Taiwan’s Civil Defence after the Russian Aggression of Ukraine

Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Civil Society Section of the Polish Sociological Association

invite to a scientific meeting entitled:
Taiwan’s Civil Defence
after the Russian Aggression of Ukraine

The lecture will be presented by:
Josh Wenger, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica
Paul Jobin, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica

Much as Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in February 2022 has rekindled interest in voluntary defense organizations in European countries, China’s military threat against Taiwan has catalyzed the proliferation of new NGOs offering civil defense education to average citizens or what we call Civil Defense Organizations (CDOs). Our study is interested in the motivations and attributes of these organizations, their relation to the military, party politics, national identity and state organizations (such as the police and fire department), as well as the motivations of citizens who engage in their training programs. We have conducted interviews and participating observations with ten CDOs and analyzed national surveys, allowing for comparisons between participants in civil defense education and the general population. In addition to participants’ perception of China’s military threat and their level of confidence in Taiwan’s military and US security guarantees, we are interested in commonly theorized motivations for participation in collective action, such as identity and social networks. Our paper will include some preliminary comparisons with the cases of Sweden, Lithuania and Poland and we hope this paper can stimulate academic collaborations between Taiwan and European countries, for we believe the two contexts present heuristic differences and similarities.

The meeting will take place on July 10, 2024, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., in Warsaw, 72 Nowy Świat Street, in the Staszic Palace, room 154

 

classic-editor-remember:

block-editor