The Relationship Between Government and Nonprofit Sector in China: A Network Perspective

Global Chinese Philanthropy Lecture by Ji Ma, University of Texas, Austin

Online via Zoom webinar

Existing scholarship on the relationship between government and nonprofit sector in China has been limited to two conventional dyadic views, namely conflicting or contingent. However, this relationship is much more complex and dynamic. In this presentation, Professor Ma will provide a network perspective on this relationship through three empirical studies: analyzing the board interlocking relationship between charitable foundations to illustrate the tension between state power and elite autonomy in the Chinese nonprofit sector; examining the government grant and foundation board interlocking network to demonstrate how government sponsorship can be redistributed within the nonprofit sector through social relations; and exploring the party-state’s strategy of embeddedness in Chinese nonprofits.

Dr. Ji Ma is an assistant professor in nonprofit and philanthropic studies at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and the RGK Center at the University of Texas, Austin. He is also an affiliated faculty member of the Center for East Asian Studies and the School of Information at UT Austin. His research and teaching focus on state-civil society relationship, knowledge production, and computational social science methods, with an emphasis on nonprofits and philanthropy.

This free public lecture is part of the Global Chinese Philanthropy Research and Training Program and made possible with the support of the Cyrus Tang Foundation.

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Duration: 01:07:24