Crossing the River by Groping for Stones: From Free Expression to Shared Meanings to Collective Political Action in China’s Blogosphere

Peter Marolt asks the question “how can you believe what you see/read online?” One way to do this is to zoom in on the “Internet of thoughts and ideas” and look at those bloggers that have them. He quotes one blogger describing a blog as “a personal space for expression/speech” and a medium for an individual to express his/her own ideas”. Another said the joy of free writing that motivates them, as well as reader recognition and a convenient form of publishing. He shows various quotes from the bloggers he interviewed, one of whom comments that the administrators of blogging platforms are more “down to earth” than the Central Propaganda Bureau. Another blogger feels that they are powerless to influence anyone except their close friends and relatives, and says they feel like an oddball or alien in Chinese society. Another quote states that the Xiamen PX incident was triggered by bloggers, as an example of the potential they see, though it may be rare.

Analyzing individual agency is, in Marolt’s view, critical to understanding how collective action is realized. Instead of starting from theoretical concepts and moving to operationalization and fieldwork, he seeks to discover his conceptual underpinnings during his fieldwork. He defines “blog” as a catalyst for change, a work of art, and conscious attempt to affect everyday life, and blogging demonstrating not what to do but how to be. He then produces a quite interesting handwritten graph of the relationships between the virtual, physical, private, public and individual creation.

He describes a process of social learning, from free thinking -> free expression -> shared imagination -> shared meaning -> intentional organization -> collective action -> societal change and then eventually, perhaps, back again to free thinking. He’s continuing to work on defining this process, and expects to be doing so for the next few years. He points out we need more empirical work on urban China’s constant evolution.

Go here for Marolt’s Slideshare presentation “China’s Blogosphere in the eyes of Western Researchers, and Why They Are Wrong”. Also blogged here. Unfortunately, pressed for time, he was only able to go into some impressions and not his findings in depth.

This entry was posted Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Session 9. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.