Hostname: page-component-669899f699-2mbcq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-24T20:54:12.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Isomorphic Pressures, Epistemic Communities and State–NGO Collaboration in China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2014

Reza Hasmath  and
Jennifer Y.J. Hsu
Reza Hasmath*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford.
Jennifer Y.J. Hsu
Affiliation:
University of Alberta. Email: [email protected].
*
Email: [email protected] (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article suggests that the lack of meaningful collaboration between the state and NGOs in China is not solely a result of the state seeking to restrict the development of the sector, or the fear of a potential opposing actor to the state; instead, interviews with NGOs in Beijing and Shanghai suggest that a lack of meaningful engagement between the state and NGOs can be partially attributed to isomorphic pressures within state–NGO relations, and insufficient epistemic awareness of NGO activities on the part of the state. In fact, the evidence suggests that once epistemic awareness is achieved by the state, it will have a stronger desire to interact with NGOs – with the caveat that the state will seek to utilize the material power of NGOs, rather than their symbolic, interpretive or geographical capital.

摘要

该论文指出, 中国政府与非政府组织 (NGO) 之间合作的缺乏并不能完全归咎于政府对该领域发展的限制, 或是出于对一个潜在的政府反对者的害怕。与北京和上海的 NGO 访谈显示, 政府与 NGO 之间缺乏有意义的合作的部分原因是同构压力, 以及政府对于 NGO 活动认知的缺乏。 事实上, 证据显示, 一旦政府获得了对 NGO 工作的认知, 它将会更加愿意与 NGO 建立联系。当然必须说明的是, 政府想要利用的是 NGO 的物质资源, 而非他们的象征性, 阐释性, 或是地理上的资本。

Keywords

stateNGOcollaborationstate–society relationsisomorphismepistemic communityChina政府NGO合作国家—社会同构认知群体
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 220 , December 2014 , pp. 936 - 954
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

The authors are grateful for the valuable feedback received at seminar presentations at the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California at Berkeley; Lau China Institute, King's College London; NGO Research Center, Tsinghua University; East Asia Workshop, University of Chicago; Chinese Politics Research Workshop, Harvard University; the Centre for Chinese Studies, University of California at Los Angeles; and the 2013 Forum on NGO Governance and Management in China (Edmonton, Canada). This research is supported by the Social Science Research Council of Canada.

