Embedded data activism: the institutionalization of a grassroots environmental data initiative in China

Sun, Y. and Huang, V. G. (2022) Embedded data activism: the institutionalization of a grassroots environmental data initiative in China. Chinese Journal of Communication, 15(1), pp. 115-137. (doi: 10.1080/17544750.2021.1963997)

Abstract

This study explores how a citizen-led environmental data initiative first emerged as bottom-up data activism and was then co-opted by a state-sponsored environmental campaign in China. This research employs the social movement institutionalization perspective to explore the interplay between environmental data activism and authoritarian political institutions. It investigates how grassroots activists contest and collaborate with institutional actors, thereby reshaping data activism tactics and strategies under a specific political opportunity structure. Our analysis demonstrates the institutionalization of data activism, which results in the coexistence of contention and collaboration between civil and institutional actors. This study is expected to advance the scholarship on data activism by highlighting the institutional environment within which data activism is shaped in a nondemocratic context.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding: Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project [Grant No.22NDJC045YB]; The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project [Grant No. 527000-X91901].
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Sun, Dr Yu
• Authors: Sun, Y., and Huang, V. G.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: Chinese Journal of Communication
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1754-4750
• ISSN (Online): 1754-4769
• Published Online: 17 August 2021