Category Archives: Public health

CFP – Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development

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International Conference 2015 on Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development

Date

  • August 7-9, 2015

Location

  • National Taipei University of Technology Library, 國立台北科技大學, No. 1號, Section 3, Zhōngxiào East Road, Daan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 10608

Smart city governance

The concept of smart city is suggested as a new style of city for providing sustainable growth and encouraging healthy economic activities to reduce the burden on the environment while improving the QoL (Quality of Life) of city residents. Many experimental projects are currently being carried out in the world, which are varied and divers. Many researchers also be actively involved in vitalizing smart city activities and improving the QoL of residents using ICT-representative technology (Information and Communications Technology). For promoting the establishment of smart cities, SPSD2015 is intended to gather researchers and planning consultants who will share their own ideas and the latest results of research and successful case studies in smart city
governance.

Kuanghui PENG, PhD, Professor
Conference 2015 Chairman,
National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei

Brian PAI, PhD, Assoc. Professor
Conference 2015 Vice Chairman,
National Chengchi University, Taipei

Topics

  • Smart city management；
  • Smart infrastructure planning;
  • Smart mobility society, life style and community;
  • Human behaviors, Spatial analysis and urban modelling;
  • Sustainable development indicator, spatial analysis and urban modelling;
  • Sustainable society and community development;
  • Sustainable society, smart city and planning framework;

Important Dates

For full paper submission and afterconference publication:

  • Deadline for abstract (no more than 800 words)：15th Feb, 2015
    Extended to 10th, March (Due to Asian Lunar New Year).
  • Notification for the acceptance of abstract：28th Feb, 2015
    (For the submissions until 10th, March, extended to 20th, March).
  • Deadline for full paper：15th April, 2015
    There will be a review process for afterconference publication and deadline for revised manuscripts
  • For abstract only and oral presentation
    Deadline for abstract (no more than 800 words)：15th May, 2015
    Notification for the acceptance of abstract：15th June, 2015

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Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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The state of social welfare in China

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Article written by Urban Marie « L’état de la protection sociale en Chine » Revue française d’administration publique, 2014/2 N° 150, p. 467-479. DOI : 10.3917/rfap.150.0467.

The Chinese welfare system has been gradually expanded since the early 2000s to cover the entire Chinese population. Despite extensive coverage, it is still a geographically fragmented and disparate system, which provides unequal protection depending on whether people live in urban or rural areas. People living in rural areas receive very few benefits and still depend upon family solidarity to cope with illness or old age, while migrant workers, because of their precarious status, remain largely excluded from the social welfare system. The Chinese system needs to be further reformed to guarantee greater equality in the payment of pensions and access to care, thus ensuring it is sustainable in the medium term, just as the ageing of the population is raising issues regarding its funding.

Click here to read article (restricted)

Miguel Elosua

Spanish qualified lawyer; PhD in Chinese Law. UrbaChina Research Officer. Has lived in China since 2006.

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Chinas e cigarettes

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David Barboza, China’s E-cigarette boom lacks oversight for safety, The New York Times, Dec. 13, 2014

Ninety percent of the world’s e-cigarettes are made in China. Experts warn, however, that poorly manufactured devices can vaporize heavy metals and carcinogens alongside the nicotine.

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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Universal health coverage. The case of China

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William Hsiao, Mingqiang Li and Shufang Zhang (2014),  Universal Health CoverageThe Case of China prepared for the UNRISD project on towards universal social security in emerging economies: Process, institutions and actors.

Universal Health Coverage: The Case of China In less than a decade, China transformed its inadequate, unjust health care system in order to provide basic universal health coverage (UHC) for its people. What forces made it possible for China to achieve this? What kind of transformation took place? What are the impacts of these policy changes? What can we learn from China? Moreover, while China has achieved UHC in basic health services, this does not mean that everyone has equal access to the same quality of affordable health care.This paper, which uses a theory of political economy to analyse China’s policy changes and accomplishments, consists of four main sections.

