Category Archives: Jacqueline Nivard

Residence choice decisions

Wu, N. and Zhao, S.(2014)1. “Impact of transportation convenience, housing affordability, location, and schooling in residence choice decisions.” Journal of Urban Planning Development , 10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000258 , 05014028.

This paper aims to investigate the impacts of housing affordability, which can be denoted as the ratio of housing price (HP) and monthly expense per person (EXP), travel time to the city center, distance to a subway station, and schooling on residents’ apartments purchasing behavior in Dalian, China. The paper employed a logit model based on stated preference (SP) data. Results show that travel time to the city center (by subway) and housing affordability have negative effects on individual utility. This reveals that residents tend to buy apartments near the city center based on their income. Considering a series of negative external factors, distance to a subway station is positive to utility. Moreover, the willingness for residents to pay for different attributes varies according to their levels of EXP. At last the elasticity of different variables is analyzed and 180 additional data points are used to test the model. The testing result shows that the model can satisfy the basic requirement.

Read More: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000258

  1. Na Wu, Ph.D. Candidate,  Zhao, S., Professor and Dean, School of Transportation and Logistics, Faculty of Infrastructure Engineering, Dalian Univ. of Technology, Dalian []

Development and evaluation of a food environment survey in three urban environments of Kunming

soupecanardJenna Hua, Edmund Seto, Yan Li and May C Wang, (2014) Development and canardsetlegumesevaluation of a food environment survey in three urban environments of Kunming, China, BMC Public Health 2014, 14:235  doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-235

 Abstract

Given the rapid pace of urbanization and Westernization and the increasing prevalence of obesity, there is a need for research to better understand the influence of the built environment on overweight and obesity in world’s developing regions. Culturally-specific food environment survey instruments are important tools for studying changing food availability and pricing. Here, we present findings from an effort to develop and evaluate food environment survey instruments for use in a rapidly developing city in southwest China.

We developed two survey instruments (for stores and restaurants), each designed to be completed within 10 minutes. Two pairs of researchers surveyed a pre-selected 1-km stretch of street in each of three socio-demographically different neighborhoods to assess inter-rater reliability. Construct validity was assessed by comparing the food environments of the neighborhoods to cross-sectional height and weight data obtained on 575 adolescents in the corresponding regions of the city.

273 food establishments (163 restaurants and 110 stores) were surveyed. Sit-down, take-out, and fast food restaurants accounted for 40%, 21% and 19% of all restaurants surveyed. Tobacco and alcohol shops, convenience stores and supermarkets accounted for 25%, 12% and 11%, respectively, of all stores surveyed. We found a high percentage of agreement between teams (>75%) for all categorical variables with moderate kappa scores (0.4-0.6), and no statistically significant differences between teams for any of the continuous variables. More developed inner city neighborhoods had a higher number of fast food restaurants and convenience stores than surrounding neighborhoods. Adolescents who lived in the more developed inner neighborhoods also had a higher percentage of overweight, indicating well-founded construct validity. Depending on the cutoff used, 19% to 36% of male and 10% to 22% of female 16-year old adolescents were found to be overweight.

The prevalence of overweight Chinese adolescents, and the food environments they are exposed to, deserve immediate attention. To our knowledge, these are the first food environment surveys developed specifically to assess changing food availability, accessibility, and pricing in China. These instruments may be useful in future systematic longitudinal assessments of the changing food environment and its health impact in China.

Read the full text on Biodmed central

Photo credit: J. Nivard

Review of Religion and Chinese Society

Volume 1, Issue 1, 2014 : Free sample review

Remaking China’s great cities

Samuel Y. Liang (2014) Remaking China’s great cities. Space and culture in urban housing, renewal, and expansion, London, Routledge, 256 p. Contents

China’s rapid urbanization has restructured the great socialist cities Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou into mega cities that embrace global capitalism. This book focuses on the urban transformations of these three cities: Beijing is the nation’s political and cultural capital; Shanghai is the economic and financial powerhouse; and Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province and the regional center of south China. All are historical cities with rich imperial, colonial, and regional heritages, and all have been drastically transformed in the last six decades. This book examines the cities’ continuous urban legacies since 1949 in relation to state governance, economic reforms, and cultural production. By adopting local historical perspectives, it offers more nuanced accounts of the current urban change than the modernization/globalization paradigm and conceptualizes the change in the context of the cities’ socialist, colonial, and imperial legacies. Specifically, Samuel Y. Liang offers an overview of the urban planning and territorial expansion of the great cities since 1949; explores the production and consumption of urban housing, its spatial forms, media representations, and socio-political implications; and examines the state-led redevelopment of old urban cores and residential neighborhoods, and the urban conservation movement.

