Dr. Maria Bondes

Positions

Since 10/2022	Senior lecturer in the Elite Master’s Program “Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures” (SDAC), Institute for Near Eastern and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (parental leave in 2023/24)
10/2020 – 9/2022	Guest lecturer, Institute of Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin (part-time substitute for Prof. Genia Kostka)
7/2016  – 11/2020	Associate research fellow at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies, Hamburg (parental leaves in 2016/17 and 2018/19)
4/2010 – 6/2016	Research fellow at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies, Hamburg; research project “Ideological Change and Regime Legitimacy in China” (PI: Prof. Heike Holbig), research network “Governance in China” funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
9-10/2010, 9-11/2012 and 4-8/2013	Visiting scholar at the China Center for Comparative Politics and Economics, Beijing
2002-2010	Work for various news media, including Colorado Daily in Boulder, CO, and German Press Association in Hamburg and Beijing

Education

11/2017	Doctoral degree (Dr. phil.) in Chinese Studies, University of Hamburg Topic: “A Burning Issue: Waste Incineration and the Diffusion of Environmental Contention in China” (summa cum laude)
2010	Magistra artium in Chinese studies, political science and macroeconomics at Hamburg University (funded by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation)
2005-2006	Advanced Chinese language studies at Lanzhou University, Gansu Province, P.R.C.

Research Interests

My research centers on state-society relations, public participation and contentious politics in authoritarian regimes, as well as on environmental governance and the digital transformation in China. I am particularly interested in how digital technologies shape and transform state-society relations and public participation in China, with a focus on public participation and contention in environmental governance.

Together with Genia Kostka, Wiebke Rabe and Danqi Guo (Freie Universität Berlin), I have recently investigated digital citizen participation in China’s urban and environmental governance based on national online survey research in China. My previous research project focused on the “network of contention” that has emerged among affected communities, social organizations, experts, lawyers and the media in China’s anti-incineration contention. The findings shows who a social movement can look under restrictive political conditions.

My research interests include:

• State-society relations, public participation and contentious politics in authoritarian regimes
• Environmental governance and  environmental contention
• Digital governance and ICT-based participation
• Regional focus: China

Publications

Monographs

2019 Chinese Environmental Contention: Linking Up against Waste Incineration, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Review by Jessica Teets in The China Journal, 88 (July 2022).

2013 Umweltaktivismus in Westchina – Zivilgesellschaftliche Ansätze, Wüstenbildung und Armut in der Oase Minqin, Berlin: Regiospectra.

Guest-Edited Special Issue

2017 (with Thomas Johnson), “Chinese Environmental Actors Linking Up: Towards an Environmental Movement?,” special section in: Journal of Contemporary China, 26, 106.

Journal Articles

2024 (with Danqi Guo, Genia Kostka and Wiebke Rabe), “In or Outside the Box? Citizen Action between Institutional and Extra-institutional Channels in Chinese Environmental Governance,” in: Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, online first, https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2024.2423804

2024 (with Genia Kostka and Wiebke Rabe), “ICT-based Environmental Participation in China: Same, Same but Digital?,” in: Environmental Science and Policy, 154, online first.

2017 (with Thomas Johnson), “Beyond Localized Environmental Contention: Horizontal and Vertical Diffusion in a Chinese Anti-Incinerator Campaign,” in: Journal of Contemporary China, 26, 106, 504-520.

2014 (with Günter Schucher), “Derailed Emotions – The Transformation of Claims and Targets during the Wenzhou Online Incident,” in: Information, Communication & Society, 17, 1, 45-65.

2013 (with Sandra Heep), “Conceptualizing the Relationship between Persuasion and Legitimacy – Official Framing in the Case of the Chinese Communist Party,” in: Journal of Chinese Political Science, 18, 4, 317-334.

