Chinese Journal of Sociology

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Confrontation by Rightness (Li): Strategies in Urban Collective Actions：The RightsDefending Movement of the Homeowners in Southern Garden, Guangzhou

Author：Zhu Jiangang, School of Sociology and Anthropology, Sun Yatsen University; Center for Urban Studies，Sun Yatsen University.   

  1. Author：Zhu Jiangang, School of Sociology and Anthropology, Sun Yatsen University; Center for Urban Studies，Sun Yatsen University.
  • Online:2011-05-20 Published:2011-05-20
  • Contact: Author：Zhu Jiangang, School of Sociology and Anthropology, Sun Yatsen University; Center for Urban Studies，Sun Yatsen University. E-mail:zhujg@mail.sysu.edu.cn
  • About author:Author：Zhu Jiangang, School of Sociology and Anthropology, Sun Yatsen University; Center for Urban Studies，Sun Yatsen University.

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Abstract:

Since the1990s, homeowners’ rightsdefending actions in the rapid process of urbanization have attracted our attention. This paper provides narratives and analyses of a collective protest concerning issues around community management fees and homeowners’ committee in a suburb community of Guangzhou. It argues that in the rightsdefending movement by the middle class, with the middleaged and senior residents being its main body, its action strategies are not just out of the lawbased confrontation, but more so influenced by the multicultural logic of rightnessbased confrontation including actors’ legal confrontation out of benefit rationality, everyday life moral balance as recognized and sought after based on the concept of “home,” and the discourse/value system in people’s struggles associated with the political culture in past socialist campaign mobilizations. This sort of rightnessbased confrontation in the urban community governance shares some similarity with, but at the same time, differs somewhat from the lawbased confrontation seen in the Chinese rural grassroots society. It propels the transformation of the governance structure in the Chinese urban society.

Key words: confrontation, strategy, socialist mass mobilization, collective action