Transforming Urban Green Space Governance in China Under Ecological Civilization: An Institutional Analysis

ISBN-13: 9789819966936 / Angielski

Jieling Liu; Franz Gatzweiler

Spis treści

FOREWORD

 

PREFACE (by Prof. Franz Gatzwiler)

 

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Urbanisation Trend, Environmental Degradation, and Climate Change Impacts in China

1.2 Urban Green Infrastructure as Nature-based Solution and Common-Pool Resource       

1.3 The Challenges for Adopting Nature-based Solutions in China

1.4 Research Questions, Aims, and Objectives

1.5 Research Design and Methodology

 

LITERATURE REVIEW         

2.1 The Theories   

2.1.1 Ecological notion in Western urban planning theories       

2.1.2 Ecological notion and Governance philosophy in China    

2.2 The Practices   

2.2.1 The environmental dimension: nexus between urban green spaces, climate change, health and wellbeing 

2.2.2 The technical dimension  

2.2.2.1 From the perspectives of land-use and land economics   

2.2.2.2 From the perspectives of urban ecology and landscape ecology

2.2.3 The economic dimension: economics of urban land and valuation of urban green spaces

2.2.4 The social dimension       

2.2.5 The political dimension   

2.2.5.1 International environmental and climate governance frameworks         

2.2.5.2 National strategies and action plans  

2.3 The Institutional Perspective         

2.3.1 Relevance of the institutional perspective      

2.3.2 Critiques on various governance approaches 

2.3.2.1 Top-down and bottom-up governance        

2.3.2.2 Multi-level governance 

2.3.2.3 Collaborative and participatory governance

2.3.2.4 The emerging ‘urban’ focus in governance literature      

2.3.3 Major institutional challenges in urban governance, globally and in China

 

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK      

3.1 Semantics Matter      

3.2 Overview of the Theoretical Framework

3.3 Urban Social-Ecological Systems 

3.4 The Common-Pool Resource (CPR) Theory     

3.4.1 What is a common-pool resource (CPR)?      

3.4.2 Why urban green spaces are common-pool resources?      

3.4.3 Critical elements in common-pool resource governance    

3.4.3.1 Governance and actors  

3.4.3.2 Institutions

3.4.3.3 Property rights bundles 

3.4.3.4 Transaction costs

3.4.3.5 Institutional change       

3.5 Analysing Common-Pool Resource Governance through the IAD Framework 

 

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY   

4.1 Research Design       

4.1.1 Designing the empirical analysis with the IAD framework

4.1.2 A qualitative, case-study-based research approach  

4.1.3 Case selection, study period, and administrative level        

4.2 Data Collection         

4.2.1 Data collection methods   

4.2.1.1 Semi-structured in-depth interviews  

4.2.1.2 Archival research

4.2.1.3 Observation

4.2.2 Ethical considerations

4.2.3 Data collection timeframe

4.3 Data Analysis 

4.3.1 Content analysis using MaxQDA         

4.3.1.1 Qualitative content analysis    

4.3.1.2 Using MaxQDA qualitative data analysis software

4.3.1.3 Organising data and coding    

4.3.2 Multi-criteria assessment (MCA)

4.3.2.1 Multi-criteria assessment (MCA) for qualitative research

4.3.2.2 Applying multi-criteria assessment in this research

 

EMPIRICAL CONTEXT AND CASE PRESENTATION

5.1 Biophysical Contexts of China and of Guangzhou City        

5.1.1 Natural and socio-economic conditions

5.1.2 Climate change impacts

5.2 Institutional Contexts of China     

5.2.1 Contemporary development philosophy before Ecological Civilisation

5.2.1.1 Socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics

5.2.1.2 Scientific Outlook on Development

5.2.2 Ecological Civilisation     

5.2.2 History of environmental protection in China

5.2.3 Important plans on environmental health and climate change

5.2.4 A multi-level, nested hierarchical system of land-use and spatial planning     

5.2.4.1 Five-level administrative system and processes for land-use and spatial planning    

5.2.4.2 Typology of land and spatial plans in China

5.2.4.3 Definition and standards of urban green spaces in China

5.3 Three Urban Green Spaces Governance Cases in Guangzhou

5.3.1 Overview of the three case studies

5.3.2 Panyu Ecological Corridor

5.3.3 Haizhu Wetland Park

5.3.4 Tianhe Sponge City Demonstration Site

 

