This book brings a fresh, original approach to understand social action in China and Vietnam through the conceptual lens of informal environmental and health networks. It shows how citizens in non-democratic states actively create informal pathways for advocacy and the development of functioning civil societies.

Focuses on the activities of nongovernmental research institutions, foundations, and philanthropic organizations in fifteen Asia Pacific countries (Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam).

The concept of 'civil society' has often been used as a devise for differentiating China from other cultures. Though sometimes portrayed as a growing phenomenon, Chinese civil society is frequently said to be non-existent. Definitional deficiencies have, therefore, led to both a simplification and a narrow appreciation of societal developments in China. By examining various forms of activity, such as NGOs, residential movements, and alternative spaces, this book, however, reassesses the idea of Chinese civil society. Through questioning current methodological, theoretical and structural assumptions, it uses an empirical approach to criticize and expand upon existing understandings of civil society as it is applied in the field of Chinese Studies. Based upon ethnographic research undertaken among activists in both mainland China and Taiwan, it examines issues such as inequality, the mobilizing skills needed for civil society activities, and the technologies which exist to maintain the boundary between state and society. Offering an analysis of Chinese civil society in the context of modernization, social and economic liberalization, and international civil society promotion, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Chinese Studies and Taiwan Studies, as well as development studies and civil society studies.

Vietnam's political development has entered an extraordinary, if indeterminate, phase. Comprising contributions from leading Vietnam scholars, this volume comprehensively explores the core aspects of Vietnam's politics, providing a cutting-edge analysis of politics in one of East Asia's least understood countries.

As developing countries with recent histories of isolation and extreme poverty, followed by restoration and reform, both Cambodia and Vietnam have seen new opportunities and demands for non-state actors to engage in and manage the effects of rapid socio-economic transformation. This book examines how in both countries, civil society actors and the state manage their relationship to one another in an environment that is continuously shaped and (re)constructed by changing legislation, collaboration and negotiation, advocacy and protest, and social control. Further, it explores the countries’ divergent experiences whilst also uncovering the underlying basis and drivers of civil society activity that are shared by Cambodia and Vietnam. Crucially, this book engages with the contested nature of civil society and how it is socially constructed through research and development activities, by looking at contemporary discourses and manifestations of civil society in the two countries, including national and community-level organisations, associations, and networks that operate in a variety of sectors, such as gender, the environment and health. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in Cambodia and Vietnam, this book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Southeast Asian studies, Southeast Asian politics, development studies and civil society.

Most social science studies of local organizations tend to focus on "civil society" associations, voluntary associations independent from state control, whereas government-sponsored organizations tend to be theorized in totalitarian terms as "mass organizations" or manifestations of state corporatism. Roots of the State examines neighborhood associations in Beijing and Taipei that occupy a unique space that exists between these concepts. Benjamin L. Read views the work of the neighborhood associations he studies as a form of "administrative grassroots engagement." States sponsor networks of organizations at the most local of levels, and the networks facilitate governance and policing by building personal relationships with members of society. Association leaders serve as the state's designated liaisons within the neighborhood and perform administrative duties covering a wide range of government programs, from welfare to political surveillance. These partly state-controlled entities also provide a range of services to their constituents. Neighborhood associations, as institutions initially created to control societies, may underpin a repressive regime such as China's, but they also can evolve to empower societies, as in Taiwan. This book engages broad and much-discussed questions about governance and political participation in both authoritarian and democratic regimes.

The Routledge Handbook of Civil Society in Asia is an interdisciplinary resource, covering one of the most dynamically expanding sectors in contemporary Asia. Originally a product of Western thinking, civil society represents a particular set of relationships between the state and either society or the individual. Each culture, however, molds its own version of civil society, reflecting its most important values and traditions. This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of the directions and nuances of civil society, featuring contributions by leading specialists on Asian society from the fields of political science, sociology, anthropology, and other disciplines. Comprising thirty-five essays on critical topics and issues, it is divided into two main sections: Part I covers country specific reviews, including Japan, China, South Korea, India, and Singapore. Part II offers a series of thematic chapters, such as democratization, social enterprise, civic activism, and the media. As an analysis of Asian social, cultural, and political phenomena from the perspective of civil society in the post-World War IIera, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Asian Studies, Asian Politics, and Comparative Politics.