自推行經濟體制改革以來，中國社會歷經巨大變遷，大量社會組織的出現，是最重要和意義重大的變化之一。1990 年以來，學者把社會組織發展作為探討中國國家與社會關係變化的指標，並發展出組合主義、市民社會等理論架構，但這些理論解釋力有限。組合主義和市民社會等理論途徑有助了解當前大陸民間組織發展的特殊面貌，但組合主義雖有效掌握中共國家自上而下的控制本質，卻無法說明社會的政經變化；市民社會則過於強調民間組織的自主性，忽略中共國家控制本質，而實際上當前的中國也未建立起真正的市民社會。這兩種途徑的解釋，都無法真實反映出當前大陸民間組織與國家之間互動的複雜圖像。本文擬利用Joel S. Migdal 的「國家在社會中」途徑，結合深入訪談所獲資料，探討大陸民間環保組織在反壩運動中與不同層級政府的互動過程，從民間環保組織的行動策略和特性，檢視大陸民間組織的鑲嵌與自主性，既非受國家完全控制，也不是與國家對抗，而是鑲嵌在中國現有的威權體制之中。同時，也將指出當前中國的國家與社會關係是在持續的互動過程中相互形塑。

Since the beginning of the economic reforms in the late 1970s, profound
changes in China’s society have taken place. The impressive upsurge of
China’s social organizations（NGOs）in the last two decades is one of the
most significant and meaningful events in the transformation. Since the
1990s, scholars have examined the relationship between the state and society in China by examining the development of social organizations （NGOs）. Much of the discussion of state-NGO relations in China has been viewed through theoretical frameworks such as corporatism and civil society. The corporatism and civil society approaches help us understand the differences in NGOs’ power arrangements with state as well as in their
specific organizational features. The corporatism approach captures well the top-down nature of control in the system, but it does not account for the important elements of social change. The civil society approach enables us to see structural change, but it overemphasizes the autonomy of social
organization. By examining the actions and efforts of the environmental NGOs in a series of anti-dam campaigns since 2003, in this paper, I argue that state-NGO relations are becoming more complex and dynamic to be captured by any one of these frameworks. This paper adopts the state-in-society approach to explain the embeddedness and autonomy of NGOs in current China’s authoritarian context. At the same time, it shows the interpenetration and mutual shaping of state and society, and suggests that their interrelationships are symbiotic and constantly adapting.