The Analysis of Grassroots Environmental NGO “Friends of Nature” with its Implication to Civil Society in China
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Tsai, Wan-Ju
Abstract
The state-society relationship, global civil society and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have long been the focus of political science and public administration. China, as a developing country, faced increasing environmental problems when pursuing high speed economic growth. Due to its special political regime and institution in China, how the civil society was formed and how environmental NGOs got stronger have caught scholars’ attention.
This thesis starts with the state-society relationship, concerning about the evolution of China’s civil society and its implications, and specifically focuses on environmental NGOs in China. This thesis chooses ‘Friends of Nature’, the first grassroots environmental NGO in China, as the object of the study. Through the in-depth interviews and participant observation in Beijing, three questions were proposed. First, what the organization structure is for “Friends of Nature”? Secondly, how the governmental operates and interacts with ‘Friends of Nature and environmental NGOs. Lastly, what the implication that ‘Friends of Nature’ for China''s civil society are.
This thesis indicates that due to the special political regime and institution, social organizations in China are restrained by the law, especially by the law of registration. Nowadays, the first grassroots environmental NGO “Friends of Nature” transformed its type from social organization to “min ban fei chi ye”. The transformation signifies the self-governing of the organization, financial situation, human resources, the relationship with governments and the projects. “Min ban fei chi ye” can prevent the developing strategies from the government’s control. Also because its well-established structure, ‘Friends of Nature’ sets up an example for other environmental NGOs to follow. In addition, in order to solve environmental deteriorations, the cooperation network of grassroots environmental NGOs has been built up, including the linking to the governments, enterprises and citizens. Finally, “Friends of Nature” shows its implications on the organization framework, membership and its influence on environmental sphere. These factors carry meaningful implications to civil society in China.
The thesis argues that the rising influence of NGOs and civil society has been shaped by the special political regime and system in China. On the whole, environmental NGOs were discussed in terms of state-society relationship. The civil society, the model of NGOs’ characters and their implications on civil society, researchers should remember that the historical factor is always the presuppositions.
Subjects
China
environmental NGOs
civil society
Friends of Nature
SDGs
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-100-R98322018-1.pdf
Size
23.54 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):cd6348b89c87ef07527115ad963c49ba