Maria Bondes is a guest lecturer at the Institute of Chinese Studies of Freie Universität Berlin (part-time substitute for Prof. Genia Kostka). Her research centers on state-society relations, contentious politics & public participation, environmental governance, and digital technologies in China, with a focus on environmental and digital participation. Previously, she was a research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies' (GIGA) Institute for Asian Studies in Hamburg and has repeatedly been a visiting scholar at the China Center for Comparative Politics and Economics (CCCPE) in Beijing. She completed her doctoral dissertation which investigated the emerging network of contention against waste incineration in China, in Chinese Studies (Sinology) at the University of Hamburg.

Curriculum Vitae

Since 10/2020	Guest Lecturer, Institute of Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
7/2016 - 11/2020	Associate Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies, Hamburg (parental leaves in 2016/17 and 2018/19)
11/2017	Doctoral Degree (Dr. phil.) in Chinese Studies, University of Hamburg Dissertation topic: “A Burning Issue: Waste Incineration and the Diffusion of Environmental Contention in China” (summa cum laude; submitted 2016)
4/2010 – 6/2016	Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies, Hamburg; research network “Governance in China” funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
9-10/2010 9-11/2012 4-8/2013	Visiting Scholar at the China Center for Comparative Politics and Economics, Beijing
2003-2010	Studies at the University of Hamburg (Magistra Artium in Chinese Studies, Political Science, Economics) funded by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes); 2005-2006 advanced language studies at Lanzhou University, Gansu Province

Lehre / Teaching

 

Winter term 2021/22	“Chinese Environmental Governance" MA seminar, Institute of Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
	“Social Science Research Methods” (Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungsmethoden) BA methods course, Institute of Chinese Studies, Freie Unversität Berlin
Summer term 2021	“Contentious Politics in China” MA seminar, Institute of Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
	“Environmental Governance in China” BA seminar, Institute of Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
Winter term 2020/21	“Chinese Environmental Politics” MA seminar, Institute of Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
	“China and Globalization” BA seminar, Institute of Chinese Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
Summer terms 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015	"Ecology of China” Module of the BA course “Regional Studies East Asia,” Asia-Africa-Institute, Universität Hamburg
Winter term 2007	“Chinese Grammar” Language tutorial, Department of Chinese Studies, Universität Hamburg

Research interests:

• State-society relations, public participation and contentious politics
• Environmental governance and environmental contention
• Digital governance and digital participation
• Regional focus: China

Research projects:

“Digital Citizen Participation in China” (2021-2022), with Genia Kostka and Wiebke Rabe: the project is based on national online-survey research in China and examines digital citizen participation in China’s urban and environmental governance.

“A Burning Issue: Waste Incineration and the Diffusion of Environmental Contention in China” (2010-2016): dissertation project supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Academic Exchange Council (DAAD); based on extensive field work, the project examined networks and diffusion processes in China’s environmental contention at the case of China’s network of contention against waste incinerators (supervisors: Prof. Michael Friedrich, University of Hamburg; Prof. Björn Alpermann, Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg)

“Ideological Change and Regime Legitimacy in China” (2010-2016): part of the research network “Governance in China” funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); based on field work and documentary analysis, the project examined ideological change and the role of ideology for regime legitimacy in China (principal investigator: Prof. Heike Holbig, GIGA Institute for Asian Studies)

Books

Bondes, Maria (2019): Chinese Environmental Contention: Linking Up against Waste Incineration, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

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

Special Issue                  

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

Journal Articles

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

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

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

Bondes, Maria and Sandra Heep (2013): “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.

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

Book Chapters

Alpermann, Björn and Maria Bondes (2019): “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.

Bondes, Maria and Günter Schucher (2015): “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.

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

Bondes, Maria and Ding Li (2013): “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

Bondes, Maria (2022): “Book review: Yanzhong Huang, Toxic Politics: China’s Environmental Health Crisis and its Challenge to the Chinese State,” Journal of Chinese Political Science, online first.

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

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

Bondes, Maria and Sandra Heep (2010): “Conference report: Gemeinsame internationale Konferenz des Arbeitskreises Sozialwissenschaftliche Chinaforschung (ASC) in der DGA und des Kompetenznetzes ‚Regieren in China‘,“ in: ASIEN: The German Journal on Contemporary Asia, 119, 86-89.

Selected Presentations

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

“Networks of Contention – Linkages and Diffusion Processes in China’s Environmental Protests,” BCCN Lecture Series: Contentious Politics in China, online, 6.1.2022.

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

“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.

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

“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.

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

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

“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.

“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 (with Sandra Heep).

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

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