Read also

Planning and its discontents: contradictions and continuities in remaking China’s great cities, 1950–2010. Urban History, 40, p 530-553. doi:10.1017/S0963926812000752.

Food safety in China. A comprehensive review

Linhai Wu, Dian Zhu (2014), Food Safety in China. A Comprehensive Review, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Ebook available by Ebsco (Restricted access)

This book provides a comprehensive review of the efforts put forth by China to prevent food safety concerns, including the abuse of food additives. Looking at food producers and operators, consumers, and government agencies as part of an organic system, the book examines the complete system of the food supply chain from multi-scientific systematic points of view. It begins with the production of agricultural products and investigates the changing track of food safety (including imported and exported products) in the key aspects of production, circulation, and consumption between 2006 and 2011.

More information on CRC Press

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What makes eco-transformation of industrial parks take off in China?

Chang Yu,  (2014), What makes eco-transformation of industrial parks take off in China? Journal of Industrial Ecology, DOI: 10.1111/jiec.12185 Restricted Access.

This article focuses on the effects of policy instruments for developing viable eco-industrial parks (EIPs) in China. We analyzed the root of China’s national EIP program and inventoried the general instruments available to local authorities to shape and promote eco-industrial development. Empirical research conducted in Tianjin Economic-technological Development Area and Dalian Development Area led to the activities and actions conducted by local authorities. A quantitative method, technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution, was adopted to reveal the effects of policy instruments for comparative analysis. We conclude that the planned EIP model is useful in the early stage of EIP development, and, subsequently, it should be combined with a facilitated model to achieve long-term goals for eco-transformation. To this end, the policy package of economic, regulatory, and voluntary instruments should be integrated and tailored in alignment with the local situation.

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Chang Yu (2014), Eco-transformation of industrial parks in China, Dissertation. 1 doi:10.4233/uuid:f10443ff-78b9-4640-9d31-dbdf65f8e99

During the past three decades, China has achieved impressive economic development. However, the pollution and resource depletion that accompanied China’s rapid industrialization have led to severe environmental issues, such as ecosystem degradation, groundwater contamination and smog, which have turned into visible crises.

In China, industrial parks were initiated in the 1980s, aiming to attract foreign investment and to increase export. Most of these were manufacturing bases which lacked environmental planning or management. In these early stages, these parks were mainly dominated by manufacturing companies who process materials into products with low added-value. Local authorities sought sheer GDP growth without considering energy efficiency or environmental cost. While these industrial parks have immensely contributed to China’s GDP, the scale, intensity and arrangement of these industrial activities have jeopardized the ecological security and health of local communities. It is therefore imperative to transform China’s industrial parks and apply the principles of eco-industrial parks (EIPs).

This thesis aims to improve the understanding of the features of an EIP system and its mechanisms, in order to provide tailored policy intervention. Our central research question has been: How can industrial parks be eco-transformed in China? To answer this central research question, we have addressed a set of sub questions that have guided our theoretical and empirical research. These include: 1) How has the research on EIP evolved? 2) What elements are required to frame the analysis of EIP? 3) How can the key activities that influence changes of EIP system be structured? How can the process of the system development be tracked over time? 4) What policy instruments can stimulate the emergence of viable EIPs in China? How can the effects of policy instruments be evaluated? 5) What is the future of mature EIPs?

We first create a systemic and quantitative image of the evolution of this research field through bibliometric and network analysis. Furthermore, an analytical framework is established by the theoretical synthesis of EIP’s features from system and evolutionary perspectives, and the frameworks of institutional analysis. The framework allows analysts to structure empirical research and systematically analyze an EIP’s development, aiming at generating insights to diagnose current EIP policies or make new ones. Moreover, we conduct empirical research in three Chinese EIPs: Tianjin Economic-technological Development Area, Dalian Development Area, and Suzhou Industrial Park. We adopt several methods to evaluate the system performance steered by different policy instruments, which provides insights of the cause-and-effect mechanisms of EIP development. We believe that the lessons learned from these cases can demonstrate a profile of China’s EIP development.

Full text available on Deft Institutional Repository

  1. Chang Yu, Master of Science in Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, PHD Delft University of Technology []

China-EU green cooperation

Etienne Reuter; Jing Men (2014), China-EU green cooperation , Singapore ; Hackensack, NJ : World Scientific, 2014.

