Topic One: Overall Introduction

Week 1: Overall Introduction of the Class

Introducing the Instructor, Course and Participants, Housekeeping.

Week 2: Theoretical Foundation—A Rational Choice Perspective

Levi, Margaret. 1997. “A Model, a Method, and a Map: Rational Choice in Comparative and Historical Analysis.” In Mark Lichbach and Alan Zuckerman eds., Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, pp. 19-41.

Week 3: Brown Agenda—the Need for Pollution Control

Economy, 2006. “Environmental Governance: The Emerging Economic Dimension.” Environmental Politics, 15 (2):171-189.

Week 4: Green Agenda—the Need for Conservation

Guha, Ramachandra, 1997. “The Authoritarian Biologist and the Arrogance of Anti-Humanism”, The Ecologist, 27 (1): 14-20.

Week 5: Resources and Sustainable Development

Nielsen et al., 2004. “Fisheries Co-Management—An Institutional Innovation? Lessons from South East Asia and Southern Africa.” Marine Policy, 28 (2): 151-160.

Week 6: Features of Environmental Problems and Politics

Chien, 2007. “Institutional Innovations, Asymmetric Decentralization, and Local Economic Development: A Case Study of Kunshan, in Post-Mao China.” Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 25: 269-290.

Topic 2: the Demand for Environmental Protection

Week 7: Victim and NIMBY Protests

Johnson, 2010. “Environmentalism and NIMBYism in China: Promoting a Rules-Based Approach to Public Participation.” Environmental Politics, 19 (3): 430-448.

Week 8: Conflicting Demands: Environmental Justice

Adger, 2001. “Scales of Governance and Environmental Justice for Adaptation and Mitigation of Climate Change.” Journal of International Development, 13: 921-931.

Week 9: Grassroots Conservation Initiatives

Martens, K. 2006. “Participation with Chinese Characteristics: Citizen Consumers in China’s Environmental Management,” Environmental Politics, 15 (2): 211-230.

Topic 3: the Supply of Environmental Protection

Week 10: Capacity Building and Policy Tools

Fiorino, 1990. “Citizen Participation and Environmental Risk: A Survey of Institutional Mechanisms.” Science, Technology, & Human Values, 15 (2): 226-243.

Week 11: Governance Structure: Judicial Roles

Rinquist, Evan & Craig Emmert, 1999. “Judicial Policymaking in Published and Unpublished Decisions: The Case of Environmental Civil Litigation.” Political Research Quarterly, 52 (1): 7-37.

Week 12: Governing Structure II: Decentralization

Xu, Jianchu & Jesse Ribot, 2006. “Decentralisation and accountability in forest management: A case from Yunnan, Southwest China.” The European Journal of Development Research, 16 (1): 153-173.

Week 13: Mid-term Examination

Topic 4: Collaborative Governance

Week 14: Community Self-Governance

Agrawal, 1999. “Enchantment and Disenchantment: The Role of Community in Natural Resource Conservation” World Development, 27 (4): 629-649.

Week 15: International Regime as an Emerging Governing Structure

Jahiel, Abigail R. 2006. “China, the WTO, and Implications for the Environment.” Environmental Politics, 15 (2): 310-329.

Week 16: Cross-Sector Efforts: Greening the Industry

Shi and Zhang, 2006. “China's Environmental Governance of Rapid Industrialization.” Environmental Politics, 15 (2): 271-292.

Week 17-18: Mini-Conference

About 5 persons will sign up to present their papers in each week on a first-come-first serve basis. To finish your final report you need to carry out your research in the field and collect sufficient evidences to support your argument. You need to prepare a PowerPoint file so that you can make a presentation in class and hand-in a Word version write-up by incorporating suggestions and criticisms into your draft and hand in the revised version by the end of the semester.

1. Class Attendance and Active Participation (30%):

All students are required to attend each class meeting, and be ready to discuss the reading materials and major issues with others. Most readings will be accessible from a dropbox file. This course will be taught in a dialectical mode in which students’ participation will be essential in the class. While counter-arguments or second thoughts are welcome in class discussion, please be always polite and thoughtful in presenting them.

2. Mid-term Examination (30%):

On week 12 we will have an examination, with a couple essay questions on some theoretical issues. It will be an open-book examination. Therefore you’d better mark your reading materials with highlighter and post-it stickers when in doing your reading assignments.

Alternatively, we can arrange a field trip for you to write a two-page report for the score of this part.

3. Final Paper (40%):

By the end of the semester students have to hand in a research result that has the potential to be published in professional journals in the future. The final write-up needs to include research interests, theoretical framework (with literature review), propositions or proposed arguments, methods to collect empirical evidence, and a preliminary survey, and conclusion. This proposal needs to be presented in front of all classmates in 15 minutes, and take critics and advices from the audience for at least 5 minutes. Reference needs to be carefully documented, and all academic ethics faithfully followed.