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SPIRES, ANTHONY J (4) answer(s).
 
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1
ID:   160501


Chinese youth and alternative narratives of volunteering / Spires, Anthony J   Journal Article
Spires, Anthony J Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract Over the past 20 years, volunteering has developed as a new field for governmental control and regulation of an emergent civil society. This article draws on interviews with 60 young volunteers in southern China, mostly university students and recent graduates. I contrast their experiences in off-campus, youth-led voluntary associations with the officially approved student organizations of normal university life. I argue that the instrumental organization of volunteers characterizes the party-state’s efforts to funnel youthful enthusiasm and compassion into particular political projects and officially prescribed goals. Unhappy with the ‘formalistic’ nature of these activities, youth engaging in bottom–up volunteer initiatives articulate other priorities, including a strong desire for meaningful, personal engagement that state-led programmes and university student organizations are typically unable to provide.
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2
ID:   113932


Lessons from abroad: foreign influences on China's emerging civil society / Spires, Anthony J   Journal Article
Spires, Anthony J Journal Article
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Publication 2012.
Summary/Abstract Over the past decade, a number of foreign grantmakers and international NGOs have funded, initiated and/or designed training programs that introduce their Chinese grantees to "best practices" in "NGO management". Drawing on several years of fieldwork, this article sheds light on the origins and lessons conveyed by two such "capacity-building" programs. Rather than being grounded in the actual, lived experience of Chinese civil society organizations and emerging organically from the bottom up, these programs are shown to reflect more accurately the concerns of foreign donors and the professionalized segment of the North American nonprofit world. The article concludes by suggesting that, despite recurring Chinese suspicions of civil society as a new weapon of foreign imperialism, the structures and practices promoted by donors mesh well with state efforts to channel new social energies into predictable and governable organizational forms.
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3
ID:   178886


Marketization and Its Discontents: Unveiling the Impacts of Foundation-led Venture Philanthropy on Grassroots NGOs in China / Lai, Weijun ; Spires, Anthony J   Journal Article
Spires, Anthony J Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract Although the Chinese state has an outsized influence on shaping civil society in China, extant literature has generally overlooked the increasing role of the market in its non-governmental organization (NGO) development. This paper examines the marketization of Chinese civil society through an ethnographic investigation of funding relationships between domestic Chinese philanthropic foundations and grassroots NGOs. Two case studies of foundation venture philanthropy projects show that businesspeople, through their intensive involvement in foundation-led funding programmes, are introducing strong market influences to the non-profit sector. Notwithstanding the attraction of foundation funding, many NGOs decry the negative side effects of non-profit marketization. We argue that NGOs in this context risk being transformed into social product providers and resource-chasing machines, detracting from the self-directed social missions that many NGO leaders see as their original calling. These observations on emergent NGO–foundation relationships also reflect participants’ increasing uncertainty about the direction of Chinese civil society development.
Key Words Civil Society  NGOs  China  NGO  Marketization  Foundations 
Venture Philanthropy 
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4
ID:   130439


Societal support for China's grass-roots NGOs: evidence from Yunnan, Guangdong and Beijing / Spires, Anthony J; Tao, Lin; Chan, Kin-man   Journal Article
Spires, Anthony J Journal Article
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Publication 2014.
Summary/Abstract In the past two decades, the number of grass-roots NGOs in China has grown dramatically, yet most scholarship on Chinese civil society has had little to say about the resources on which they rely for survival. This article presents the first large-scale study of these groups and their resources. We compare 263 NGOs across issue areas (including HIV, education, the environment and labor rights) and regions (Beijing, Guangdong and Yunnan). We find that these groups are tapping into high levels of human resources-volunteers, boards of directors and informal government ties-even without official government approval for their activities. We also detail their sources of funding, revealing a diverse support system with clear regional and issue-based biases. Taken together, our findings form a baseline for understanding China's grass-roots NGOs and point out new research questions that have yet to be addressed in the civil society literature.
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