References

Binney, Derek. 2001. “The knowledge management spectrum – understanding the KM landscape.” Journal of Knowledge Management 5(1), 33–42.Google Scholar
Covaleski, Mark A., and Dirsmith, Mark W.. 1988. “An institutional perspective on the rise, social transformation, and fall of a university budget category.” Administrative Science Quarterly 33(4), 562–587.Google Scholar
Dacin, M. Tina, Goodstein, Jerry and Scott, W. Richard. 2002. “Institutional theory and institutional change.” The Academy of Management Journal 45(1), 45–54.Google Scholar
Deephouse, David L. 1996. “Does isomorphism legitimate?” The Academy of Management Journal 39, 1024–39.Google Scholar
Deng, Guosheng. 2010. “The hidden rules governing China's unregistered NGOs: management and consequences.” The China Review 10(1), 183–206.Google Scholar
Deng, Guosheng, and Shieh, Shawn. 2011. “An emerging civil society: the impact of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake on grassroots associations in China.” The China Journal 65, 181–194.Google Scholar
Dickson, Bruce. 2000. “Cooptation and corporatism in China: the logic of Party adaptation.” Political Science Quarterly 115, 517–540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul. 1988. “Interest and agency in institutional theory.” In Zucker, Lynne G. (ed.), Institutional Patterns and Organizations: Culture and Environment. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 3–21.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul, and Powell, Walter W.. 1983. “The Iron Cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields.” American Sociological Review 48(2), 147–160.Google Scholar
Froissart, Chloé. 2006. “Escaping from under the Party's thumb: a few examples of migrant workers' strivings for autonomy.” Social Research 73(1), 197–218.Google Scholar
Froissart, Chloé. 2010. “Is there a NGO model? Comparing NGOs supporting migrant workers in Beijing and the Pearl River Delta.” Asia Centre at Sciences Po, Conference Series.Google Scholar
Fu, Hualing. 2012. “Embedded socio-legal activism in China: the case of Yirenping.” University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 2012/029.Google Scholar
Fulda, Andreas, Li, Yanyan and Song, Qinghua. 2012. “New strategies of civil society in China: a case study of the network governance approach.” Journal of Contemporary China 21(76), 675–693.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gazley, Beth, and Brudney, Jeffrey L.. 2007. “The purpose (and perils) of government–nonprofit partnership.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 36(3), 389–415.Google Scholar
Gross, Mattais. 2010. Ignorance and Surprise: Science, Society and Ecological Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guo, Chao, and Acar, Muhittin. 2005. “Understanding collaboration among nonprofit organizations: combining resource dependency, institutional, and network perspectives.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 34(3), 340–361.Google Scholar
Haas, Peter. 1992. “Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination.” International Organization 46(1), 1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasmath, Reza, and Hsu, Jennifer. 2008. “NGOs in China and issues of accountability.” Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration 30(1), 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hess, David J. 2009. “The potentials and limitations of civil society research: getting undone science done.” Sociological Inquiry 79(3), 306–327.Google Scholar
Heurlin, Christopher. 2010. “Governing civil society: the political logic of NGO–state relations under dictatorship.” Voluntas 21, 220–239.Google Scholar
Hildebrandt, Timothy. 2011. “The political economy of social organization registration in China.” The China Quarterly 208, 980–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsu, Carolyn. 2009. “Chinese NGOs and the state: institutional interdependence rather than civil society.” Paper presented at the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, 8–11 August 2009.Google Scholar
Hsu, Carolyn. 2010. “Beyond civil society: an organizational perspective on state–NGO relations in the People's Republic of China.” Journal of Civil Society 6(3), 259–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsu, Carolyn. 2011. “Even further beyond civil society: the rise of internet-oriented Chinese NGOs.” Journal of Civil Society 7(1), 123–27.Google Scholar
Hsu, Jennifer. 2009. “Quietly, quietly: Beijing's migrant civil society organizations.” In Butcher, Melissa and Velayuthum, Selvaraj (eds.), Dissent and Cultural Resistance in Asia's Cities. London: Routledge, 51–71.Google Scholar
Hsu, Jennifer. 2012a. “Spaces of civil society: the role of migrant non-governmental organisations in Beijing and Shanghai?” Progress in Development Studies 12(1), 63–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsu, Jennifer. 2012b. “Layers of the state: migrant organizations and the Chinese state.” Urban Studies 49(16), 3513–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsu, Jennifer, and Hasmath, Reza (eds.). 2013. The Chinese Corporatist State: Adaptation, Survival and Resistance. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hsu, Jennifer, and Hasmath, Reza. 2014. “The local corporatist state and NGO relations in China.” Journal of Contemporary China 23(87), 516–534.Google Scholar