  • Section I reviews the historical development of the Chinese health care system from the 1950s through the 1990s, tracing the serious consequences of the policy shift in the 1980s when the health care system and health care delivery became privately financed and commercialized.
  • Section II analyses the political economy factors that drove and shaped the reform of the Chinese health system, focusing on the politics, institutions and actors that synergistically led to the establishment of UHC in 2009. In this section, we modified slightly John Kingdon’s theory and used it to examine four main streams of forces to explain how China’s reform came about. (1) The problem stream shows how Chinese political leaders recognized a serious, widespread public discontent regarding health and then diagnosed the root causes of these health problems. (2) The policy stream examines how major stakeholders in the health sector proposed, and heatedly debated, different policy options based on their vested interests and ideologies. (3) The financial stream highlights how China’s health policy was driven by fiscal constraints. (4) The politics stream analyses the political factors that influenced the agenda setting and policy formulation of UHC in authoritarian China, albeit with limited political transparency. The paper tracks these streams with historical evidence to conclude that the policy changes for UHC in China were established by the convergence of these four streams.
  • Section III presents the policy outcomes–the current financing structure of the UHC (i.e., the three different insurance schemes, their benefit packages, and key companion programmes to assure the supply of basic services). Based on quantitative evidence, we summarize the impacts of China’s UHC in terms of equitable access to health care, quality and affordability of health care, health outcomes, and financial risk protection from high and/or catastrophic medical expenses. Although China’s UHC was a great achievement, stark disparities remain between urban and rural residents in China, along with high health expenditure inflation rates arising from inefficiency and waste in the health care system.
  • In section IV, we discuss the remaining challenges for China’s health care system and comment on the potential lessons of the Chinese experience for other nations.

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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Smoking and risk perceptions in China

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chinese-no-smokingLast month, the authorities of Beijing adopted a law banning smoking in indoor public spaces. Smoking is a big issue in China and officials take this problem seriously.

But according to a recent article published in the “Nicotine and Tobacco research” journal1, more policies need to be adopted to reduce tobacco consumption in China. In this article, authors noted that:

Smokers in China did not recognize their heightened personal risk of cancer, possibly reflecting ineffective warning labels on cigarette packs, a positive affective climate associated with smoking in China.

The article shows that Chines smokers seem not to be aware of the real dangers of tobacco.

 

  1. Alexander Persoskie et al(2014).’Absolute and comparative cancer risk perceptions among smokers in two cities in China’. Nicotine and Tobacco research, 16(6), pp.899-903 [↩]

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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Contracting with private providers for primary care services: evidence from urban China

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Yan Wang, Karen Eggleston, Zhenjie Yu and Qiong Zhang.  (2013) Contracting with private providers for primary care services : evidence from urban China. Health Economics Review, 3:1. 20 p. doi:10.1186/2191-1991-3-1

Controversy surrounds the role of the private sector in health service delivery, including primary care and population health services. China’s recent health reforms call for non-discrimination against private providers and emphasize strengthening primary care, but formal contracting-out initiatives remain few, and the associated empirical evidence is very limited. This paper presents a case study of contracting with private providers for urban primary and preventive health services in Shandong Province, China. The case study draws on three primary sources of data: administrative records; a household survey of over 1600 community residents in Weifang and City Y; and a provider survey of over 1000 staff at community health stations (CHS) in both Weifang and City Y. We supplement the quantitative data with one-on-one, in-depth interviews with key informants, including local officials in charge of public health and government finance.

We find significant differences in patient mix: Residents in the communities served by private community health stations are of lower socioeconomic status (more likely to be uninsured and to report poor health), compared to residents in communities served by a government-owned CHS. Analysis of a household survey of 1013 residents shows that they are more willing to do a routine health exam at their neighborhood CHS if they are of low socioeconomic status (as measured either by education or income). Government and private community health stations in Weifang did not statistically differ in their performance on contracted dimensions, after controlling for size and other CHS characteristics. In contrast, the comparison City Y had lower performance and a large gap between public and private providers. We discuss why these patterns arose and what policymakers and residents considered to be the main issues and concerns regarding primary care services.

