China's Environmental Crisis Domestic and Global Political Impacts and Responses

by Kassiola, Joel Jay; Guo, Sujian

• ISBN13: 9780230106642
• ISBN10: 0230106641
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-10-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This wide-ranging and path-breaking collection of essays on China's environmental crisis takes a new approach, transcending the typical "gloom and doom" media and scholarly report on China's environmental crisis, to address how the Chinese political and social systems were impacted and how they responded, or should respond, to the ecological challenges confronting China. Therefore, this collection provides innovative analyses about the impacts and responses--both domestically and globally--of China's political and social systems encompassing its social values, ameliorative, and preventative policies. It leaves us with such an important question to ponder: What social action will be needed in the near- and long-term future in order to avoid environmental disaster as well as to achieve environmental sustainability and social justice for the long term in China?

Author Biography

Joel Jay Kassiola is Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Political Philosophy Program at Princeton University. His research program after several publications in various political theory themes turned to the intersection of the environmental crisis, political theory and modernity about 30 years ago. He published one of the first books in the emerging field of environmental political theory in 1990: The Death of Industrial Civilization, and more recently, edited Explorations in Environmental Political Theory (2003). He has published several articles on the nature of environmental political theory and environmental ethics. His most recent research has turned to China’s political thought and development pertaining to green political theory, environmental policy, and China’s development. His article titled “The Dilemma of Western Industrial Civilization and China’s Path in the 21st Century” is published in Challenges Facing Chinese Political Development (2007).

Sujian Guo is Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of Center for U.S.-China Policy Studies at San Francisco State University. He holds concurrent appointments as Associate Dean and Distinguished Guest Professor of Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences at Fudan University. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chinese Political Science, Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Series Editor of Rowman & Littlefield-Lexington’s Chinese political studies, and former President of Association of Chinese Political Studies.  He received his MA degree from Peking University and Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee. He has published more than 30 academic articles both in English and Chinese. His authored and edited books include Greater China in an Era of Globalization (2009); Harmonious World and Chinese New Foreign Policy (2008); China in Search of a Harmonious Society (2008); Challenges Facing Chinese Political Development (2007);  New Dimensions of Chinese Foreign Policy (2007); China in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Opportunities (2007); The Political Economy of Asian Transition from Communism (2006); China’s ‘Peaceful Rise’ in the 21st Century: Domestic and International Conditions (2006); and Post-Mao China: From Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism? (2000).

Table of Contents

Introduction: China’s Environmental Crisis: A Global Crisis with Chinese Characteristics: From Confucius to Cell Phones--Joel Jay Kassiola and Sujian Guo * Part 1: Current Ecological Conditions and Public Politics in China: Desertification, Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Food Security * Desertificaton in China: Problems with Policies and Perceptions--Hong Jiang * Network Public Management and the Challenge of Biodiversity Management in China--Sara R. Jordan * Changing Climate? China’s New Interest in Global Climate Change Negotiations--Wei Liang * Environmental Stressors and Food Security in China--Jerry McBeath and Jennifer McBeath * Part 2: The Formation and Policy Influences of ENGOs (Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations) in China * State and Society in China’s Environmental Politics--Bjorn Alpermann * Responding to Climate Disaster: The Cosmopolitan Challenge in China--Paul G. Harris * Part 3: Environmentally-Caused Social Change in China: New Media Technologies and Traditional Confucian Values Updated * Digital Power: Public Participation in an Environmental Controversy--Yanmin Yu and Fanxu Zeng * Confucianizing Modernity and “Modernizing” Confucianism:  Environmentalism and The Need for a Confucian Positive Argument for Social Change--Joel Jay Kassiola