Category Archives: Bina, Olivia

UrbaChina survey on “2050 – Storylines for Chinese cities”

The UrbaChina project is committed to devise long-term qualitative scenarios (2050) on the future of China urbanisation. In their final form, the narrative storylines will support the elaboration of policy recommendations on the four main pillars of the project: urban governance, economy, lifestyles, city planning and life. 

Storylines at the year 2050 are designed to help decision-makers and stakeholders “think outside the box” and to identify strategies, including for the medium term (e.g. to 2020-2025), to move towards desirable futures. The approach adopted is highly participatory, and relies heavily on the inputs provided by the project partners and by a wide community of experts from all world regions through on-line surveys and a series of dedicated workshops.

Building the UrbaChina Scenarios

We started by identifying the main critical uncertainties associated to the urbanisation process. These include macro drivers that affect the overall socio-economic framework of China, such as the ageing of population, the increase in the cost of labour, the pace of technological progress and its impact on economic efficiency, and the increasing attention towards the development of human capital, but also drivers that bear a specific relevance in the urban framework, such as the optimisation of land use, the increasing attention towards the urbanisation of people (as opposed to the urbanisation of land), and policy reforms such as notably that of the hukou system.

A scenario logic was then proposed, based on the combination of two main dimensions: (i) the pace of economic growth (and the priority it keeps receiving in the formulation of public policies), and (ii) the pace and nature of policy reforms. The four scenarios accordingly envisaged are illustrated in the scheme below.

Two of these scenarios were retained for full storylines development :

  • the “Bamboo” scenario, which features rapid, unregulated growth, and accelerated pace of production and consumption, constant change associated with the triumph of a global economic dimension
  • the “ginkgo biloba” scenario, pointing to a solid, slow and more structured growth, with strong roots in the contextual socio-economic and ecological environment, and a progressive build-up of systemic resilience, where the regulative dimension prevails as a driver.

 urbachina scenarios

The survey is on-line!

A survey is now on-line to help us developing the pathways and identifying policy changes that are required to reach one or the other of the two scenarios.

It features three main sections:

  • in the first we invite comments on the storylines and suggestions to improve them along the four main policy areas: urban governance, economy, lifestyles, city planning and life. 
  • in the second we elicit “educated guesses” on the foreseeable evolution of nine selected urbanisation indicators.
  • in the third section we invite you to suggest three wild cards that would apply, in general, to all cities and all scenarios

Your input and feedback are essential in order to fine-tune the storylines description and identify the scenarios pathways and milestones!

Please use your knowledge and imagination and answer the survey at:

https:/www.surveymonkey.com/s/MH533ZK

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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Urban Futures-Squaring Circles: Europe, China and the World in 2050 (call for abstracts)

urban futureThe Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-UL), the Institute of Studies for the Integration of Systems (ISIS) in Rome, and the Institute of Future Cities of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (IfC-CUHK) – are organizing an International Conference on “Urban Futures-Squaring Circles: Europe, China and the World in 2050” (10-11 October 2014) under the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme: UrbaChina – European Project on Sustainable Urbanisation in China. Historical and Comparative Perspectives, Mega-trends towards 2050.

The Lisbon Conference is part of this project, aimed at bringing together scholars and practitioners interested in applying scenarios and foresight approaches to urban policy and planning. We are interested in the sustainable future of cities – for the people who will live there. We seek to discuss current urbanisation trends and resulting challenges for Cities and to identify research priorities and collaborative opportunities between the EU and China.

 

More information to be found on the Conference site.

Urban Future 2050 – Call for Abstracts (extended deadline)

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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UrbaChina Paris workshop

On December 20, 2012, an UrbaChina workshop was held in Paris. Every European academic member of the consortium was represented. Cristina Marcuzzo (European Commission) attended this meeting and highlighted the importance of the UrbaChina FP7 programme on the future of EU-China academic relations. This meeting was an opportunity for the participants to review the work and progress made so far.

From left to right: Hanna Ai (CNRS), Cristina Marcuzzo (EU commission), Stephan Feuchtwang (LSE), Jacqueline Nivard (EHESS), François Gipouloux (CNRS), Athar Hussain (LSE), Andrea Ricci (ISIS)

Each workpackage leader presented to the audience his or her first fieldtrip results and his or her observations about a particular topic on China’s urbanisation trends.

  • Prof. Gipouloux (CNRS) and Prof. Daniels (University of Birmingham) focused on the consequences of fiscal policies on urban design and service industries in Chinese cities.
  • Prof. Hussain (LSE) presented the audience with his latest results of studies on property rights in Chongqing.
  • After a presentation on urban planning, Prof. Bina (ICS) and Dr. Ricci (ISIS) focused on the predominance of economic growth as the main driving force behind urban policies in China.
  • Prof. Feuchtwang (LSE) pointed out the difficulties that municipalities face in building low cost housing.