Read full text at Springer Open (open access)

 

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Thank you, but we prefer the salt monopoly

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Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, Thank you, but we prefer the salt monopoly, TeaLeafNation, November 20, 2014

China is the world’s biggest consumer of salt — one kitchen staple that has so far remained unadulterated by the country’s many food safety scandals. But now Chinese netizens are worried that is about to change.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced on Nov. 20 that it will end the state monopoly on salt that has existed since 1950, according to a report by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV). State media is touting the move as a step towards the market reforms that President Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party have pushed as China’s export-oriented economy slows.

Yet the country’s netizens are far from rejoicing at what appears to be a step to rein in the power of China’s hulking state-owned enterprises. Rather, the question roiling China’s online social spaces after CCTV’s announcement seemed to be what will happen when profit-hungry fraudsters, eager to make a quick buck, jump into the newly open salt market.

“There will soon be frequent cases of industrial salt” — far cheaper than table salt — “being mixed with edible salt,” went one popular comment on Weibo, China’s huge Twitter-like microblogging platform. Another user wrote, “Soon the media will be putting out articles called ‘How to tell industrial salt from table salt.'” The topic seemed to resonate; “salt monopoly abolished” became a top-trending hashtag on Weibo, and one related post on CCTV’s official Weibo account quickly garnered over 1,300 comments. One user commented cynically, “I’ve eaten all kinds of fake products; now I will finally have the opportunity to eat fake salt!”

Read the full text on the blog  TeaLeafNation or on Foreign Policy

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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Agro-food markets in China

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agro-foodAugustin-Jean, Louis & Alpermann, Bjorn (eds.) (2014), The political economy of agro-food markets in China: the social construction of the markets in an era of globalization. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

After thirty years of reforms and continuous economic growth, China’s agricultural production and food consumption have increased tremendously, leading to a complete evolution of agro-food markets. The authors use a path dependency approach to analyze the development of these markets, the structure of which remains relatively unknown. The authors use agro-food industries in China, to describe the organization of agricultural markets in China, and its implication for local people as well as for her integration into the world economy.

 

 

 

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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Foreign-owned hospitals in Chinese cities?

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Flag_of_the_Red_Cross.svgChina allows foreign-owned hospitals in more cities

 

China has allowed private hospitals solely owned by foreign investors to open in seven cities and provinces, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced on Wednesday.

Wholly foreign-owned hospitals are permitted in the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan, according to a statement jointly issued by the MOC and the National Health and Family Planning Commission dated July 25.

Foreign investors can either set up a new hospital or take part via mergers and acquisitions, it said.

Full article online

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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Food safety management in China

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Jiehong Zhou (Zhejiang University, China), Shaosheng Jin (Zhejiang University, China) (2013)  Food Safety Management in China. A Perspective from Food Quality Control System. Singapore: World Scientific; Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2013. xi + 228 pp. ISBN 978-981-4447-75-1  http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/8689#t=aboutBook

Review

Jakob A. Klein (2014). Review of ‘Food Safety Management in China: A Perspective from Food Quality Control System’ The China Quarterly, 217, pp 292-293. doi:10.1017/S0305741014000204.

Jakob A. Klein is lecturer in social anthropology at SOAS, University of London, and deputy chair of the SOAS Food Studies Centre. His publications include “Everyday Approaches to Food Safety in Kunming,” The China Quarterly, No. 214 (2013) and, co-edited with Yuson Jung and Melissa L. Caldwell, Ethical Eating in the Postsocialist and Socialist World (forthcoming, University of California Press).

Abstract of the book

In recent years, China has taken a number of effective measures to strengthen the supervision of food quality and safety, but food safety incidents still occur sometimes. The recurrence and intractability of such incidents suggest that, in addition to the imperfect supervision system, the greatest obstacle to China’s food quality safety management is that China’s “farm to fork” food supply chain has too many stages, the members on the supply chain have not form a stable strategic and cooperative relation, and on the other hand, during the transitional period, some practitioners lack social responsibility. Therefore, China’s food quality safety management and the establishment of food quality and safety traceability system should follow the development trend of international food quality and safety supervision, and should combine with the establishment of China’s agricultural industrialization and standardization, integrate China’s existing but isolated effective measures, such as the establishment of bases for the implementation of the system of claiming certificates or invoices, for the performance of Management Regulations for Pig Slaughtering and Quarantine Inspection in Designated Places, and for the conduct of World Expo, as well as the establishment of market access system, take into consideration the demand, the dynamic mechanism, and the performance of important measures of food supply chain members for food quality and safety control, as well as the difficulties and the deep-seated reasons in the implementation process of such measures.

