A Little Spark Kindles a Great Fire? The Paradox of China's Rising Wave of Protest

Mass protests in China in recent years have been more frequent and widespread than in other authoritarian settings and have thus become a serious source of concern for the party-state. Many believe that a rising tide of protest has the potential to impose a significant political challenge to the stability of the regime in comparison to the fragile situation of 1989 the Tiananmen incident. However, the motives behind today's protests are clearly not revolutionary. The growing protest movements do not serve as a severe threat to the continued rule of the Chinese Communist Party for three reasons. First, the nature of recent protests has not been that of pro-democracy; rather, the participants are aggrieved citizens who have suffered economic losses and who demand concrete and practical rights for unfair and unjust treatments. They are politically weak despite their huge numbers. Second, the characteristics of recent protests do not constitute any of the features that would involve serious political risk. Instead, protests are focused on local issues and target specifically at local authorities. Third, the shifting international environments and China's rise to international power change the political visions of educated Chinese and further undermine their potential to initiate protests that would have more serious political implications.     

Using Social Network Analysis to Explore Social Movements: A Relational Approach

This paper uses a ‘relational’ approach to network analysis to demonstrate the linkages between different types of environmental organizations in London. A ‘relational’ approach was used to avoid problems associated with ‘positional’ approaches such as structural determinism, subjectively defined and misleadingly labelled blocks of ‘approximately’ equivalent actors, and reification of the action/issue basis of networks. The paper also explores definitions of social/environmental movements. Whilst broadly agreeing with Diani's consensual definition of a social movement, it argues that we need to be much more precise about the type and intensity of networking required; it must be more than informal or cursory, and should bind individuals and organizations into collaborative networks. Evidence from a survey of 149 environmental organizations and qualitative interviews with key campaigners suggests that whilst many organizations might share information, it is often stockpiled or ignored, hardly creating the kinds of network links that might lead to shared movement identity. The kinds of links that do bind movements are collaborative. In practice, in the environmental movement in London, conservationists tend neither to share information nor to engage in the collective action events of reformist or radical organizations, suggesting that conservationists should perhaps not be considered part of the movement.     

Social-movement Unionism in Theory and in Sweden

Many union leaders and observers of unionism in industrially advanced countries have recently argued for stronger links between unions and social movements but their arguments leave the nature of social movements underspecified. This article reviews the literature on social movements and argues in favour of a minimalist theory of the social actor rather than choose between American and European approaches to studying social movements. Both Melucci's European approach and McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly's American approach to integrating the European and American schools of thought on social movements are inadequate to the task of specifying social-movement unionism. Hindess's minimalist theory of the social actor and articulated arenas of conflict offers a stronger approach to understanding social-movement unionism and appreciating its strategic pertinence in particular times and places. Two episodes of contention in Sweden illustrate the advantages of a minimalist theory of articulated social-movement unionism.     

The influence of donors on cross class social movements: same sex marriage and trans rights campaigns in New York State

ABSTRACT

New York State’s largest gay rights organization, the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA), won significant legislative victories, including the legalization of same sex marriage in 2011. Yet ESPA was never able to mount comparable efforts for its long-standing commitment to transgender rights before disbanding in 2015, despite the fact that marriage equality was less widely supported than transgender rights in ESPA’s own public opinion polling. In-depth interviews reveal that ESPA was constrained by the class and personal interests of its affluent major donors, mainly high-income gay white men. The organization’s abrupt closure provided an unusual opportunity to research the often secret topic of major donor influence, as frustrated former staff were willing to be frank in interviews. ESPA was only able to successfully campaign on issues that were especially compelling for these donors, and was forced to close when its legislative agenda diverged from their interests. This case suggests class interests and access to resources shape the causal impact of collective identities on social movement dynamics.     

农村集体所有权主体相关问题辨析

农村集体所有权主体虽然立法上有很多称谓,但其核心主体主要为两个：一是农村集体所有权的归属主体,二是农村集体所有权的管理（行使）主体。前者是指农民集体,后者主要是指农村集体经济组织、村委会等。在农村集体所有权行使过程中,农村集体经济组织、村委会等应该是农民集体的集体意志执行者,而不能以其意志作为农民集体的意志,更不能以其管理人员的意志取代农民集体的意志。在处理农村集体所有权的归属主体与管理（行使）主体的关系上,关键在于在立法上建立“农民集体”的集体意志形成与表达的科学机制。     

乡村振兴背景下政府治理农村集体经济的现实困境与路径突破

政府作为现代乡村社会治理的牵头人,应承担起在农村集体经济中的职责与使命。通过实践考察发现,政府在治理农村集体经济中存在理念错位、方式失当、权限模糊、保障不足等多重困境,其困境产生的根源是乡村振兴政绩考核制度不完善、项目资源配置不合理、政府权责不清、自治主体能力不足以及政府监管保障制度不健全和人员技术供给缺乏。因此,多元设置,完善考核评价机制;统筹互动,优化资源配置运作机制;协调内生,构建政府与自治主体有效协同机制;多维合力,健全监管制度和技术监管保障机制是实现农村集体经济持续健康发展的有效路径。     

“村改居”社区集体经济产权制度改革与探索——以福建省厦门市马垅社区为例

集体经济产权制度改革是"村改居"社区由传统农村经济社会管理体制向城市社区治理机制顺利变革的关键环节,但改革还面临着清产核资过程不规范、集体资产量化分配困难、集体经济组织运作管理机制不顺等问题。马垅社区作为厦门市改革试点,"村改居"后较成功地进行了集体经济社区股份合作制改革,在加强集体资产管理、保障村民权益、促进社区发展等方面取得显著成效,清产核资、股权设置、折股量化、股权管理、收益分配、组织设计等改革环节的方案设计可供借鉴。但其改革还不完善,存在强权精英的牟利空间,缺乏对股份合作社运作的有效监督,产生了浓厚的社区福利主义。为此,要推动股份合作制度创新,加强政府引导支持,提高社区内生发展能力,进一步推动改革发展。     

中国农地产权制度改革的优化路径——再论“国家与农民二元产权制”

土地制度历来是农村变革的关键,其要义在于产权。中国现有农地产权制度存在土地所有权主体虚位、土地使用权不稳、土地收益权受限、土地处置权不完整等缺陷,亟待改革。本着间接或直接地淡化农地集体所有制,给予农户更多的具有所有权特征的永佃权或财产权的共识,学术界形成了三种主要观点：取消农地集体所有制,实行私有化;取消农地集体所有制,收归国有;保留农地集体所有制,对其进行改良完善。单纯的国有化、私有化以及改良完善化的农地产权制度改革都因存在无法克服的障碍而不足取,考虑到中国生产资料社会主义公有制的基本制度和私有产权对农业生产强大的激励作用,为减少制度改革成本,实行农地＂国家终极所有,农民永久使用＂的＂国家与农民二元产权制＂比较而言更为合适。     

从班集体建设谈大学生公民意识的培养

大学生是我国公民的重要组成部分,其公民意识的培养直接关系到国家的未来和前途。从三个方面阐述了班集体建设培养大学生公民意识的必要性和意义：以班集体活动为契机调动大学生的主体意识,是培养大学生公民意识的有效载体;以班集体的文化建设为依托推进校园文化建设,是培养大学生公民意识的有效途径;以班集体建设凝聚大学精神的灵魂,是大学生公民意识教育的重要精神支柱。