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ID:
133731
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Authoritarian regimes, such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), seek to bolster legitimacy by facilitating communications between citizens and government officials. This article investigates the operation of online consultation, a process through which citizens offer feedback on draft laws and regulations. The article specifically examines the importance of demographic characteristics and subjective motivations in the expression of citizen sentiments in response to a proposed revision to China's health system. By bringing together analysis of the content of citizen sentiment with a survey of participants, the article illuminates the determinants of the tone and substance of citizen feedback in health system reform. The primary finding is that participants who were internally efficacious and democratically oriented were, relative to respondents not possessing such traits, positive in tone and highly substantive in the submission of their comments concerning health system reform. This finding indicates that the health system reform commenting process offered citizens the opportunity to gain exposure to democratic principles and the process of articulating interests. More broadly, the analysis suggests the promise of online consultation in promoting citizen satisfaction with public policies, the legitimacy of the CCP, and, ultimately, stability in the Chinese political system.
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| 2 |
ID:
133733
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Diaosi (??) ranked as one of the most popular Internet memes of 2012, and it continues to be popular to this day. This article analyses the origins and nature of the diaosi meme and the young men (and women) who self-mockingly describe themselves as 'losers'. The meme has led to ample speculation in the media and among Chinese academics, and while some see the meme as a relevant form of political critique, others dismiss it as indicative of a psychological malaise affecting contemporary youth. This article reviews the state of this debate about the meanings of the diaosi phenomenon, while offering a new interpretation that frames the meme in terms of Raymond Williams's notion of 'structures of feeling'. Though diaosi is a seemingly humorous and playful Internet meme, it is also one that signals young netizens' disillusionment with the apparent lack of possibilities for upward socio-economic mobility in contemporary China. This author contends that the diaosi phenomenon, though amorphous and at times contradictory, may also be considered an emergent form of affective identification through which alternative desires and forms of mobility may be imagined and enacted.
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| 3 |
ID:
133730
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
How does the Chinese government's adoption of microblogs affect local governance and social contention it is tasked to manage? This case study explores the extent to which government microblogging could serve as: (1) a battering ram to spearhead reforms; (2) a virus bringing unexpected consequences; and (3) a reinforcer of authorities' existing power, that is, politics as usual. After studying a Chinese municipal government's microblogs (weibo ??) in depth from the perspective of local governance, we find that official microblogs do not in the short run lead to organizational change. Instead, Chinese local government microblogs function largely as 'beta-institutions' experimenting with ways to interact and negotiate with their microblog publics and microblog service providers and aimed at improving social management and political legitimacy. Local governments are also evolving gradually from service providers to 'service predictors' with enhanced capabilities to deliver individualized services and institute state surveillance via commercial service providers. These developments warrant further studies of the long-term implications of microblogs as part of the government information ecology.
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| 4 |
ID:
133734
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article examines activism that has emerged in online communities. This ethnographic study of two web-based backpacking communities shows that citizens and activists use the Internet mainly for forming communities, sharing information, instilling democratic values and solving immediate social problems. They do not call for cyberwar, acts of hacktivism or other sorts of offensive online and offline actions, but seek to bring social justice and improve well-being within their sphere of influence. The dynamics of this new online activism and its significance for the development of associational life and civil society in China are explored in this article.
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