Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.6, 2019

 

The Situational Legitimacy of Social Organizations from the Perspective of Social Construction

(Abstract)

 

Deng Yanhua

 

Social organizations can indeed play a role in the process of social construction, but their actual effects depend on situational factors. We put forward the concept of situational legitimacy based on analysis of the interaction between social organizations and various community members and on this basis explore the characteristics of contemporary social organizations participating in social construction. Situational legitimacy means that when social organizations that enjoy overall legitimacy carry out specific projects, they need to get recognition and support from the recipients of their services and grass-roots elites. Social organizations with a high reputation usually have their projects supported; they develop cooperation with powerful community elites and even achieve initial results. But a social organization’s reputation does not always help it maintain situational legitimacy. On one hand, the organization’s good reputation may well raise the expectations of service recipients and constrain its strategic choices, thus leaving the recipients dissatisfied and losing their recognition and support; On the other, an organization with a good reputation possesses autonomy and bargaining power. However, when the exercise of these advantages exceeds the limits of tolerance of powerful community elites, the power relationship will deteriorate and the organization’s situational legitimacy will fade away. Having lost the recognition and support of both the service recipients and the powerful community elites will mean that the organization’s projects will not be sustainable and the corresponding social construction will be hard to take forward.