China’s summons for environmental sociology

Abstract

From demand for natural resources to sustainability initiatives, everything seems to hinge on China. China’s environmental entanglements call out for the analysis and understanding that environmental sociologists practice. Environmental sociologists from within and beyond China have begun to explore how society, polity, and ecology intersect, but we have yet to fully take on the challenges that China’s environmental struggles pose. This article focuses on four domains in which China’s experience compels us to rethink our theories: environmental ideology, political economy, civil society and environmental justice, and international environmental politics. In each domain, China’s institutions, discourses, and place in the world-system reframe major currents of thought in environmental sociology. These points challenge us to decenter environmental sociologists’ focus on how things happen within liberal polities in the global North; they likewise push us to reconsider arguments about the South. Together, these challenges present an opportunity to extend our theory and practice, fashioning a more global environmental sociology.

Theory for a global age: From nativism to neoliberalism and beyond

“…The practical importance of the concerns set out above seems most stark in the context of the growing political urgency to tackle climate change and the possible trajectories any action might take globally (see Zinda et al, 2018). Contemporary forms of fascism are fractured between the adventurism of Trump and Bolsonaro, and the equally deadly replacement-conspiracy driven eco-fascism which inspired the Christchurch and El Paso massacres in 2019.…”

Public opinion on climate change in China—Evidence from two national surveys

“…Even with an authoritarian system, the Chinese government has actively managed or accommodated citizens' concerns regarding the environment [4][5][6][7][8]. China has exhibited many, sometimes contradictory, value systems in the past few decades-from communism to market capitalism, revivals of Chinese traditions such as Confucianism, and the recent rising nationalism-making it a particularly interesting case for studying environmental ideologies [9].…”