CAS research group Airborne: Pollution, Climate Change, and New Visions of Sustainability in China has invited Dr. Neil Munro to give a lecture at CAS Oslo. 

Abstract

This paper investigates the sources of Chinese environmental activism, as measured by a composite index composed of five forms of activism: NGO activities, government-or employer-led activities, complaints and law-suits, making donations and maintaining green spaces.

It then applies Lubell’s (2002) instrumental model which equates the probability of activism to the value attached to the environment, multiplied by the sum of group and individual efficacy, plus selective benefits, minus selective costs.

The purpose of the model is to try to bring some theoretical order to what otherwise appears as a heterogeneous array of material and ideational factors which encourage people to take political action to protect the environment.

I try to assess the extent to which the model succeeds in its purpose, and to make suggestions for improvement. The data come from the 2013 China General Social Survey.

About Neil Munroe

Neil Munro is Senior Lecturer in Chinese Politics at University of Glasgow.

He holds a BA (combined honours) in Chinese and Russian (Queensland, 1990) and a PhD in public policy from University of Strathclyde (2004).

He has a comparative interest in participation in governance in post-communist societies, and has published on a wide range of themes ranging from acceptance of bureaucratic norms through national identity, regime legitimacy, social cohesion, and satisfaction with governance outcomes.

His current research focuses on these and other issues in relation to social and environmental policies in China.

He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen articles in top-ranked social science and area studies journals. Before turning to the study of Chinese politics, he co-authored three books on Russia published by Cambridge University Press.

Open to all interested

The lecture is open to all.