Cyberactivism and Collective Agency: Cases from China

It has been observed that global cyberactivism has challenged the limits of conventional social movement thinking which focuses on shared identity and strategic intention. The objective of this paper is to propose a conceptualisation of ‘collective agency,’ underlined by an ontology of ‘becoming,’ which seeks to expand the conceptual space that accounts for the heterogeneity and complexity of online practices in China that are increasingly mediated by the Internet. The conceptualisation of collection agency serves as a theoretical basis for the analysis of China’s cyberactivism, which has become increasingly significant in its impact on public life over the last two decades.