Civil Society Networks in China and Vietnam Informal Pathbreakers in Health and the Environment

Non-democratic states such as China and Vietnam are often assumed to lack functioning civil societies. In spite of apparent restrictions, the network members Andrew Wells-Dang studies actively create informal pathways for advocacy through cross-sectoral social networks. This book brings a fresh, original approach to understand social action through the conceptual lens of informal environmental and health networks. Using personal relationships, media allies, and new technologies, activist networks are transforming public discourse and expanding political spaces. In rich and captivating case studies, this book turns conventional depictions of controlled Chinese and Vietnamese civil societies on their head. Wells-Dang demonstrates a wider range of advocacy techniques and strategies than previously documented in one-party authoritarian political systems. He argues convincingly that informal and virtual networks, rather than corporatist associations or autonomous non-profit organizations, are the true building blocks of civil society.

Andrew Wells-Dang is the Regional Management Quality Advisor for Catholic Relief Services in Southeast Asia and an independent researcher.

'What a marvelous contribution to scholarship! This empirically rich and theoretically informed book by Andrew Wells-Dang makes a powerful argument for the centrality of networks in contemporary Chinese and Vietnamese civil societies. The comparative analysis of China and Vietnam is a significant achievement in itself.' - Ben Kerkvliet, Emeritus Professor, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia