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`Beyond silent organizations': A reflection of the UK Chinese people and their community organizations

Nottingham Trent University, chakkwan.chan{at}ntu.ac.uk

Bankole Cole

University of Hull

Graham Bowpitt

Nottingham Trent University

The UK Chinese community has long been perceived to have a high degree of solidarity and self-sufficiency. On the other hand, it is argued that the sense of community and mutual help among Chinese people has been weakened by their competitive approach to business. Based on findings from an ESRC-funded national study of the UK Chinese people's help-seeking behaviour, this study found that Chinese people, both where their population is dispersed and where it is concentrated, actively formed organizations to meet their social and cultural needs. However, Chinese organizations were weakened by inadequate resources and the diverse needs of different Chinese groups. Thus, the UK Chinese people were neither self-sufficient nor isolated from each other. The experiences of Chinese organizations further show that in spite of government expectations of community organizations, state input has been mainly in terms of regulations and control. Without financial support, UK Chinese organizations will slip from being weak organizations into `silent' ones.

Key Words: culturally oriented services • diversity • organizational capacity • weak organizations

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Critical Social Policy, Vol. 27, No. 4, 509-533 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0261018307081810


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Kwan Chan, C. Articles by Bowpitt, G. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?