Social Value Chains: A New Organizational Framework for Studies on State-Society Relations in China

In the past three decades, many studies have emerged to conceptualize the changing state-society relations in China. Yet, less attention has been paid to what kinds of social sector organizations these competing or conflicting studies were empirically examining. This lack of a synthesis of the organizational foundations of these studies has resulted in fragmentation and weak generalization of the arguments on Chinese state-society relations. To address this issue, this article systematically reviews the organizational bases in the extant literature on the Chinese state-society relations. It then constructs an inclusive organizational framework, social value chains (SVCs), for future research by combining two mainstream organizational forms in extant research with two understudied organizational types. This new organizational framework includes four types of social sector organizations: infrastructure organizations, financial organizations, support organizations, and operating organizations. This article concludes by revealing potential applications of the new organizational framework to guide future research on state-society relations in China.