CHINA, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTEST: CIVIC ENGAGEMENT ON NETWORKS OF SCREENS AND STREETS by Elizabeth Ann Brunner A dissertation submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Communication The University of Utah May 2016 Copyright © Elizabeth Ann Brunner 2016 All Rights Reserved The University of Utah Graduate School STATEMENT OF DISSERTATION APPROVAL The dissertation of Elizabeth Ann Brunner has been approved by the following supervisory committee members: Kevin Michael DeLuca , Chair 2/23/2016 Date Approved Marouf Hasian , Member 2/23/2016 Date Approved Sean Lawson , Member 2/23/2016 Date Approved Kent Ono , Member 2/23/2016 Date Approved Janet Theiss , Member 2/23/2016 Date Approved and by Kent Ono , Chair/Dean of the Department/College/School of Communication and by David B. Kieda, Dean of The Graduate School. ABSTRACT This dissertation advances a networked approach to social movements via the study of contemporary environmental protests in China. Specifically, I examine anti- paraxylene protests that occurred in 2007 in Xiamen, in 2011 in Dalian, and in 2014 in Maoming via news reports, social media feeds, and conversations with witnesses and participants in the protests. In so doing, I contribute two important concepts for social movement scholars. The first is the treatment of protests as forces majeure that disrupt networks and force the renegotiation of relationships. This turn helps scholars to trace the movement of the social via changes in human consciousness as well as changes in relationships. The second concept I advance is wild public networks, which take seriously new media as making possible different forms of protest. This concept is especially important in studies of social movement in China where censorship and surveillance are widespread. By advancing these two concepts, I offer scholars new tools to trace the movement of the social beyond instrumental successes in terms of relationships and renegotiations. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... ix Chapters ONE: INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................1 Summaries ......................................................................................................................6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................12 TWO: A SHORT HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENTALISM IN CHINA .........................13 Environmental Shifts in Imperial Times: A Series of Crises...................................... 14 The Mao Years............................................................................................................ 22 The Environmental Impacts of China’s “Opening”: A Rising Culture of Protest...... 29 Xiamen, 2007.............................................................................................................. 44 Obstacles and Grounds for Hope................................................................................ 52 THREE: THEORIZING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS ....................................................... 58 Moving Social Movements......................................................................................... 61 Moving Theories on Moving the Social..................................................................... 75 Stirring Winds of Change........................................................................................... 81 Civic Duty and the Rhetoric of Nationalism in Crisis................................................ 86 Supplementing Network Theory............................................................................... 114 FOUR: SORTING CHAOS: WILD PUBLIC NETWORKS......................................... 119 Moving Past Binaries to Sort Chaos......................................................................... 126 Wild Public Networks............................................................................................... 128 Force Majeure.......................................................................................................... 135 Wild Public Networks of Protest.............................................................................. 142 FIVE: SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AS FORCE MAJEURE: XIAMEN’S 2007 PX PROTEST.........................................................................144 Social Movements, Cohesion, and Democracy.......................................................... 148 Assembling Assemblages and Wild Public Networks............................................... 154 Tracing the Polysensus of Protest.............................................................................. 173 Protest as Force Majeure........................................................................................... 176 Changing Relationships, Changing Politics............................................................... 179 SIX: THE DISAPPOINTMENT IN DALIAN............................................................... 182 An Explosive Past...................................................................................................... 188 A Culminating Storm................................................................................................. 204 Coalescing Forces....................................................................................................... 206 Motivating Movement................................................................................................ 212 From Disappointment to Unexpected Implications.................................................... 223 Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 229 SEVEN: MAOMING: NETWORKS OF CORRUPTION AND ACTIVISM.............. 232 Historical Reaches...................................................................................................... 233 Face(ing) Corruption.................................................................................................. 236 Pathways of Panmediation......................................................................................... 239 Maoming Networks... ................................................................................................ 244 A Return to Protests: Battling the Rhizomatic Reaches of Skepticism and Mistrust....................................................................................................................... 251 Weixin Webs and QZones Swell to a Force Majeure................................................ 255 Renegotiating Relationships: Moving the Social....................................................... 267 Moving Toward New Forms of Civic Engagement................................................... 274 Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 282 EIGHT: CONCLUSION: FORCE MAJEURE: UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL MEDIA, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, AND RHETORIC AS FORCE.................................................................................. 286 China’s Environmental Movement Writ Large.......................................................... 289 Contributing Complexities......................................................................................... 296 REFERENCES............................................................................................................... 302 v LIST OF FIGURES 1. A Dalian protestor..............…………………………………………………… 100 2. A Maoming protestor.............................…………………………………….... 100 3. Dalian protestors hold a sign .………………………………………………... 101 4. Protestors gathering in People’s Square ............................................………… 207 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This manuscript is truly a product of relationships and networks. As a result, I view this manuscript as a coauthored piece that I could never have completed without the guidance, support, and generosity of so many people, many of whom must remain nameless. First and foremost, I want to thank Dr. Kevin DeLuca for introducing me to new networks of thinking, helping me to navigate these complex connections, opening up new ways of being and seeing in the world, sharing connections, guiding, and being a dependable and endless source of support. I also want to thank him for the difficult and pivotal research he has done in social movement studies, visual rhetoric, media studies, and environmental communication, which has helped to open up space for this type of research. Conducting research abroad in China would have been impossible without him, as would have been writing this manuscript. I also am deeply grateful to Dr. Janet Theiss for helping me to get to and navigate a research site 6,000 miles away from home. Without her support to learn the language and the connections she helped me make, this research would not have been possible, nor would it have been as rich and engaging as I hope you will find it. Her advice during the dissertation process was invaluable to creating what I hope is a nuanced perspective on