ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the discursive contestations of self-organised migrant workers in China and analyses their citizenship practices from the angle of migrant activism. Based on my ethnographic study of a migrant organisation in Hangzhou, I examine how these practices challenge the dominant discourse by repositioning migrant workers as subjects and thereby negotiating citizenship ‘from below’. The results reveal the entanglement between migrant activism and technologies of active citizenship in the discourses and practices of self-help. This chapter draws attention to the blurring of boundaries between activism and governance in citizenship politics, thereby contributing to the discussion on citizenship beyond the binary division of China and the West.