Kang, Xiaoguang, and Heng, Han. 2008. “Graduated controls: the state–society relationship in contemporary China.” Modern China 34(1), 36–55.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Joan. 2012. “China's evolving AIDS policy: the influence of global norms and transnational non-governmental organizations.” Contemporary Politics 18(2), 225–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kostova, Tatiana, and Roth, Kendall. 2002. “Adoption of an organizational practice by subsidiaries of multinational corporations: institutional and relational effects.” The Academy of Management Journal 45(1), 215–233.Google Scholar
Lewis, David, and Opoku-Mensah, Paul. 2006. “Moving forward research agendas on international NGOs: theory, agency and context.” Journal of International Development 18(5), 665–675.Google Scholar
Liu, Zuyun. 2008. “Feizhengfu zuzhi xingqi beijing yu gongneng jiedu” (The rise and functions of non-governmental organizations). Hunan shehui kexue 1, 73–78.Google Scholar
Ma, Qiusha. 2002. “The governance of NGOs in China since 1978: how much autonomy?” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 31(3), 305–328.Google Scholar
Mawdsley, Emma, Townsend, Janet G., Porter, Gina and Oakley, Peter. 2002. Knowledge, Power and Development Agendas: NGOs North and South. Oxford: INTRAC.Google Scholar
McGoey, Linsey. 2007. “On the will to ignorance in bureaucracy.” Economy and Society 36(2), 212–235.Google Scholar
McGoey, Linsey. 2008. “Ignorance and regulation: the strategic avoidance of risky knowledge.” Risk and Regulation 16, 11–12.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W., and Rowan, Brian. 1991. “Institutional organizations: formal structure as myth and ceremony.” In Powell, Walter W. and DiMaggio, Paul J. (eds.), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 41–62.Google Scholar
Murphy, Brian K. 2000. “International NGOs and the challenge of modernity.” Development in Practice 10(3 & 4), 330–347.Google Scholar
Oliver, Christine. 1991. “Strategic responses to institutional processes.” The Academy of Management Review 16(1), 145–179.Google Scholar
Pache, Anne-Claire, and Santos, Filipe M.. 2010. “When worlds collide: the internal dynamics of organizational responses to conflicting institutional demands.” The Academy of Management Review 35, 455–476.Google Scholar
Qi, Mei. 2011. “Developing a working model for legal NGOs in China.” Washington University Global Studies Law Review 10(3), 617–639.Google Scholar
Ru, Jiang, and Ortolano, Leonard. 2008. “Corporatist control of environmental non-governmental organizations: a state perspective.” In Ho, Peter and Edmonds, Richard L. (eds.), Embedded Environmentalism: Opportunities and Constraints of a Social Movement in China. London: Routledge, 46–68.Google Scholar
Saich, Tony. 2008. “The changing role of urban government.” In Yusuf, Shahid and Saich, Tony (eds.), China Urbanizes: Consequences, Strategies and Policies. Washington, DC: World Bank, 181–206.Google Scholar
Savage, Charles. 2000. “The development of knowledge management and why it is important.” Knowledge Management for Development Organizations. Report of the Knowledge Management Brighton Workshop, University of Sussex, 26–28 June 2000.Google Scholar
Simon, Karla. 2009. “Regulation of civil society in China: necessary changes after the Olympic Games and the Sichuan earthquake.” Fordham International Law Journal 32(3), 943–987.Google Scholar
Stern, Rachel, and O'Brien, Kevin J.. 2011. “Politics at the boundary: mixed signals and the Chinese state.” Modern China 38(2), 175–199.Google Scholar
Teets, Jessica. 2012. “Reforming service delivery in China: the emergence of social innovation model.” Journal of Chinese Political Science 17(1), 15–32.Google Scholar
Teets, Jessica. 2013. “Let many civil societies bloom: the rise of consultative authoritarianism in China.” The China Quarterly 213, 19–38.Google Scholar
Thornton, Patricia M. 2013. “The advance of the Party: transformation or takeover at the urban grassroots.” The China Quarterly 213, 1–18.Google Scholar
Thornton, Patricia M., and Ocasio, William. 2008. “Institutional logics.” In Greenwod, Royston, Oliver, Christine, Sahlin, Kerstin and Suddaby, Roy (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism. London: Sage, 99–129.Google Scholar
Tolbert, Pamela S., and Zucker, Lynn G.. 1996. “The institutionalization of institutional theory.” In Clegg, Stewart R., Hardy, Cynthia, Lawrence, Thomas and Nord, Walter R. (eds.), Handbook of Organization Studies. London: Sage, 175–190.Google Scholar
Watkins, Susan Cotts, Swidler, Ann and Hannan, Thoma. 2012. “Outsourcing social transformation: development NGOs as organizations.” Annual Review of Sociology 38, 285–315.Google Scholar
Wen, Ying-na, and Chen, Chung-tai. 2012. “Resource platform, capacity building and social networking: a case study of NPI initiative.” China Journal of Social Work 5(2), 139–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, Fengshi, and Chan, Kin-Man. 2012. “Graduated control and beyond: the evolving government–NGO relations.” China Perspectives 3, 9–17.Google Scholar
Xu, Guihong. 2008. “Feizhengfu zuzhi xingqi de jingjixue jieshi” (Economic explanations for the rise of non-governmental organizations). Heilongjiang shehui kexue 6, 88–91.Google Scholar
Yu, Jianxing, and Zhou, Jun. 2012. “Growing out of participation: finding the developmental path of China's civil society.” In Jianxin, Yu and Sujian, Guo (eds.), Civil Society and Governance in China. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 133–156.Google Scholar
Zack, Michael H. 1999. “Managing organizational ignorance.” Knowledge Directions 1, 36–49.Google Scholar