Bin Xu

The Politics of Compassion

The Sichuan Earthquake and Civic Engagement in China

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Bin Xu is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Emory University.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 256
• Erscheinungstermin: 22. August 2017
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 226mm x 152mm x 18mm
• Gewicht: 340g
• ISBN-13: 9781503603363
• ISBN-10: 1503603369
• Artikelnr.: 47774664

Autorenporträt

Bin Xu is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Emory University.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction
chapter abstract
The Introduction presents an overview of the topics, significance, and
theoretical framework of the book.
1Consensus Crisis
chapter abstract
This chapter explores the massive wave of volunteer work in the aftermath
of the Sichuan earthquake and examines how the volunteers themselves
understood the meaning of their volunteering. The earthquake forced both
the state and civic associations to solve pressing issues related to the
emergency response instead of confronting each other. This created a
"consensus crisis" where, in the face of crisis, different parties reached
a consensus on goals and priorities. This in turn enabled civic
associations to exercise the capacity they had built up in preceding
decades. While all the participants expressed their compassion for the
victims and their solidarity with fellow volunteers, the meaning they
attached to their actions were multivocal and diverse. Most of the
meanings, however, did not reflect classical Western notions of civil
society, such as liberty and equality, but instead drew on nationalistic
sentiment, religion, and a discourse of individualism.
2Mourning for the Ordinary
chapter abstract
This chapter examines how public intellectuals and liberal media proposed a
national mourning observance and why the proposal became a reality in the
wake of the Sichuan earthquake, whereas there had been no national mourning
for victims of previous disasters. The mourning for the victims of the
Sichuan earthquake was historically unprecedented because, unlike past
instances of national mourning, which had been restricted to the deaths of
state leaders and soldiers, it was a mourning for ordinary citizens. This
was a result of the development of the Chinese public sphere in recent
decades, in both its institutional capacity and its moral ideas about
ordinary people's value. This development was catalyzed by the Chinese
state's concern with its image after a series of political crises in the
year of the Olympics.
3Civic Engagement in the Recovery Period
chapter abstract
This chapter analyzes the civic engagement in the recovery period. During
this time, the consensus crisis dissolved when the state-business alliance
came to dominate the recovery plans and the state, out of political
considerations, restricted civic associations' activities. The
post-earthquake civic engagement did not lead to significant long-term
changes in the structural relations between the state and civil society.
Changes in the political context, however, shaped how the volunteers
understood and talked about their engagement, particularly when they faced
an ethical-political dilemma about the school collapse issue. Most of them
became apathetic and avoided the school collapse issue because of their
inability to change the social and political factors that had led to shoddy
construction, the normalization of the disaster as an acceptable pathology,
and a reluctance to talk about it due to national pride.
4Forgetting, Remembering, and Activism
chapter abstract
This chapter examines how a "tiny public" of dissidents and intellectuals
countered the state's forced remembering and forgetting by collecting the
student victims' names and producing commemorative objects. Participants in
the commemorative activism clearly articulated the meanings of their
actions, which were similar to the classical normative ideas of civil
society, such as individual liberty and the value of ordinary people's
lives. Their engagement can be explained by their life experience and their
prior involvement in the tiny public's activities. They significantly
changed the memory of the earthquake in the world outside China, but their
influence on memory within China was limited.
Conclusion
chapter abstract
The Conclusion presents a comparative case, the 2010 Yushu earthquake, to
recapitulate the major arguments of the book and discusses the book's
contributions to understanding civic engagement and civil society in China.