This month we are joined by Taru Salmenkari who does research on Chinese NGOs. Taru has a long career studying China, NGOs, and the role of civil society. We are super lucky to catch Taru right as her new book comes out, Global Ideas, Local Adaptations: Chinese Activism and the Will to Make Civil Society. By “exploring the boundaries, fringes, and inner workings of civil society” this book “investigates local forms of political agency in China in light of the globalization of political values, practices, and institutions.” We talked about the book and focused on how the introduction of NGO society to new places requires glocalization to make NGOs locally relevant. Taru highlighted how locals use NGOs for their own aims and in their own ways, which often diverges from the wishes of civil society promoters. Taru explained how civil society promotion uses theoretically and methodologically problematic forms of information extraction about NGOs. Join us for this wide ranging and interesting conversation!

Want to check out some of Taru’s work?

Profile at University of Helsinki https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/taru-salmenkari/publications/

Global Ideas, Local Adaptations: Chinese Activism and the Will to Make Civil Society https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/global-ideas-local-adaptations-9781035316670.html 

Civil Society in China and Taiwan: Agency, Class and Boundaries https://www.routledge.com/Civil-Society-in-China-and-Taiwan-Agency-Class-and-Boundaries/Salmenkari/p/book/9780367209193