This book offers a selection of views from Chinese and European experts and scholars on the most pressing environmental challenges — air quality, global warming, climate change, energy security, urbanisation — faced by Europe and China in 2013. The contributors also discuss possibilities of technical cooperation between the two sides on remedies for the domestic scene as well as contributions to international negotiations. These problems top the agenda of the new leadership in China and also feature prominently on the EU-China agenda for EU’s efforts to mitigate climate change.This book offers a selection of views from Chinese and European experts and scholars on the most pressing environmental challenges — air quality, global warming, climate change, energy security, urbanisation — faced by Europe and China in 2013.

Sample Chapter(s)

Foreword (41 KB)
Introduction (83 KB)
Chapter 1: EU-China Cooperation on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Mitigation Towards a Potential International Emission Trading Scheme (112 KB)

Contents:

Climate Change

  • EU–China Cooperation on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Mitigation Towards a Potential International Emission Trading Scheme (Beatriz Perez de las Heras)
  • Cooperation on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading in EU–China Climate Diplomacy (Katja Biedenkopf and Diarmuid Torney)
  • The European Union’s Structural Foreign Policy: A Case Study on the EU–China Aviation ETS Dispute (Yu Weiye)
  • Upholding the EU’s Climate Change Commitments (Men Jing and Veronika Orbetsova)
  • A Reporter’s Narrative: China’s Learning Curve on Climate Change (Fu Jing)

Low Carbon Economy

  • Low Carbon Policies and the Management of EU–China Trade Relations (Coraline Goron)
  • Restructuring China’s Thermal Power Generation: A Possible Mechanism for China’s CO2 Emission Mitigation (Li Jinshan, He Yinan and Hu Fengqiao)
  • EU–China Cooperation on Low Carbon Economy (Li Jun)
  • Unleashing the “Green Cat”? The Promotion of Renewable Energy in China — Lessons from the Solar Industry (Cora Jungbluth)

Urbanization and Quality of Life

  • Water Problems in China (He Nong)
  • Food Safety: A Challenge for EU–China Cooperation (Rodolphe de Borchgrave)
  • NGOs in the EU–China Environmental Diplomacy (Malte Philipp Kaeding and Heidi Ningkang Wang)
  • Financial Innovation in Sustainable Cities: A Suggestion for the EU and China? (Laurent Beduneau-Wang)
  • Hong Kong: An Extreme Case in Dense Urban Living (Christine Loh)
  • Sustainability-oriented Low-carbon Development of Shanghai (Guo Ru and Song Lilei)
  • The Green Urbanization: The Local Vision under the Globalization: A Comparative Analysis between French and Chinese Sustainable Policy and Approaches (Yu Wang-Vedrine)
  • EU–China Cooperation in Agriculture: An Example: The Trade in Apples (Lei Lei)

Concluding Thoughts

  • The Green Way Forward (Isabel Hilton)

Website : http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/9001#t=aboutBook

Chinese city opens ‘phone lane’ for texting pedestrians

City authorities in Chongqing have introduced a 30 metre ‘cellphone lane’ for pedestrians – is it a step too far in the name of public safety?

The mobile phone lane for pedestrians in Chongqing, China.
Mind your step: The mobile phone lane for pedestrians in Chongqing, China. Photograph: Internet

In Chongqing, China, with a degree of seriousness that has yet to be determined, the city authorities have designated a 30 metre (100ft) “cellphone lane” for people who use their phones while walking. “First mobile phone sidewalks in China,” declares a notice next to it.

Read the full text on The Guardian

 

Barriers to the implementation of environmental policies at the local level in China

Kostka, Genia. 2014. Barriers to the implementation of environmental policies at the local level in China. Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 7016. Washington, DC: World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/08/20144757/barriers-implementation-environmental-policies-local-level-china
China’s national leaders have recently made a priority of changing lanes from a pollution-intensive, growth-at-any-cost model to a resource-efficient and sustainable one. The immense challenges of rapid urbanization areone aspect of the problem. Central-local government relations are another source of challenges, since the central government’s green agenda does not always find willing followers at lower levels. This paper identifies barriers to a more comprehensive implementation of environmental policies at the local level in China’s urban areas and suggests ways to reduce or remove them. The research focuses particularly on the reasons for the gap between national plans and policy outcomes. Although environmental goals and policies at the national level are quite ambitious and comprehensive, insufficient and inconsistent local level implementation can hold back significant improvements in urban environmental quality. By analyzing local institutional and behavioral obstacles and by highlighting best-practice examples from China and elsewhere, the paper outlines options that can be used at the national and local levels to close the local “environmental implementation gap.” The findings emphasize the need to create additional incentives and increase local implementation capacities.