2013 (with Sandra Heep), “意识形态变迁与中共的合法性：以官方话语框架为视角 (Ideological Change and Legitimacy at the Case of the Chinese Communist Party: Taking an Official Framing Approach),” in: Journal of Foreign Theoretical Trends, 8, 71-80.

2011 „Chinas virtuelle Jasminblüte: Eine internetbasierte Analyse der jüngsten Protestereignisse,“ in: ASIEN: The German Journal on Contemporary Asia, 120, 73-81.

Book Chapters

2019 (with Björn Alpermann), “Networked Contention against Waste Incinerators in China: Brokers, Linkages and Dynamics of Diffusion,” in: Teresa Wright (ed.), Handbook of Dissent and Protest in China, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 253-265.

2015 (with Günter Schucher), “Derailed Emotions – The Transformation of Claims and Targets during the Wenzhou Online Incident,” in: Wenhong Chen (ed.), The Internet, Social Networks and Civic Engagement in Chinese Societies, London / New York: Routledge, 45-65 (reprint of IC&S article).

2015 (with Günter Schucher), “China’s Dream of High-speed Growth Gets Rear-ended: The ‘Wenzhou 723’ Microblogging Incident and the Erosion of Public Confidence,” in: Peter Marolt / David Kurt Herold (eds.), China Online: Locating Society in Online Spaces, London / New York: Routledge, 88-107.

2013 (with Ding Li), “Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Western China’s Minqin Oasis: Joining Forces with Society,” in: Dhirendra Vajpeyi (ed.), Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Human Security, New York: Lexington, 139-168.

Further Publications

2022 Book review: “Yanzhong Huang, Toxic Politics: China’s Environmental Health Crisis and its Challenge to the Chinese State (Cambridge et al.: Cambridge University Press, 2020),” Journal of Chinese Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-021-09782-z.

2012 (with Sandra Heep), “Frames We Can Believe In: Official Framing and Ideology in the CCP’s Quest for Legitimacy,” GIGA Working Paper, No. 187, February 2012, Hamburg: GIGA.

2011 “Negotiating Political Spaces: Social and Environmental Activism in the Chinese Countryside,” GIGA Working Paper, No. 173, July 2011, Hamburg: GIGA.

Media Contributions

2013 (by Dirk Liesemer) “Umweltbewegung in China: Die Menschen verschaffen sich Gehör,“ interview in: Natur, 20.06.2013.

2012 (by Marcel Grzanna), “Die neue Revolution,” article in: Technology Review, 06.04.2012.

2012 (by Franziska Hendreschke), “China im 21. Jahrhundert: Chinesische Politik zwischen Gestern und Morgen,“ radio broadcast detektor.fm, 04.01.2012.

2010 (with Stefanie Schramm), “Wüsten in China: Kampf gegen den Sand,“ article in: ZEIT Wissen, 02/2010.

Selected Presentations

2022 (with Genia Kostka and Wiebke Rabe) “ICT-based Environmental Participation in China,” Arbeitskreis Sozialwissenschaftliche Chinaforschung (ASC) Annual Conference 2022, Vienna, 3.11.2022.

2022 “Chinas Umweltautoritarismus als globales Modell? Chancen und Herausforderungen,“ Forum Asia Pacific Lecture Series Agorá, Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg, 15.11.2022.

2022 “Umwelt, Energie und Chinas unvollendete Moderne“ (mit Eva Sternfeld), Friedrich Naumann Stiftung Bonn and Universität Bonn, Gesprächsreihe „Chinas Moderne Begreifen,“ online, 14.10.2022.

2022 “Digital Environmental Participation in China – Explaining ICT-based Citizen Engagement in China’s Environmental Governance,” Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Honolulu, online, 26.03.2022.

2022 “Umweltproteste in China – Eine soziale Bewegung?,” Ringvorlesung der Hochschule Bremen, online, 18.1.2022.

2022 “Networks of Contention – Linkages and Diffusion Processes in China’s Environmental Protests,” Berlin Contemporary China Network (BCCN) Lecture Series, online, 6.1.2022.

