Morally-grounded activism in urban China: ethics and prefigurative politics at the public-private nexus

Abstract

Existing literature on environmental activism in China remains largely framed by the state–society paradigm, with limited attention to how ethics, relationships, and subjectivity shape activist practices. In response, this article combines the theoretical lenses of prefigurative politics and intimate activism to propose the concept of “morally-grounded activism”. Based on an ethnographic study of an ecological store and community hub that promotes sustainable living, the concept enables an analysis of everyday environmentalism as both transformation-driven and an ethical response to environmental crisis. In doing so, it moves beyond framing everyday environmentalism as a strategic response to growing repression of civil society under Xi Jinping, or as resulting from the deflection of responsibility onto individuals. In turn, this article makes a theoretical intervention by calling for greater attention to subtle forms of agency and to the blurred space between public and private spheres in China’s evolving political landscape.

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Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Lora-Wainwright, A. Johnson, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8376-8987 Qiu, L. Wong, Y.Y.K.
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Authors. Except as otherwise noted, this author-accepted version of a journal article published in Modern China is made available via the University of Sheffield Research Publications and Copyright Policy under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Keywords:	environmental activism in China; everyday environmentalism; prefigurative politics; ethics and activism; public-private nexus
Dates:	Accepted: 1 February 2026 Published (online): 19 May 2026 Published: 19 May 2026
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
Funding Information:	Funder Grant number BRITISH ACADEMY (THE) SRG2324\241625
Date Deposited:	13 Feb 2026 11:04
Last Modified:	20 May 2026 10:55
Status:	Published online
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1177/00977004261432201
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:237938

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Morally-grounded activism in urban China: ethics and prefigurative politics at the public-private nexus

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