Shanghai new towns

Martin Minost, « Harry den Hartog (ed), Shanghai new towns: searching for community and identity in a sprawling metropolis, », China Perspectives [Online], URL : http://chinaperspectives.revues.org/6497 1.

Shanghai new towns, edited by the Dutch architect Harry den Hartog, is interesting on two counts. To begin with, the 2010 book is the first – apart from individual articles – in English (it is bilingual, with Chinese text) to analytically deal with the Western-imitating architecture proliferating on the Chinese mainland since the early 2000s. Second, the book brings together articles by academics and experts all drawn from the domain of architecture and town planning.

However, the issue tackled is not that of architectural imports in China. What interests the authors is that of new towns, especially those built within Shanghai municipality. Analysing this urban object, the authors have tried to give an account of China’s current urbanisation, highlighting characteristics such as the context of state control during their construction, legacies from the past and their present influence, the working style of Chinese town planners, economic and urban planning ideologies, as well as the intricacies of the decision-making and planning processes. The book has both a theoretical aspect as well as practical and pedagogic ambition: minutely observed new towns are elevated to the rank of case studies; and the information the authors draw from the construction process should help Western architects and town planners to learn how to work with their Chinese counterparts, on what basis, using which theories and ideologies, and thus how to cooperate with them.

The book contains 11 articles, four of them written by den Hartog, grouped in four parts separated by mostly photographic dossiers including two by professional photographers. This multiplicity of contributors and forms of analysis, both written and visual, lends to the study a rich source of information, crucial for anyone interested, within the field of urban studies, in the initial process of urbanisation, projects, plans, decisions, and the start of construction. The trans-disciplinary studies thus seek to bring exhaustive knowledge of the subject, but the final product is an uneven work due to the differences between contributions.

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  1. Martin Minost is a contractual doctoral candidate in social anthropology and ethnology at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences/EHESS, Paris, affiliated with the Research Centre for Modern and Contemporary China []

Food safety management in China

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

How does superstition become intangible Cultural heritage in Postsocialist China?

Gao Bingzhong, How does superstition become intangible Cultural eritage in Postsocialist China? Positions (2014) 22(3): 551-572

Abstract

This article narrates how a temple fair worshipping a dragon god, the object of superstition for about sixty years, became an official piece of intangible cultural heritage.

This story takes place in three chapters: First, the temple fair as a local tradition was revibed after China adopted its Reform and Opening policy in 1978. Second, the temporary tent set up annually for worship was replaced by a building, dubbed both “museum” and “temple” by way of creative use of a “double-naming method.” And third, the temple fair was formally identified as a piece of intangible cultural heritage. This course of events epitomizes the once-unimaginable changes that have taken place in Chinese society in the past one hundred years, and it offers a case for scholars to understand the logics of Chinese reform from within its own culture.

Online on Project Muse (Restricted access)

Wives, husbands, and lovers. Marriage and sexuality in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Urban China

Deborah S. Davis and Sara L. Friedman (eds.), 2014, Wives, husbands, and lovers. Marriage and sexuality in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Urban China, Stanford University Press. 340 p.

Digital edition also available:
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What is the state of intimate romantic relationships and marriage in urban China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan? Since the 1980’s, the character of intimate life in these urban settings has changed dramatically. While many speculate about the 21st century as Asia’s century, this book turns to the more intimate territory of sexuality and marriage—and observes the unprecedented changes in the law and popular expectations for romantic bonds and the creation of new families.

Wives, Husbands, and Lovers examines how sexual relationships and marriage are perceived and practiced under new developments within each urban location, including the establishment of no fault divorce laws, lower rates of childbearing within marriage, and the increased tolerance for non-marital and non-heterosexual intimate relationships. The authors also chronicle what happens when states remove themselves from direct involvement in some features of marriage but not others. Tracing how the marital “rules of the game” have changed substantially across the region, this book challenges long-standing assumptions that marriage is the universally preferred status for all men and women, that extramarital sexuality is incompatible with marriage, or that marriage necessarily unites a man and a woman. This book illustrates the wide range of potential futures for marriage, sexuality, and family across these societies.

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

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