To this end, this book chooses important agricultural products of vegetables, pork and aquatic products as the subjects investigated. From an “integrated” vertical perspective of the supply chain and according to the degree of industrialization of different products, focusing on the key links of quality and safety control of vegetables, pork and aquatic products, this book carries out empirical analysis of the construction of food quality and safety control system, such as HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) quality control system and food quality and safety traceability system, deeply analyzes and straightens out the dynamic mechanism and the performance of different business entities implementing the food quality and safety management system, as well as the bottleneck and deep-seated causes of promoting advanced experience of pilot areas and enterprises in China, and put forward ideas and suggestions of establishing long-term effective food quality and safety management system with regard to vegetables, pork, and aquatic products, which can provide scientific basis for the government to design food quality and safety management policies.

Sample Chapter(s)
Chapter 1: Overview of Food Safety Management in China (499 KB)

Contents

  • Overview of Food Safety Management in China
  • Safety of Vegetables and the Use of Pesticides by Farmers in China
  • Adoption of Food Safety and Quality Standards by China’s Agricultural Cooperatives
  • Implementation of Food Safety and Quality Standards: A Case Study of the Vegetable Processing Industry in Zhejiang, China
  • Adoption of HACCP System in the Chinese Food Industry: A Comparative Analysis
  • An Empirical Analysis of the Implementation of Vegetable Quality and Safety Traceability Systems Centering on Wholesale Markets
  • Investment in Voluntary Traceability: Analysis of Chinese Hog Slaughterhouses and Processors
  • Quality Perception, Safer Behavior Management and Control of Aquaculture: Experience of Exporting Enterprises of Zhejiang Province, China
  • Outlook for China’s Food Safety Situation and Policy Recommendations

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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Policy actors and policy making for better migrant health in China from a policy network perspective

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Yapeng Zhu, Kinglun Ngok and Wenmin Li (2014), Policy actors and policy making for better migrant health in China from a policy network perspective, Migration and Health in China. A joint project of United Nations Research Institute for Social Development Sun Yat-sen Center for Migrant Health Policy, Working Paper 2014–12 July.

Various policy actors are now involved in the development of migrant health policy. However, little is known about who the main policy actors are, what roles they play, how they interact with each other, and how they might improve their collaboration for better migrant health. This paper aims to identify the main policy actors and explore their roles in migrant health policy making. Applying a “polic network” approach, it finds that the marginalization of migrants in terms of health benefits is mainly attributed to a closed policy network resulting from the peculiar political structure and specific institutional arrangements. Based on these findings, the authors argue that an inclusive policy network is needed to overcome the major institutional barriers and better satisfy migrants’ health needs.

Full text of the paper

  • Yapeng Zhu is Research Fellow at the Sun Yat-sen Center for Migrant Health Policy and Associate Director at the Center for Chinese Public Administration Research, and Professor at the School of Government, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
  • Kinglun Ngok is Associate Director at Sun Yat-sen Center for Migrant Health Policy and Associate Director at the Center for Public Administration Research, China.
  • Wenmin Li is a doctoral student at the School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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Developing private health insurance in China?

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Prof. Feldstein1 recently advocated the develoment of private health insurance in China as a remedy  for high saving rate and poor health care.

But the main reason why Chinese households save so much of their relatively low salaries is to ensure that they have the funds to meet high medical costs if a family member requires surgery or other inpatient care. People save so much because insurance is so inadequate. The government’s universal health-care insurance is very rudimentary, and private health insurance is not widely available. So households accumulate large amounts of cash as a hedge against the possibility that those funds will be needed some day for hospital care.

