Civic participation in China

Through longitudinal, large N, cross-national surveys, this project seeks to better understand how growing volunteerism shapes, and is shaped by, notions of citizenship and class in China. It is timed to also explore the effect of China's new Social Credit score system on this behaviour. I’m collaborating with some of the world’s top scholars of Chinese civil society: Reza Hasmath (Alberta), Carolyn Hsu (Colgate), Jennifer Hsu (UNSW), and Jessica Teets (Middlebury).

Together, we are exploring a number of questions, for example:

  • In an authoritarian, bureaucratic regime such as China, does volunteerism and philanthropy teach people to hold a more ‘active’ understanding of citizenship?

  • Do citizens who volunteer time and/or donate money expect to play a more ‘active’ role in engaging with social problems regardless of the method of participation (state-led or citizen-led)?

  • Do demographic variables like socioeconomic class, gender, age, education, or geography affect volunteerism and philanthropy?

Thus far, the project has produced the following work:

  • Volunteerism and democratic learning in an authoritarian state: the case of China (w/ R Hasmath, J Teets, J Hsu, C Hsu) Democratization, Online. DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2021.2015334

  • Citizens’ expectations for crisis management and the involvement of civil society organisations in China (w/ R Hasmath, J Teets, J Hsu, C Hsu) Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, OnlineFirst. DOI: 10.1177/18681026211052052

  • The construction and performance of citizenship in contemporary China, (w/ R Hasmath, C Hsu, J Hsu, J Teets) Journal of Contemporary China, forthcoming

Organisational evolution & hybridisation

I’m doing conceptual and theoretical work on the evolution of social organisations, trying to better understand the blurring line between society, the state and the market, and the implications that has for civil society, NGO development, organisational sustainability, and even the relationship between citizens and states. 

One product of this research conceptualises government-organised non-governmental organisations (GONGOs) and is published in Journal of Civil Society.