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Environmental Governance in China: Creating Ecologically Civilised Environmental Subjects

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Environmental Governance in China: Creating Ecologically Civilised Environmental Subjects Environmental Governance in China: Creating Ecologically Civilised Environmental Subjects by James Oswald Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies School of Social Sciences University of Adelaide February 2017 Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. 己 Declaration........................................................................................................................................ 辛 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... 壬 Background to this Study .................................................................................................................. 癸 Guide to In-Text Use of Chinese Sources, Chinese Terminology, and Footnotes .............................. 11 List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................................... 12 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 PART 1 – Environmental Degradation, Environmental Consciousness and Civilisation Discourse .................................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 1: Environmental Degradation .............................................................................................. 5 China’s History of Environmental Degradation ............................................................................................. 5 Ancient Trends Toward Environmental Degradation .................................................................................................. 5 China Encounters Western Forces .............................................................................................................................. 6 China in the Modern Era ............................................................................................................................................. 9 The Negative Impact of Development on the Environment ........................................................................ 11 Global Environmental Disasters ................................................................................................................................ 11 China’s Environmental Woes .................................................................................................................................... 12 International Nature of the Environmental Crisis ..................................................................................................... 14 How Development Leads to Environmental Degradation ........................................................................... 15 Cost-Transference ..................................................................................................................................................... 16 The Problem of Consumption ................................................................................................................................... 18 WTO Entry and Environmental Degradation ............................................................................................................. 20 Chapter 2: The Rise of Environmental Consciousness in China ........................................................ 22 Environmental Consciousness in the Chinese Party-State .......................................................................... 22 Environmental Consciousness in the Early Years ...................................................................................................... 22 The Increasing Importance of Environmental Issues ................................................................................................. 24 The CCP Updates Environmental Law ....................................................................................................................... 26 Xi Jinping’s “Two Mountains Theory” ........................................................................................................................ 28 Chapter 3: The Concept of Wenming and the Rise of Ecological Civilisation ................................... 31 Civilising Discourse ...................................................................................................................................... 31 The Introduction of Ecological Civilisation ................................................................................................................ 31 What is Wenming? .................................................................................................................................................... 32 Usages of Wenming in CCP Discourse ....................................................................................................................... 35 The Origins of Shengtai Wenming ............................................................................................................................. 36 CCP Adoption of Ecological Civilisation ..................................................................................................................... 38 PART 2 – Literature Review and Methodology ........................................................................ 40 Chapter 4: Literature Review ............................................................................................................ 41 Key Themes and Questions ......................................................................................................................... 41 甲 Environmental Degradation in China, Ancient and Modern ..................................................................................... 41 Causes of Environmental Degradation ...................................................................................................................... 44 Ecological Civilisation as a Post-Industrial Society ..................................................................................................... 48 Ecological Civilisation as an Ethical Standard of Behaviour ....................................................................................... 51 Ecological Values ....................................................................................................................................................... 55 Governance in an Ecological Civilisation ................................................................................................................... 57 Working Towards a Solution – How to Realise an Ecological Civilisation .................................................................. 59 Research Question ...................................................................................................................................... 63 Chapter 5: Methodology................................................................................................................... 65 Trying to Understand STWM ....................................................................................................................... 65 Rationale for Choice of Sources ................................................................................................................................ 65 Conceptual Approach ................................................................................................................................................ 65 Methodology for Each Case Study .............................................................................................................. 66 Policy ......................................................................................................................................................................... 66 Pujiang ....................................................................................................................................................................... 67 Hong Nong................................................................................................................................................................. 68 Rationality for Dissertation Methodology ................................................................................................... 69 PART 3 – Theoretical Framework: Environmentality and Paternalism ................................... 71 Chapter 6: The Governmentalisation of China and Environmentality .............................................. 72 The Governmentalisation of the State ........................................................................................................ 74 Foucault and Government......................................................................................................................................... 74 Pastoral Power and the Welfare-State ...................................................................................................................... 75 Biopolitics and Environmentality ............................................................................................................................... 77 Governmentality ....................................................................................................................................................... 79 Chapter 7: On Paternalism ...............................................................................................................
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