Moving Beyond NIMBYism?: The Dynamics between Media and Movement in Chinese NIMBY Movements

By comparing two urban middle-class protests in the same region in China, this study addresses the moral dilemma of Not-in-My-Backyard (NIMBY) movements. This article argues that the success of a movement is rooted in the media-movement dynamics of two related social processes: securing public support for the movement to enable it to bypass its "selfishness" label; and ensuring the movement's survival within the authoritarian state to bring about possible policy changes. The structural position of the middle class enables activists to strategically exceed NIMBYism while setting the tone of compromise at the same time.