Management and dissemination issues were also discussed during this workshop. Participants agreed to increased cooperation for fieldtrips. They also decided to start conducting surveys on improving syllabuses for urban studies in Chinese and European academic institutions.

The second international UrbaChina conference, including both European and Chinese institutions, will be held in Kunming, China on June 3-5, 2013.

「城镇化中国」项目于2012年12月20日在巴黎召开欧盟伙伴会议,席中每一位欧盟成员皆出席,欧盟委员会(European Commission)的Cristina Marcuzzo在会议中再次强调了欧盟第七架盟下: 「城镇化中国」项目中,欧盟与中国伙伴间合作交流关系的重要性。此次会议的目的,在于提供与会者交流并检讨过去项目计划的缺失与改进方法。

「城镇化中国」项目计划中的每位专题主持人,皆介绍了他们的调研成果与发现,也分享了他们对未来中国城镇化的看法 :

  • Gipouloux教授(法国国家科学研究院)与 Daniels教授(英国伯明翰大学)针对中国城市的税务政策与服务性产业发展提出看法。
  • Bina教授(萄葡牙里斯本大学)与 Ricci博士(罗马系统整合研究中心)在介绍城市规划现况后,认为经济增长是中国城市政策实施的主要动力。
  • Feuchtwang 教授 (伦敦政经学院)则针对城镇化中面对的困难提出看法,例如设立廉租房的议题等。
  • Hussain 教授(伦敦政经学院)则介绍了他对于重庆产权的最新研究成果。

会议中也针对「城镇化中国」项目研究成果的管理与未来传播管道进行讨论,与会成员皆赞同未来各专题间共同参与调研的可能。在项目计划专题6 (Workpackage 6)中,未来将对中国与欧洲学术机构在促成城镇化发展中,所开设的课程进行比较研究。

城镇化中国项目的国际年度会议将于6月3日至6月5日在云南大学召开,会议将邀请欧盟与中国项目伙伴出席,共同参与讨论。

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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UrbaChina at the EU-China Mayors’ Forum – Brussels

In the framework of the recently established EU-China partnership on urbanisation, a major event was organized in Brussels on 19/20 September to launch the EU-China Mayors’ Forum. Several hundreds of mayors from both Regions attended the plenary sessions as well as the side events focusing  on specific themes.

Olivia Bina (1st person on the right) and Andrea Ricci (3rd person on the right) attending the EU-China Mayors’ Forum

The workshop on “Research for Sustainable Urbanisation – Turning Challenges into Opportunities” turned out to be the one attracting the largest participation. It featured URBACHINA as one of the three research initiatives of the EU dealing with urbanization issues (together with Urban Europe and the Smart City Platform), and the only EU-China joint research project in the field.

Andrea Ricci (ISIS) and Olivia Bina (ICS Lisbon), partners of UrbaChina, illustrated the main features of the project and its current advancement. They highlighted the interdisciplinary and historical as well as comparative and future-oriented approach to achieve the overall objectives of enhancing the common understanding of urbanisation trends in both China and Europe. More specifically, UrbaChina is expected to identify the main challenges and characteristics of urban sustainability in China’s rapidly changing context, combining perspectives from economics, political sciences, anthropology, sociology, geography and environmental sciences. The project seeks to engage policy-makers and society in discussing and exploring sustainability issues through strong dissemination strategies, and to strengthen the EU-China cooperation in the field of Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities.

Ricci and Bina illustrated in some detail one aspect of the project, which aims to adopt the concept of “functional regions” as a geo-administrative analytical framework for thinking about sustainable urban development in China. They reported some preliminary comparative case study results of the concept’s application to the City of Huangshan and two city-regions in Europe, and highlighted issues linked to sprawl and lock-in due to urban design chocies.  The focus of UrbaChina on future-oriented scenario studies raised considerable interest from the audience, confirming that this line of joint investigation can also provide meaningful opportunities for cooperation between Europe and China.

Further information:

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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Environmental governance in China: weakness and potential from an environmental policy integration perspective

Bina, Olivia (2010) Environmental governance in China : weakness and potential from an environmental policy integration perspective. The China Review. 10 (1) pp.207–240.

