Part of the Institute for Chinese Studies "Understanding China -- Its Roots and New Frontiers" Lecture Series
“The Development of NGOs and Environmental Activism in China”
Abstract:
The development of nongovernmental and non for-profit organizations and networks is one of the most significant changes in China’s power structure and the state-society relationship. This talk will outline the legal environment of NGOs in China, their major features, importance, and challenges. The environmental grassroots organizations compose the most active, numerous and vibrate sector among all the NGOs, and this talk will use the emergence of environmental activism as an example to discuss with depth the NGO-government interface, and NGOs’ strategy to survive and thrive under China’s current political condition.
Biography:
Qiusha Ma earned her Ph. D. in history at Case Western Reserve University in 1995. She is now an associate professor at East Asian Studies Program at Oberlin College, teaching Chinese language and the NGOs and civil society in East Asia. Her research interests include NGOs and civil society studies, the Western medicine in nonwestern cultures, the Rockefeller Foundation’s work in China. Her publications include two books (The Nongovernmental Organizations in Contemporary China and To Change China: the Rockefeller Foundation’s Century-long Journey in China), and numerous articles in both English and Chinese on these research subjects.
Co-sponsors: The Mershon Center for International Security Studies
