CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. The Development of Social Movements
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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1.THEDEVELOPMENTOFSOCIALMOVEMENTS
In this chapter, I will address the concepts of social movement and online media and what characteristics of their can be found in Macau. There is a lot of existing literature describing positive connection between civil society and social movements.
The former can be viewed as “nutrition” for the latter while the latter also can be the force to compel the former. Therefore, before delineating the changes of concept of social movement I will first give a brief introduction of the concept of civil society in the following section.
2.1.1 CIVIL SOCIETY AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
What is civil society? Is civil society important and why? There is no generally accepted definition. Scholars gave different definitions of this idea. One of the definitions of civil society by John Keane states, “civil society, as I used the term and still do so, is an ideal-typical category (an ideal type in the sense of Max Webber) that both describe and envisages a complex and dynamic ensemble of legally protected non-governmental institutions, that tend to be non-violent, self-organising, self-reflexive, and permanently in tension with each other and with the state institutions that ‘frame', constrict and enable their activities" (Keane, 1988, P.6).
Regarding Keane’s definition, civil society is non-violent, self-organising and reflexive, ensures legal of non-governmental organisation and always in tension with the state institutions and constrict their activities. While Seligman argued civil society is: "an arena where free, self-determining individuality sets forth its claims for the satisfaction of its wants and personal autonomy" (Seligman, 1992, p.5).
Some literature stated that civil society is one of three sectors while the other two are market and state. The trio are separate from each other but sometimes overlapping in the middle (Edwards, 2009).
When summarising the history of the concept, Edwards (2009) pointed out that in classic thought civil society and the state were seen as indistinguishable and both referred to as “a type of political association governing social conflict through the imposition of rules that restrained citizens from harming one another”. Reflected in the
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concept of Aristotle’s polis, which was an “association of associations” so that only those few individuals were qualified to rule and be ruled. In this sense, the state embodied the “civil” form of society while “civility” had been the requirements for a good citizenship.
However, the concept of civil society had experienced fundamental changes in response to the crisis in the ruling social order since the rise of the market economy11 (Edwards, 2009). There have been three contrast schools of civil society, one considers civil society as a part of society which focuses on associational life, another one considers civil society as a kind of society which is characterised by positive norms and values and aims to meet a particular goal. The last one is to treat civil society as the public sphere.
The essence of civil society is collective action, negotiation and struggle. The concept of “public sphere” was formulated by German philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas. Public sphere is composed of individuals who engage in rational debate and held in a space where the public may freely meet to discuss and articulate problems. (Chang, 2016).
When highlighting the importance of civil society, Ma said that generally speaking
“a strong civil society alters the balance of power between the state and society, disciplines and monitors the state, redefines the rules of the political game along democratic lines, and acts as an intermediary between the state and society” (Ma, 2008, P.157). Scholar Li Fan proposed that a self-governing civil society is a base for the development of democracy (Hao, 2013). A democratic society, although much research proved it is not the perfect one, is still the best so far. In the sense of Li, civil society seems to be the means of promoting a democratic society.
According to Chang (2016), the characteristic of civil society is related to public interests, non-governmental, associational and self-organised. He also said the key components of civil society, namely the arena, outside of the family, the government,
11. In that time the relations between the civil society and the state went in opposite directions and the thinkers of Enlightenment consider such society as a "defence against unwarranted intrusions by the state on the newly realised individual rights and freedom through the medium of voluntary associations." (Edwards, 2009, p.7). A new school, which viewed civil society as a self-regulated universe of associations committing to the same ideals that needed and maintaining role to resist the state, appeared. Later scholars in the USA including John Dewey and Hannah Arendt took Gramsci's idea about civil society as "an arena for contestation and developed around them a theory of the ‘public sphere' as an essential component of democracy" (Edwards, 2009, p.9).
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and the market; the arena of uncoerced collective actions around shared interests, purposes and values; composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organisations, and institutions.
The concept of civil society varied. Following previous studies described in this section I consider civil society connecting with public sphere and voluntary, interest-shared collective actions when I discuss it. These two should be considered key components of civil society. Nevertheless, collective actions in the sense of many scholars’ view equal social movements.
Dylan Taylor said that “social movements will be important players in the fight to overcome the crisis of democracy” (Taylor, 2017, p.1) and they challenge established power. He cited Marx and Engels that social movements are seen to be “historical movements” and drivers of social change. Thus “social movements are seen to be organised groups seeking to influence the “movement of history” (p.2).
While reviewing previous studies about the social movement, this concept has been given various definitions and it has been defined or conceptualised with different perspectives over past decades. Diani said that “a social movement is a network of informal interactions between a plurality of individuals, groups and/or organisations, engaged in a political or cultural conflict, on the basis of a shared collective identity”
(Diani,1992, p.13). Diani (1992) listed various scholars and theories or approaches adopt for the studies about social movement including collective behaviour perceptive (Tuner and Killian), resource mobilisation theory (Zala & McCarthy), the political process perceptive (Tilly) and ‘New Social Movements” (Touraine, Melucci). He further pointed out the first three have a big impact on the USA while the fourth has been mainly related to European scholars. However, according to Gamson and Wolfsfeld, social movement means “sustained and self-conscious challenge to authority or culture colds by field of players-organisations and advocacy networks- some of whom employ extra-institutional means of influence” (Gamson & Wolfsfeld, 1993, p.115). They further stated that they varied in many ways and they often have a distinctive evolving culture that perhaps, in various ways, conflicts with media and mainstream political culture.