Interest in China’s capacity for environmental governance is growing, in line with its environmental woes and exponential economic growth. Environmental policy efforts have lacked effectiveness, confirming the persistence of a disjuncture between promise and performance. This article contributes to the debate through the analytical lens of Environmental Policy Integration (EPI): a normative concept and governance regime indispensable to sustainable development. It finds that China, like most OECD countries, falls short of the concept. Despite encouraging recent changes, driven by the Hu-Wen regime, and encapsulated in the idea of scientific development, the analysis reveals weaknesses in all three EPI-type responses: normative, organisational and procedural. The disjuncture is confirmed, but drawing on EPI’s normative perspective, it is suggested that the reasons for this lie as much in the framing of the promise, as in the performance, or implementation, itself. Based on this interpretation and on China’s unique extreme characteristics, it is recommended that environmental policy objectives be given principled priority status, as a condition for effective governance.

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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UrbaChina scenarios workshop n°1 (Renmin university)

Last October, Olivia Bina (ICS) and Andrea Ricci (ISIS), members of the UrbaChina programme attended a workshop on urban scenarios at Renmin University in Beijing.

The main objective of this workshop was to start to design scenarios on urbanisation in China. Many interesting concepts and challenges were discussed during this meeting.

Participants studied the common perception of overall strategic societal goals (wellbeing, equity and environmental sustainability) and insisted on the need to specify ‘material’ wellbeing in the case of China.

This conference also highlighted the strategic choices made through China’s urbanisation process:

  • Urban form (density versus sprawl)
  • Self sufficiency (specialized versus diversified)
  • Economic activity (industry versus services).

A second workshop will be held in Spring 2013. Participants will design, in a realistic way, the possible scenarios for Chinese urbanisation.

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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Context and systems: thinking more broadly about effectiveness in strategic environmental assessment in China

Olivia Bina, Context and systems: thinking more broadly about effectiveness in strategic environmental assessment in China, Environmental Management, 42, 2008, p. 717-733.

China is an illustrative—and extreme—case of the difficulties of balancing the pursuit of economic, social, and environmental objectives. In 2003 it adopted a form of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for its plans and programs (referred to here as PEIA) with the aim of moving towards greater environmental sustainability. The literature has explored primarily the issue of methods and legal procedures. This research contributes to the analysis of PEIA through a different set of interpretative lens. Drawing on recent developments in the theory and practice of SEA, Olivia Bina proposes a conceptualization of SEA effectiveness that combines direct and incremental impacts, and a need for context-specific systems as a way to focus on the relationship between assessment, planning, and their context, and thus maximize effectiveness. This framework underpins the analysis of China’s experience, which Olivia Bina explores with the help of interview material and the literature.

The result is an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of PEIA in terms of its purpose, assessment concept, process, and methods. The detailed analysis of six aspects of the context helps explain the origin of such shortcomings, and identify opportunities for its improvement. Olivia Bina concludes defining elements of a context-specific system for SEA that seeks to maximize the opportunity for incremental, as well as direct, effectiveness in China.

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Publications of Olivia Bina

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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Responsibility for emissions and aspirations for development

Article of Olivia Bina, “Responsibility for emissions and aspirations for development”, in Paul G. Harris (ed.), China’s responsibility for climate change: ethics, fairness, and environmental policy, University of Chicago Press, 2011. 256 p. Olivia Bina is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences University of Lisbon, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography and Resource Management of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is also a member of UrbaChina.

Drawing on practices and theories of environmental justice, ‘China’s responsibility for climate change’ describes China’s contribution to global warming and analyzes its policy responses. Contributors critically examine China’s practical and ethical responsibilities to climate change from a variety of perspectives. They explore policies that could mitigate China’s environmental impact while promoting its own interests and meeting the international community’s expectations. The book is accessible to a wide readership, including academics, policy makers and activists.All royalties from sales of this book will be donated to Friends of the Earth.ll royalties from sales of this book will be donated to Friends of the Earth.

Contents

Part One

  • Introduction: Diplomacy, responsibility and China’s climate change policy / Paul G. Harris

Part Two

  • Determining responsibility: Climate duties, human rights and historical emissions / Derek Bell
  • Responsibility for emissions and aspirations for development / Olivia Bina
  • Differentiating historical responsibilities for climate change / Christian Ellermann, Niklas Höhne and Benito Müller
  • The non-cooperator pays principle and the climate standoff / Jonathan Symons

Part Three

  • Policy implications: Evaluating ethical obligations across scales of governance / Erich W. Schienke
  •  Short-lived greenhouse gases and climate fairness / Frances C. Moore and Michael C. MacCracken
  •  Sustainable consumption and production in global value chains / Patrick Schroeder
  • Global governance, responsibility and a new climate regime / Andreas Oberheitmann and Eva Sternfeld

Part Four

  • Conclusion: Chinese responsibility for climate change  / Paul G. Harris.

 Publications of Olivia Bina

Jacqueline Nivard

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

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