ANALYSIS

6.1 Characteristics and Tendencies of the Rules-in-Use in Case Studies

6.1.1 Characteristics of the rules-in-use in case studies     

6.1.2 Policy tendencies at the national level  

6.1.3 Policy tendencies at the local level       

6.1.4 Summary     

6.2 Relationships and Power Dynamics between Actors

6.2.1 Summary     

6.3 Interactions between Actors

6.3.1 Summary     

6.4 Outcome in Urban Green Space Implementation and Institutional Change

6.4.1 Urban green space goals and deliverables from national and local plans and policies

6.4.2 Reflections on urban green space implementation - insights from in-depth interviews

6.4.3 Formal institutional changes, evolving priorities, and central-local correlation  

6.4.4 Reflections on formal institutional change - insights from in-depth interviews   

6.4.5 Informal institutional changes    

6.4.6 Summary

6.5 Final Evaluation through Multi-Criteria Assessment (MCA)

6.5.1 Summary     

 

DISCUSSIONS

7.1 Summary and Discussion of Main Findings

7.1.1 Land property rights arrangements determine UGS governance

7.1.2 Guangzhou’s UGS governance mostly in line with characteristics of successful CPR governance regimes

7.1.3 Guangzhou’s UGS governance attunes with Ecological Civilisation         

7.1.4 Sustained barriers to institutional change for UGS governance in China

7.2 Policy Implications   

 

CONCLUSIONS

8.1 Research Overview and Reflection of Main Findings

8.2 Reflecting on the Aims, Objectives, and Methodology

8.3 Policy Recommendations

8.4 Key Scientific Contributions and Limitations of This Research

8.4.1 Key scientific contributions

8.4.2 Limitations of the IAD framework and the MCA method for this research

8.5 Future Research Directions

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

GLOSSARY

 

ANNEX     

1. Form of Informed Consent for Interview

2. Semi-Structured In-Depth Interview Outline      

3. Selected semi-structured in-depth interview excerpts

4. List of Interviewees    

5. List of Policy Documents     

6. Declaration of Original Authorship

O autorze

Jieling Liu holds a Ph.D. in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies from the University of Lisbon. Her research interests include nature-based solutions, climate finance, urban health and governance, carbon markets and policies, institutional solutions on common-pool resources and more broadly, institutional change. Once a visiting scholar to the Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis (founded by Nobel Economics Laureate Professor Elinor Ostrom), Dr Liu is expert on the subject of sustainable governance of common-pool resources, of which urban green spaces shares highly similar features. Dr Liu also has 8 years of experience in consulting, capacity-building, and policy research for large international research and development financial institutions. Dr Liu also has an academic background in Political Sciences, Journalism, and renewable energies. She is skilled at intercultural communication and sustainability advocacy and commits to accelerating sustainability solutions and collaborations globally.

 

Franz W. Gatzweiler is a professor at the Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and executive director of the International Council for Science's global program on "Urban Health and Wellbeing: a Systems Approach." He studied agricultural economics at the University of Bonn and the Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany. His doctorate research (summa cum laude) was on the "Nature of Economic Value and the Value of Nature." Now, his interests focus on the science of complex systems, urban, and planetary health. He received stipends and research grants from various German and international research foundations. In 2015, he earned a habilitation (fakultas docendi) for independent teaching and research in the field of resource economics from the Humboldt University of Berlin. Before joining the Chinese Academy of Sciences in October 2014, he was a senior researcher at the Center of Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn in Germany.

Blurb

This book addresses the transdisciplinary subject of urban green space governance in Chinese cities through political sciences, organization theory, sociology, and new institutional economics lenses, with urban planning and ecology perspectives as research foundation and the science of climate change on health and wellbeing research background. It captivates readers by bringing answers to: 1) Why are urban green spaces such a highly contested subject in climate mitigation and adaptation, particularly in contexts like Chinese cities? 2) Why is it important to govern urban green spaces as common-pool resources? 3) How to design policies/institutions that can maximize the end objectives such as good health, wellbeing, and climate resilience? 4) What can ordinary citizens gain from caring more about greening their cities and contributing to the process? Besides, the methods used in this research-case-based study - qualitative in-depth interviews and qualitative content analysis using the mainstream qualitative data analysis software MaxQDA, are valuable learning sources, especially for junior graduate students. The book features three in-depth case studies with rich interview and illustration materials and a range of graphics of higher analytical quality. Readers both from research professionals to non-academics with a general cultural interest in geography would find this work instructive and informative.