Ching Kwan Lee and You-tien Hsing, eds. Reclaiming Chinese Society: The New Social Activism (New York, NY: Routledge, 2010), 272p. $170.00 hardback; $42.95paperback

摘要

In Chinese state-society relations, Reclaiming Chinese Society: The New Social Activism suggests that "collective social action...'is a prime mover of change'" (p. 119); yet as with many potential sources for civil society-like behavior in the contemporary People's Republic of China (PRC), such activism is both "limiting and enabling" (p. 121). Equipped with a well-structured introduction, this volume contains twelve chapters grouped by three key themes: the politics of (re) distribution, of recognition, and of representation. These chapters cover a wide range of social activism issues, from urban housing to feminism, which, rather than depicting "social unrest" in the PRC, uncover "a Chinese society in a state of 'dynamic stability'" (p. 12). One of this collection's major contributions lies in its rich, data-driven illustrations of the ways in which social agency and state constraints converge to shape China's present. This underlying theme of innovation in collective action emerging within the continuity of Party politics will be of much interest to a variety of scholars, including those in the fields of China and comparative politics, post-communist studies, gender studies and social movements.