Information, technology, and digitalization in China’s environmental governance

Abstract

Research on the relationship between information, technology, and environmental governance in the current Information Age has gained momentum in recent years. Nevertheless, much theoretical, empirical, and normative issues remain seriously under-explored. Existing studies also tend to be predominantly based on contexts, experiences, and lessons in advanced democratic societies. What the rapid developments in new information technologies, data, and information networks might mean for environmental politics and governance in non-democratic contexts remains even more elusive. This special issue brings together some of the latest research in the context of contemporary China to shed light on some of these fundamental issues. We argue that the role of information has evolved over time as dominant approaches to environmental regulation have shifted. Yet, findings in this special issue show that how it has manifested in China thus far has been anything but straightforward. While a few parallels can be drawn between advanced democratic countries and China, many of the predictions made about the effects of data and information technologies have not been borne out in China. We raise several questions as a fruitful avenue for further research.

Chinese cities as digital environmental governance innovators: Evidence from subnational low-Carbon plans

“…"Big data" informed decision-making in digital environmental governance. The role of data and information by which to guide decision-making and policy has become a central tenet of environmental governance (Fiorino, 2009;Kostka et al, 2019;Mol, 2006;Parsons, 2004). Environmental policy has witnessed a shift from top-down, command and control regulatory approaches to those where information has "transformative power," partly replacing traditional environmental actors with informational resources, powers, and flows (Mol, 2006).…”

“…Environmental policy has witnessed a shift from top-down, command and control regulatory approaches to those where information has “transformative power,” partly replacing traditional environmental actors with informational resources, powers, and flows (Mol, 2006). The increasing diversification of actors participating in environmental governance—from non-governmental organizations, private corporations, and individual citizens—all of which are poised to generate new and alternative forms of data—are shaping this shift (Kostka et al, 2019). Despite this transition towards information and information-led approaches to environmental governance, persistent gaps still exist for major issues, such as climate change, energy management, water quality and scarcity, to simply name a few areas.…”

“…With the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing, cities are capitalizing on the big data revolution and analytics to collect, process, and integrate data (Qin et al, 2021) that can advance more evidence-based decision-making (Giest, 2017) and allow for policy experimentation (Fuhr et al, 2018; Hughes et al, 2020; Peng et al, 2019). These “smart,” “intelligent,” and data-driven tools are being applied to multiple domains of urban planning and policymaking, from service provision (e.g., e-government), to public security (e.g., digital surveillance), efficiency (e.g., smart metering), and even environmental protection (Kostka et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2019). Smart city concepts have now become nearly ubiquitous to the point where “big data and smart cities have become buzzwords for the use of new data methods to provide robust, empirical evidence for urban policymaking,” in a brand of “policymaking 2.0” (Giest, 2017) that places smart cities at the center.…”

Research on the evolutionary game of multi-agent collaborative supervision of enterprise green behavior driven by big data

“…Furthermore, Internet participation in environmental management practices has recently gained increasing attention and acceptance among the general public. Public and environmental protection organizations and social organizations increasingly rely on social media, mobile technology, and digital technologies in order to directly observe and obtain a broad range of types of environmental information (Kostka et al, 2020). It is not uncommon for departments to open microblog accounts and adopt other means of communicating official policy decisions to inform the public and environmental protection social organizations about the latest remediation of environmental problems and organize public outreach activities.…”

Evolutionary Game Analysis of Non-Governmental Organizations Participating in Garbage Management under the Background of Internet of Things

“…Information technology and environmental problems are the main challenges of the 21st century [1]. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China makes a point that environmental protection has been put on the work schedule by constructing the environmental governance system with the leadership of the government, the enterprise serving as the main body, the participation of the social organization, and the participation of the public [2].…”