Handbook on China’s Urban Environmental Governance

Handbooks of Research on Contemporary China series

Edited by Fangzhu Zhang, Professor and Fulong Wu, Bartlett Professor of Planning, Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, UK

This Handbook addresses how Chinese cities govern environmental changes generated by fast economic growth and urbanisation. With in-depth case studies on governing waste management, climate change, and energy transition, it will illuminate the relationship between the state, market, and society in environmental governance.

‘Nuanced in both description and analysis, this rich Handbook is a welcome resource for students of urban and environmental developments in China during its push towards “ecological civilisation”. It is broad in its empirical reach, presenting cases across urban and rural environments at various scales, and breaks new ground in its conceptual and methodological dimensions.’
– Roger Keil, York University, Canada

‘This outstanding collection provides a unique insight on the practices, rationalities, and outcomes of current urban environmental governance in the “Middle Kingdom”. The book foregrounds the tensions that emerge from the implementation of government-led discourses, and also engages with the emergence of a new urban technological sublime in environmental policy, alongside more conventional strategies for institutional change. This book is destined to become a classic and will surely be essential reading for any researchers and students grappling with the complexity of urban development and climate politics in China’
– Vanesa Castan Broto, Sheffield University, UK

‘This timely edited collection examines how the ideology of “ecological civilisation” is reshaping urban environmental governance in China. Bringing together insightful case studies of a range of contemporary urban environmental problems, the collection shows how the Chinese state’s attempts to manage the socio-ecological challenges of urban entrepreneurialism amount to little more than temporary “fixes”.’
– Andrew E.G. Jonas, University of Hull, UK

‘This Handbook is an essential resource for anyone interested in environmental governance in China. It provides insightful analysis that will help both students and practitioners better understand how there is a wide range of environmental governance practices and political ecologies in China today!’
– Genia Kostka, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany