Spontaneous cognitive liberation in the context of rights-defending actions: A case study of the evolution of homeowner activists’ rights consciousness

Abstract

Empirical studies on Chinese homeowners’ activism regarding defending their rights focus mostly on either political opportunities or resource mobilization and often neglect the cognitive process of homeowner activists in developing their rights consciousness. This study attempts to use the perspective of framing and cognitive liberation to gain a nuanced understanding of activists’ subjective cognition in their actions aimed at defending their rights. An analytic framework is proposed which examines two aspects of homeowners’ rights consciousness: the referent of rights (property rights versus rights to self-governance) and the nature of rights (reactive versus proactive). Data were collected from Sina Weibo tweets posted by homeowner activists in the period 2011 to 2015. The results show that activists are universally aware of property rights and are increasingly proactive in seeking self-governance. Subsequent interviews of a group of activists revealed a spontaneous and interactive process of cognitive liberation that derives from both the first-hand experiences and the online discussions with fellow activists. Social media provide platforms upon which activists can exchange information, form networks, and learn from each other about common issues and obstacles and, thus, they promote collective consciousness and facilitate cognitive liberation. This suggests that future studies of activism regarding homeowners’ defence of rights should shift from an event-centered case study approach to an issue-centered analysis of the grass-roots rights movement as a whole.