiences,
background representations and scripts, achieved by meeting the
criteria of congruence and relevance. In this research, actors
are the civil society groups involved in the policy process.
Audiences are the party-state and mainstream society.
Background representations are a set of symbolic codes that
represent the core meaning system of a society. Scripts are the
foreground representations of these symbolic codes, embodied
in, for example, political and legal discourse. In the current
Chinese context, the dominant symbolic codes derived from the
background representations and (audience) scripts are harmony
vs. disorder, Chinese vs. foreign, public vs. private,
responsibility vs. rights, and development vs.
underdevelopment. Cultural resonance is achieved through two
channels: congruence, aka frame alignment, and relevance, aka
puzzle-solving potential. In other words, there can be an
objective level of congruence in actors’ performance and
audience scripts in the first place, but this inherent
familiarity does not automatically lead to resonance. To
achieve cultural resonance, actors must also engage with the
challenges their audiences face. It is this puzzle-solving
potential, together with the initial cultural congruence, which
leads to cultural resonance.
Through analyzing eight iconic cases of Chinese civil society
group policy advocacy, I show that in the successful cases,
civil society actors manage to incorporate the right symbolic
codes (the sacred side of the binaries) into their
performances, so cultural resonance is achieved; in the
unsuccessful cases, the actors embody the wrong symbolic codes
into their performances (the profane side of the binaries), so
the mechanism of cultural resonance is interrupted. By
explaining policy advocacy cases through this framework, the
study shows that the result of Chinese civil society
interaction with the government is both constrained and enabled
by the cultural meaning system in which it is embedded. To be
specific, by encoding the symbolic codes embedded in the
cultural meaning system identified and promoted by the Chinese
government and mainstream society into their performances,
these civil society groups achieve cultural resonance with
their audiences, contributing to their success. In a society in
which civil society organizations lack recognition and support,
these groups manage to align their agenda with the concerns of
political elites and mainstream society, which endows them with
a kind of legitimacy many other civil society groups do not
have.
This study contributes to the scientific discourse in several
ways. Empirically, this study not only contributes to existing
research on Chinese civil society with a new theoretical
perspective, but it also contributes to current civil society
research in general by elaborating the framing process in the
policy advocacy of NGOs. Theoretically, the framework itself
represents a theoretical innovation that enriches both the
cultural pragmatic theory of social performance and social
movement theory on framing. To be specific, on the one hand, it
further develops the cultural pragmatic theory of social
performance by highlighting the role of audiences and
explicating thoroughly the process of cultural resonance; on
the other hand, it develops social movement theory on framing
by transforming the mechanism of “resonance” into “cultural
resonance.”
Beyond these academic contributions, this study also has
real-world significance. Since Chinese President Xi Jinping
came to power in 2012, the space for Chinese civil society has
been further shrinking. In this non-receptive political
environment, symbolic identification and cultural resonance
might be the only vehicles that can carry the civil society
agenda to the political core. In other words, carefully acting
and framing the civil society agenda to achieve cultural
resonance is the best hope for advocates to survive the hostile
environment and make incremental changes step-by-step. …víceméně
Abstract
Many assume that civil society in China is insignificant or
almost non-existent. However, recent developments in Chinese
civil society might challenge this conventional view. In the
past decade, Chinese civil society groups have achieved
significant success in their policy advocacy attempts,
including policy and law changes on the national level. How can
weak civil society groups have such a significant policy impact
in an authoritarian state?
To answer this question, I engaged in three months of
participant observation in an NGO in Beijing and conducted 20
semi-structured interviews with Chinese civil society groups.
This fieldwork reveals that there is something particular in
the rhetoric and repertoires of the groups who are able to
conduct successful policy advocacy in the current Chinese
context. I have discovered that the framing strategies and
action tactics of effective groups and less effective groups
differ to a large extent. However, in contrast to previous
studies, I argue it is not these toolkits, but the mechanism of
cultural resonance achieved (or not) through the symbolic codes
embodied by these toolkits that explains whether advocacy
succeeds (or fails).
Building on the cultural pragmatic theory of social performance
and social movement theory on framing, I conceptualize cultural
resonance as a mechanism composed by actors, audiences,
background representations and scripts, achieved by meeting the
criteria of congruence and relevance. In this research, actors
are the civil society groups involved in the policy process.
Audiences are the party-state and mainstream society.
Background representations are a set of symbolic codes that
represent the core meaning system of a society. Scripts are the
foreground representations of these symbolic codes, embodied
in, for example, political and legal discourse. In the current
Chinese context, the dominant symbolic codes derived from the
background representations and (audience) scripts are harmony
vs. disorder, Chinese vs. foreign, public vs. private,
responsibility vs. rights, and development vs.
underdevelopment. Cultural resonance is achieved through two
channels: congruence, aka frame alignment, and relevance, aka
puzzle-solving potential. In other words, there can be an
objective level of congruence in actors’ performance and
audience scripts in the first place, but this inherent
familiarity does not automatically lead to resonance. To
achieve cultural resonance, actors must also engage with the
challenges their audiences face. It is this puzzle-solving
potential, together with the initial cultural congruence, which
leads to cultural resonance.
Through analyzing eight iconic cases of Chinese civil society
group policy advocacy, I show that in the successful cases,
civil society actors manage to incorporate the right symbolic
codes (the sacred side of the binaries) into their
performances, so cultural resonance is achieved; in the
unsuccessful cases, the actors embody the wrong symbolic codes
into their performances (the profane side of the binaries), so
the mechanism of cultural resonance is interrupted. By
explaining policy advocacy cases through this framework, the
study shows that the result of Chinese civil society
interaction with the government is both constrained and enabled
by the cultural meaning system in which it is embedded. To be
specific, by encoding the symbolic codes embedded in the
cultural meaning system identified and promoted by the Chinese
government and mainstream society into their performances,
these civil society groups achieve cultural resonance with
their audiences, contributing to their success. In a society in
which civil society organizations lack recognition and support,
these groups manage to align their agenda with the concerns of
political elites and mainstream society, which endows them with
a kind of legitimacy many other civil society groups do not
have.
This study contributes to the scientific discourse in several
ways. Empirically, this study not only contributes to existing
research on Chinese civil society with a new theoretical
perspective, but it also contributes to current civil society
research in general by elaborating the framing process in the
policy advocacy of NGOs. Theoretically, the framework itself
represents a theoretical innovation that enriches both the
cultural pragmatic theory of social performance and social
movement theory on framing. To be specific, on the one hand, it
further develops the cultural pragmatic theory of social
performance by highlighting the role of audiences and
explicating thoroughly the process of cultural resonance; on
the other hand, it develops social movement theory on framing
by transforming the mechanism of “resonance” into “cultural
resonance.”
Beyond these academic contributions, this study also has
real-world significance. Since Chinese President Xi Jinping
came to power in 2012, the space for Chinese civil society has
been further shrinking. In this non-receptive political
environment, symbolic identification and cultural resonance
might be the only vehicles that can carry the civil society
agenda to the political core. In other words, carefully acting
and framing the civil society agenda to achieve cultural
resonance is the best hope for advocates to survive the hostile
environment and make incremental changes step-by-step. …víceméně
angličtina
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