当代中国社会抗议的议题分类与研究路径——基于英文学界中国研究文献的考察

Protest Issue and Research Path of Contemporary Chinese Social Protests——Evidence from the International Publication in China Studies

经过数十年发展,中国社会抗议已吸引了来自不同学科的众多学者的关注,所开展的研究也取得了大量不乏影响的成果。本文尝试对已取得的研究成果做一个较为综合和全面的综述,根据不同学者的研究路径对不同抗议议题的研究做一个归类和分析,力求发现抗议研究的前沿与不足。在抗议议题方面,既有成果主要涉及农民减税、下岗工人、征地/拆迁抗议、环境、工人/农民工和业主抗议等九种类型;在研究路径方面,学者主要从怨愤、资源动员、政治机会结构和框塑四个主要路径展开研究,每个路径又可根据中国实际细分为多个子路径。本文基于上述两个维度——抗议议题和研究路径——对既有成果进行了二维分类与梳理。研究发现,在农民减税和下岗工人等早期议题中,研究较为倾向于使用怨愤路径、资源动员中的领袖依赖和纵向的政治机会结构路径等,同时对意识形态和道义话语框塑也较为依赖;而在环境、工人和业主等新兴议题中,资源动员中的媒介、社会组织等路径更为常见,从利用部门职能差异的角度来理解不同的抗议产出,框塑话语上对法律资源也会倚重更多。综合分析,目前在国外对中国抗议研究也存在不足,如个案为主的既有研究对抗议议题之间的变迁及其背后的深层因素关注较少,对资源动员路径中的国际因素以及政府抗议处置研究也有待拓展等,这些不足之处客观上为进一步的社会抗议研究提供了方向。

Social protest is an important research topic in international China studies.A large number of academic works have been produced in this field in past decades.On the issue of protest,the existing studies mainly scatter in nine types,peasants’tax reduction,laid-off workers,land acquisition/demolition protests,the environment issue,workers/migrant workers,and property owners’protests.In terms of research paths,scholars mainly focus on grievances,resource mobilization,political opportunity structure and framing,then every path has been further subdivided into multiple sub-paths under Chinese context.Based on the analysis from the two dimensions above,this study found that in early research issues such as peasant tax cuts and laid-off workers,the existing research were more prone to the grievance,the leadership dependency of resource mobilization,and the vertical path of political opportunity structure,while also relying on ideology and moral discourse.However,in the emerging issues of environmental,workers,and property owners,media,social organizations,and other paths of resource mobilization are more common.This paper shows that there are some shortcomings in the current study of foreign studies of Chinese protests.For example,most of the existing studies that have been conducted one the basis of case study,pay less attention to the changes among different protest issues as well as the underlying factors behind them.At the same time,the international factors’role in the protests and protest policing have been left unattended,and deserve more attention in the future.