Recasting subjectivity through the lenses: new forms of environmental mobilisation in China

Abstract

Visual imagery in environmental politics can be an effective way to engage the public. However, research based on 21 interviewees with activists from nine environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) in China suggests that the value of images in promoting environmental initiatives is not limited to the exhibition of them, but is also seen in the making of them. Increasingly in China, ENGOs are offering free natural photographic tutoring to the public. Camera lenses are seen as conduits to recast self-nature relations, which has the potential to raise environmental awareness and promote ENGO membership. Drawing on both theories of social movements and contemporary Chinese subaltern political sociology, this paper provides new insights into grass-roots environmental mobilisation in China.

Keywords:

• China
• environmental groups
• public participation
• subjectivity
• natural photography

Notes

1. The Chinese government requires NGOs to register, i.e. be officially licenced, though not all choose to do so given the complexity of the process. Many of those that do register are in fact government spin-offs and receive tangible government support (so-called government organised non-governmental organisations, or GONGOs). We deal with this topic at length in Zhang and Barr (2013).