Humanities & Social Sciences
Places in common. An ethnography of public gatherings in China
by Isabelle Thireau
In China, collective action is seen as a threat to social stability. Yet people gather there, on a daily and regular basis, in parks, places of worship or squares to carry out a variety of activities together. The ethnographic survey carried out in the city of Tianjin focused on two public gatherings: that of Victory Square for the practice of physical exercise; and that of the team of volunteers for the protection of the architectural heritage. Weakly institutionalized and fragile, these two types of gatherings nevertheless make it possible to act with others, to share concerns and doubts, to consolidate evaluation criteria or practical knowledge. As soon as they are grasped as places for shaping coexistence between fellow citizens, as places that undermine partitioning and official hierarchies, these gatherings have a political dimension and reconfigure the meaning of public commitments in today’s China.
