ABSTRACT
In the past three decades, China’s ideological, political and legal systems as well as its social structures have undergone dramatic changes. While popular protests are a byproduct of China’s rapid economic expansion, the arrival of innovative social media provides a whole range of new tools for the organization of collective action and for the defense of individuals’ rights (Teng 2012). It is important to differentiate between online activism per se as a form of contention, which remains at the virtual level—defined by Yang Guobin as “internet contention” (Yang 2008, 126)–and online activism whose main goal is to assist the organization of offline protests. The present chapter will deal with the latter form of online engagement. Through the analysis of five recent environmental protests it will probe into the role of new social media 1 in facilitating (online) the organization (on the streets) of the growing number of environmental protests disrupting China’s societal order. Furthermore, this chapter will document how the Internet has shaped and is shaping the collective action repertoire of citizens and social movements pursuing their goals (for example the scrapping of a controversial facility).