Prof Feldstein’s full article

  1. Martin Feldstein (2014).  A healthy path to Chinese consumption growth. Project Syndicate, March 31, 2014 [↩]

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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International conference on environment, health, and media

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Environment and health are two major issues that affect our well-being. In recent decades, educators, communicators, policy makers, and public health professionals have increasingly recognized the powerful role of the media in our understanding and decision making about environment and health. It shapes us about which environmental issues are important, what kinds of products and services will improve our environment and health status, and which policies will be able to solve environment and health problems. The proposed conference will advance our research frontier on the interplay of media, environment and health choices.

Objectives and Themes

The objectives of the conference are

  • To bring together international scholars, educators and industry practitioners to share ideas about theories and practices to promote responsible environmental and health behaviours
  • To bring different academic disciplines together to share theoretical insights and empirical evidence of current issues in media and health as well as environment. Scholars can represent a variety of disciplines including communication, marketing, anthropology, sociology, psychology, education, environmental science, public health, linguistics, and cultural studies.

Specifically, topics for this conference shall include (but are not restricted to)

  • Environmental news reporting
  • Environmental framing and media discourse
  • Environmental promotion campaigns
  • Food advertising and promotions among adolescents
  • Food and consumer culture
  • Social construction of beauty
  • Culture and health
  • Young people’s media production on health issues
  • Public health campaigns
  • Creativity in health messages
  • Doctor patients communication
  • Media and health education

Organizing Committee (list of members)

  • Prof. Kara Chan (Chair) Department of Communication Studies
  • Dr. Judy Siu (Member)  David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies
  • Dr. Dong Dong (Member)  David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies
  • Mr. Lennon Tsang (Member) Department of Communication Studies

Date

January 5-7, 2015

Place

School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University

 More information

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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The US and China should focus on air pollution to tackle climate change

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Zhang, Junjie. Why the US and China should focus on air pollution to tackle climate change. Asia Blog, 6 March, 2014. Retrieved 11 March, 2014, from http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/why-us-and-china-should-focus-air-pollution-tackle-climate-change

The U.S. and China, the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs), are seeking common ground for climate action. During his China trip in February, Secretary of State John Kerry signed the U.S.-China Joint Statement on Climate Change, which pledges to devote resources to “secure concrete results” by the 2014 U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue. While there is no shortage of ideas about what the bilateral climate collaboration might address, the challenge is to identify a focal issue that is economically beneficial and politically viable for both countries.

Neither China nor the U.S. has shown a willingness to take measures that will reduce GHG emissions if there are economic costs attached. On the Chinese side, GDP growth remains a top priority, and political leaders are reluctant to sacrifice GDP growth in order to reduce GHG emissions. In addition, GHG emissions are not a known indicator in China’s cadre performance appraisal system, which partly determines the career advancement of government officials. Such officials have no immediate incentive to make decisions aimed at limiting carbon emissions. In the United States, proposed laws and regulations to limit GHG emissions or put a price on carbon have repeatedly been turned back because of concerns over their impact on the economy.

Cooperation on climate change is most likely to occur in an area associated with positive economic, health, and social impacts. The nexus between climate change and air pollution represents an area in which the U.S. and China can create a host of benefits that should appeal to leaders and key constituencies.

Read the full story on Asia Blog

 

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies (CJUES)

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A new journal in urban and environmental studies, edited by Pan Jiahua, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Ni Pengfei (CAS and UrbaChina research team), is a member of the editorial board.

CJUESChinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies (CJUES) (ISSN 2345-7481 print /2345-752X online) is a peer-reviewed journal that seeks to publish high-quality research papers and book reviews to explore a wide range of academic and policy concerns of urban and environmental studies. CJUES publishes scholarly work with a special emphasis on the following fields:

  • theoretical and conceptual frameworks for urban and environmental studies
  • the trend of urban and environmental development in both China and international context
  • issues of urban studies, including urbanization, urban planning, urban form, urban problems, urban land use, urban transportation
  • issues of sustainability and environmental developments, including environmental protection, environmental policy, climate change
  • linkage between urban, environmental and other areas of social and economic policy
  • international comparison and developments

Table of contents (vol. 1, n° 1, December 2013)

Free access to all CJUES issues is provided until 31 March 2015
(registration online required)

 

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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