2016 “The Internet and Social Mobilization in China,“ seminar “China Online,” Asia-Africa Institute, University of Hamburg, 29.2.2016.

2015 “More than Fragmented, Not yet a Movement: Waste Incineration and the Diffusion of Environmental Contention in China,” Association for Asian Studies (AAS)-in-Asia Conference “Asia in Motion. Ideas, Institutions, Identities,” Taipei, 23.06.2015.

2013 “China as a Risk Society? The Case of Anti-Incineration Activism,” China Center for Comparative Politics and Economics, Beijing, 02.08.2013.

2013 “Rising Voices: The Diffusion of Civic Environmental Activism in Urban and Rural China,” International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) Annual Conference 2013, Macao, 24.06.2013.

2013 “Soziale Medien in Politischen Umbruchprozessen in Asien, Lateinamerika und Nahost,” GIGA Forum, Hamburg, 23.01.2013.

2012 “Conceptualizing Ideological Change and Regime Legitimacy,” Seminar on Government Innovations, Center for Comparative Politics and Economics, Beijing, 30.10.2012.

2012 “Micro-Blogging and Popular Contention in China: Fast-Tracking Revolution?,” 22nd International Political Science Association (IPSA) World Congress, Madrid, 12.07.2012.

2012 “Derailed Emotions: The ‘Wenzhou 723’ Train Crash and the Prospects of a Chinese ‘Micro-Blogging Revolution,” International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention, San Diego, 01.04.2012.

2011 (with Sandra Heep), “Change We Can Believe In: Official Frames and Ideology in China’s Quest for Legitimacy,” Joint International Conference of the Research Network “Governance in China” and the ASC, Hamburg, 10.12.2011.

2010 “Zivilgesellschaftliche Ansätze in China? Soziales Handeln und Umweltorganisationen in Westchina,” Konfuzius-Institut Hamburg, Hamburg, 13.12.2010.

2010 “Negotiating Political Spaces – Social and Environmental Activism in the Western Chinese Countryside,” International Workshop “Interpreting Authoritarianism: Politics, Practices, Meanings,” Exeter, UK, 20.09.2010.

Teaching

2024/25 “Contentious Politics,” M.A. seminar, Elite Master’s Program “Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures,” Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, winter term

2024/25 “Public Participation in Authoritarian Regimes,” M.A. seminar, Elite Master’s Program “Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures,” Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, winter term

2024 “Environmental Governance,” M.A. seminar, Elite Master’s Program “Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures,” Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, summer term

2022/2023 “Public Participation and Political Control in Authoritarian Regimes,” M.A. seminar, Elite Master’s Program “Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures,” Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg,  winter term

2022/2023 “Decision-Making in China’s Multilevel Environmental Governance,” M.A. seminar, Elite Master’s Program “Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures,” Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, winter term

2022 “Public Participation and Authoritarian Control in China,” M.A. seminar, Institute for Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, summer term

2022 “Contentious Politics in China,” B.A. seminar, Institute for Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, summer term

2021/2022 “Environmental Governance in China,” M.A. seminar, Institute for Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, winter term

2021/2022 “Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungsmethoden“ (Social science research methods),  B.A. methods course (Methodenübung), Freie Universität Berlin, winter term

2021 “Contentious Politics in China,” M.A. seminar, Institute for Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, summer term

2021 “Environmental Governance in China,” B.A. seminar, Institute for Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, summer term

2020/2021 “Chinese Environmental Politics,” M.A. seminar, Institute for Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, winter term

2020/2021 “China and Globalization,” B.A. seminar, Institute for Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, winter term

2015, 2012, 2011 and 2010 “Ökologie Chinas,” module of the B.A. course “Regional Studies East Asia,” Asia-Africa-Institute, University of Hamburg, summer term

2007 “Chinesische Grammatik”, language tutorial, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Hamburg, winter term