Mobilizing Without the Masses: Control and Contention in China (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics)

When Advocacy Organizations Are Forbidden From Rallying People To Take To The Streets, What Do They Do? When Activists Are Detained For Coordinating Protests, Are Their Hands Ultimately Tied? Based On Political Ethnography Inside Both Legal And Blacklisted Labor Organizations In China, This Book Reveals How State Repression Is Deployed On The Ground And To What Effect On Mobilization. It Presents A Novel Dynamic Of Civil Society Contention - Mobilizing Without The Masses - That Lowers The Risk Of Activism Under Duress. Instead Of Facilitating Collective Action, Activists Coach The Aggrieved To Challenge Authorities One By One. In Doing So, They Lower The Risks Of Organizing While Empowering The Weak. This Dynamic Represents A Third Pathway Of Contention That Challenges Conventional Understandings Of Mobilization In An Illiberal State. It Takes Readers Inside The World Of Underground Labor Organizing And Opens The Black Box Of Repression Inside The World's Most Powerful Authoritarian State. Diana Fu. Off-campus Access Available To Soas Staff And Students Only, Using Soas Id And Password. Title From Publisher's Bibliographic System (viewed On 07 Nov 2017). When advocacy organizations are forbidden from rallying people to take to the streets, what do they do? When activists are detained for coordinating protests, are their hands ultimately tied? Based on political ethnography inside both legal and blacklisted labor organizations in China, this book reveals how state repression is deployed on the ground and to what effect on mobilization. It presents a novel dynamic of civil society contention - mobilizing without the masses - that lowers the risk of activism under duress. Instead of facilitating collective action, activists coach the aggrieved to challenge authorities one by one. In doing so, they lower the risks of organizing while empowering the weak. This dynamic represents a third pathway of contention that challenges conventional understandings of mobilization in an illiberal state. It takes readers inside the world of underground labor organizing and opens the black box of repression inside the world's most powerful authoritarian state. -- Provided by publisher When it is illegal for organizations to rally people to take to the streets, what do they do? This book theorizes a new pathway of civil society mobilization in contemporary China - mobilizing without the masses. It is for scholars, students, policymakers, NGO practitioners, and the educated reader.