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Contrary to existing literature analyzing how public spaces are strategic mobilization resources for activists, we focus on the inconspicuous constraints placed by the state on public spaces that limit their utility as mobilization resources. Employing the spatial dimensions of social movement theory and Althusser's state power theory analyze an activism case in Guangzhou, China, we argue that through everyday spatial governance by the state, public spaces in China are also forms of ideological state apparatuses that latently disrupt activists' attempts to engage in contentious spatial practices to gain resources through media coverage. We further propose the concept of 'spatial inertia', which are durable, routine, and diversified spatial meaning-making practices mediated through media coverage that affect the success of social movements. This paper complements social movement scholarship by examining how the state, through latent processes exercised using public spaces as ideological state apparatuses, competes with and subverts activists' efforts to use these spaces as strategic resources for collective mobilization, especially in authoritarian contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike previous research that concentrated on mobile payment's attributes in influencing user adoption decisions, this study focuses on the cultural norms and social environments in which mobile payments are conducted. This study aims to clarify the sociocultural influences of mobile payment systems based on in-depth interviews and participant observations in the Machong town market in China. In the analysis of substantive and instrumental perspectives on the influence of technology, this study found that the entrenched cultural practice of bargaining in China has been disrupted by the widespread adoption of mobile payment technology and supplanted by the new cultural practice of technical sharing, which is becoming increasingly entrenched in the continuing adoption of technology. The findings of this study suggest that technological and commercial logics have powerful reductionist effects on the imagination in technology use and design. To overcome these effects, we propose a co-exploration paradigm for use in the future development of mobile payment technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much research stereotypes mass media in authoritarian contexts as mouthpieces of the ruling party, we argue that successful social media–driven activism also requires the support of mass media, even in authoritarian contexts. To investigate the roles of social media and mass media on collective mobilization, we analyzed a case in Guangzhou, China, and conducted in-depth interviews to conceptualize the interconnected relationship between social media and mass media from the perspective of resource mobilization. Findings reveal that social media facilitated the mobilization of participants by providing less fungible and timely resources at the initial stages of collective action. However, it is the more fungible and enduring resources provided by the mass media that sustain the intensity of external pressures to the government. The complementarity between social and mass media in atomized collective action in China is in essence the configuration between exclusive and monopolized resources mediated by a middle-ground discursive mode—"implied truth." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]