ICT-Mediated Environmental
Collective Action in Rural China:
Reconstructing state-society relations
Rong Wang
rongw@usc.edu
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Project Overview
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Project overview
 Rapid economic development and industrialization in
China, accompanied by environmental degradation and
serious cost on society
the 12th Five-Year Plan – towards a greener economy
Environment collective action in rural China
A report by the Ministry of Environment Protection
A dearth of research about rural-based environmental
movements
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Overarching questions
 In what context, is it true
that social movements are
more likely to happen when
there are enough ICTs to be
used?
 Can we perceive
empowering effect of ICTs?
 What is the case in
authoritarian countries
where there are fewer
channels for citizens to
participate in public affairs?
What are the political
implications?
Research questions
 What and how ICTs are used
by rural residents for
environmental collective
action?
 Rural residents’ attitudes
toward using ICTs for
environmental collective
action?
 How local state agencies
respond? How is ICTmediated environmental
collective action influencing
the relations between the local
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government and socety
Village Qiugang
Village Wanggang
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Village Q
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A model guide by fuzzy-set analysis approach
Villagers’
experience in
using ICTs in
their daily life
Leadership
and solidarity
among
villagers
Status of ICT
development in
the community
ICT-mediated
environmental
collective action
Villagers’
trust in local
governments
Villagers’
perceptions
of ICTs’ role
Villagers’
trust in local
governments
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Main Findings
 Communication channels were available; while villagers
had low motive to utilize ICTs to engage with the
government and its agencies.
 The awareness of ICTs’ role sis low.
 However, evidence was found that ICTs were chiefly
instrumental in disseminating knowledge and information
about environmental policies and laws among rural
residents. (village Q)
 Mobile phone was found to be the most frequently
used.
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Main Findings
 Villagers’ strategic ICT use through NGOs staff
(village Q)
 There is a urgent need for information transparency
 Respondents at Q - a more balanced view about their
relations with the government
 Respondents at W - relatively lower trust in local
government’s credibility
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 Level of ICT development did not correlate to the
utilization of ICTs for environmental movement on a
collective basis
 Other factors would function as barriers to prevent
villagers from uniting as a collective to work towards
public goods
 affordability of ICTs,
 awareness of ICT’s role in organization, documentation and
information gathering,
 level of knowledge about related policies and laws,
 existence of leadership and solidarity in the community,
perceived political will of the local government to support
rural residents, and literacy
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Policy Recommendation
 The local government should coordinate all the interest
parties to create a joint network for environmental
protection. ICTs should be utilized to create a platform
for all the stakeholders to interact.
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Policy Recommendation
 The state should ensure that the information
transparency is implemented by governments at the
grassroots levels.
 For researchers: need to re-evaluate the approach of
analyzing state-society relations, as they are not
dichotomous. With ICTs providing a more interactive
platform, certain dimensions of state power has more
to do with the capability of the government to work
through and with other social actors.
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