Fang said so-called social movement means that a group of people, who share one collective identity and solidarity, carry out collective and continuous actions to pursue or resist a specific social change. In quoting Aberle the author also said that as social movement was the means for social change thus there are four kinds of social
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movement namely alternative movements, reformative movements, redemptive movements and transformative movements (Fang, 2013).
Lee (2002) said a new trend of social movement appeared in the 1970s and 80s in western society, which was considered as “new social movement”. She listed some difference between the social movements and “new social movements”. According to Lee, the appearance of the “new social movement” accompanied with "post-industrial society” which emphasises fighting for a personal lifestyle and how to uphold the autonomy of embodying ones' values, as well as fighting against cultural suppression.
In the previous literature studies, social movements have been regarded as force by the collective, unconstitutional action from people of a shared identity to challenge the established power or authority, even conflict with media and the mainstream political culture and seeking for social change (Taylor, 2017, Fang, 2013, Gamson &
Wolfsele, 1993). Thus, social movements or new social movements are regarded as the possible power to make social change and even promoting a more just society and civil society but engaged in a political or cultural conflict which is on the basis of a shared collective identity (Lee, 2002, Diani, 1992).
After giving a brief introduction to the changes in the concepts of civil society and social movement, in the following section I shall concentrate on civil society and social movements in Macau and investigate what the main characteristics of both have.
2.1.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF MACAU CIVIL SOCIETY AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS/CAMPAIGNS
In a book edited by Hao titled “Civil society: Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan”,12 all authors who focus on Macau society admit the existence of civil society in the city (Hao, 2013). One of the authors Ho wrote: "Macau has a high ratio between the population and associations, with many varied types of non-governmental organisations but there has been a contradictory phenomenon that the degree of mature of its civil society is quite low" (Hao,2013, P125).
In the sense of viewing civil society is one of three sectors while the other two are market and state, Hao (2013) used the four dimensions – structure, values, environment
12. The book comprises a collection of articles about the civil society in the four places which has been published at various times.
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and impact – which are often used to measure the degree of civil society13 to compare with Macau’s situation. He pointed out that there was no data about the four dimensions thus it was hard to tell the real situation in Macau, but he believed that it was better than the mainland but less developed than Hong Kong and Taiwan. Hao also said that there are also some sub-indicators under the four dimensions. Regarding the structure indicator, it is mainly related to associational participation. The environment indicator involves various aspects including political context, basic freedoms and rights, socio-economic, socio-cultural and legal context. Values refer to a set of beliefs including democracy, transparency, tolerance and environmental sustainability. The impact dimension includes various sub-indicators including people's influencing power on public policies and the empowerment of people. The scholar pointed out although the number of associations in the city reached 5,000 and the ratio between the residents and number was high, locals did not seem keen in taking part in association activities.14 The city’s associations were not diversified and those groups placed an emphasis on criticising politics and those advocating it were few. Regarding the environment dimension, most legislators were not directly elected by citizens and division of powers were not ideal. The value dimension and its sub-indicator have shown that there had been problems affecting democracy, tolerance gender equality and transparency.
Meanwhile, regarding the aspect residents’ influence on public policy he said that civil society has not much power to impact them.
Ho (Hao, 2013) affirmed Hao’s views and pointed out that civil society in Macau is not mature although Macau have various associations and every 10,000 residents have about 100 associations. The ratio was higher than France, the USA and Japan the ratio in the three countries were 11.5 /10000, 5.18/10000 and 9.72/10000, respectively.
Ho also said that many local associations received government subsidies and failed to supervise the government which is what non-government organisations do in western
13. According to CIVICUS, the structure of civil society, the external environment in which civil society exists and functions, the values practised and promoted in the civil society arena and the impact of activities pursued by civil society players (CIVICUS, n.d).
14. A survey carried out in 2008 showed that 82 to 84 percent of residents had not taken part in any social, religious or political activities. Furthermore, due to the overlapping of leaders and members thus the actual number of residents taking part in the associations was low (Hao, 2013).
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civil society. "Traditional" associations15 have important social and governing functions as they have been considered the main power of "love country, love Macau"
camp. Thus, those associations have strong a say on public issues. Ho said that during the process of the legislation of national security those traditional associations had the role of supporting the regulation of Article 23 of the Macau Basic Law on national security and undermined the opposition. The scholar further pointed out those associations still have an important role in Macau’s civil society and implied that the homogeneity of such associations seemed to make more "pro-establishment" voices heard. One function of civil society is to give residents the ability to express their views on political issues. However, the case of Article 23 showed that opposition voices were suppressed. In the conclusion, Ho pointed out the development of civil society in Macau was still “uncertain”.
In the sense of Hao and Ho's views, associations in Macau failed to exercise the functions to facilitate the development of civil society. Hao (2013) also said that traditional associations have gradually lost their autonomy and are becoming
“government organised non-profit organisations” and that weakened their role in civil society.
Tsoi (2014) said that in recent years the participators of protests in the city have become diversified. The main participators of the mass movements that occurred in the early period after the handover were grassroots unemployed workers and local parents who fought for the right of abode for their adult children who were living in the mainland. On one side, the size and the number of the social movements have increased, as well as having increasing numbers of participators. The number of participators taking part in the movements basically reached 1,000 and the largest number 3,000.
From the frequency and the number of participators implied that more residents preferred making their grievances known by joining social movements. The existing literature about the massive actions in Macau has not given clear distinctions among the concepts such as social movements, civic activism and protests. Thus, this study includes relevant papers in which those concepts are found.
15. Traditional association usually refer to the four old and influential association including Macau General Union of Neighbour Associations (commonly known as Kai Fong), Macao Federation of Trade Unions (commonly known as Gung Luen), Macau Chambers of Commerce (ACM) and Macau Women's General Association (Fu Luen).
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Moreover, since 2007 young people have been the main group involved in the social movements and in recent years the city's professionals such as teachers, social workers, doctors, public servants and reporters have become a part of the protests (Tsoi, 2014). The author also pointed out that the groups initiating those movements varied, which from the newly-emerged unions and democratic-livelihood associations to different kinds of associations, included the newly-established youth groups and community associations. Comparing those with the mass movements before the return of Macau to mainland China or the early in the period just after the handover, Tsoi further elaborated the theme of the protests in 2009 to 2013 as being diversified and involved various topics such as political system development, culture, community environment, press freedom, law and regulations and animal protection. Based on Tsoi’s view, some social movements have seemed to lean towards being issue-orientated in recent years and there has been a "shadow" of "new social movement”.
Lee (2002) elaborated that new social movement was issue-orientated and the issues involved were universal. According to Lee, all new social movements have the basic belief, which is to respect individual freedom and oppose unjust social manipulation and central control and civil society is the avenue for new social movements. Those movements aim at changing cultural values rather than transforming politics or economic systems and they cover various themes such as environmental protection, women's rights and gay rights. Compared to new social movements, Lee said that those movements occurring in industrial societies were mainly concerned about politics and economics and such social movements were "class orientated" and fought for material gain from the vested interest as the social conflict in an industrial society.
However, Leung (2012) said that the main players of social movements in society were still grassroots people and marginalised groups and the main issues for concern in those movements were related to livelihood such as anti-illegal workers, reducing the number of non-local employees and building public housing. He further said that protests involving labour gripes still appear frequently over recent years due to the working class not benefiting from the government policies aimed at promoting resident’s livelihoods quality.
Regarding the themes, main players and organisers involving social movements over recent years, Tsoi and Leung raised slightly different views. Tsoi (2014) pointed out the three elements tended to diversify and seem to have a trend of “new social
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movement” which have been emphasising the fight for personal lifestyles and how to uphold the autonomy of embodying ones' values (Lee, 2002). However, Leung (2012) said the main players and organisers are still mainly related to workers and the themes involved in mass actions were still uniform. In fact, when observing the social movements that have occurred over the past decades, regardless of their themes, the players and organisers have tended to be more diversified and have leanings towards the "new social movement". However, in criticism, protesting against or demanding the government or the authority to make changes were the still mainstream voices heard in those movements. Therefore, the tendency of the new social movement should not be the main concern in this chapter.
Simultaneously, social movements which are initiated through Internet groups seems to be popular, according to Tsoi. Echoed by Rolfed who said that nowadays in the Digital Era, access to and familiarity with technology have become an important resource for a successful movement (Rolfe, 2005). Leung (2012) pointed out that although social movements have been increased there has been no connection between the protest organisers, which were newly-emerged groups. Those movements were fragmented and separately organised by individual groups.
In reviewing civil society in Macau various scholars including Hao and Ho (Hao,2013) see that local associations have not fully developed their role when associational life has been the focus of the civil society since those associations have overlapped many of their key leaders and particularly the traditional associations prefer to be with the government thus they have played a role in undermining opposite opinions. Thus, the scholars pointed out that civil society in Macau is less developed compared to Hong Kong and Taiwan while it is better than the mainland but its development was still uncertain. However, Tsoi (2014) pointed out that there has been a new force in social movements in city which came from the newly-established associations including youth group and those groups have diverse issues on which they are concerned. In the sense of Tsoi’s view, new associations in Macau tended to diversify and that has possibly become new power to propel civil society in the city.
Indeed, it is a fact in Macau that social movements, which last for a long period of
Indeed, it is a fact in Macau that social movements, which last for a long period of