A Reconsideration of Environmental NGOs and the Environmental Governance of Social Transformation in China : The paradigm shift from “State and Society” to “Institutions and Life”

Leng, Xinyuan; Lin, Lizhao; Miyoshi, Emako

doi:https://doi.org/10.18910/94831

A Reconsideration of Environmental NGOs and the Environmental Governance of Social Transformation in China : The paradigm shift from “State and Society” to “Institutions and Life”

Leng, Xinyuan; Lin, Lizhao; Miyoshi, Emako

Osaka Human Sciences, 2024, 10, 107-131

アクセス数:495件（2025-08-15 09:12 集計）

固定URL: https://doi.org/10.18910/94831

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タイトル	A Reconsideration of Environmental NGOs and the Environmental Governance of Social Transformation in China : The paradigm shift from “State and Society” to “Institutions and Life”
著者	著者名 Leng, Xinyuan
	著者名 Lin, Lizhao
	NRID 1000060294170 1000060294170 researchmap permalink emako-miyoshi emako-miyoshi Scopus Author ID 7005784194 7005784194 著者名 Miyoshi, Emako
キーワード等	environmental governance
	environmental NGOs
	institution and life paradigm
	social transformation in China
	state and society paradigm
抄録	China has undergone a social transformation since the establishment of its Reform and Opening-Up Policy, becoming a market economy under a socialist system. However, environmental problems associated with urbanization and economic development have become increasingly serious, and the government has been unable to address these problems. This situation was affected by the emergence of environmental NGOs in the 1990s, which played an important role in environmental governance. Previous researchers have used the “state and society” paradigm, which is based on civic society theory, to analyze the development of environmental NGOs in China and determine whether environmental NGOs are independent from the powerful government in environmental governance. The aim of these studies is to answer questions like “Are there environmental NGOs that operate autonomously under the current situation of strong state power in China?” or “What kind of relationships do environmental NGOs have with the state and what functions do they perform in the public domain of environmental governance?” The authors’ previous study found that the development of environmental NGOs differs from the trend of the “state and society” paradigm because NGOs interact with the strong government in various senses of development in social transformation in China. Social transformation researchers have found that the “state and society” paradigm does not fit the reality of China, so they have established the “institutions and life” paradigm. The aim of this study is to investigate the limits of the “state and society” paradigm presented in earlier studies and introduce an alternative paradigm of “institutions and life” to explain the involvement of NGOs and the environmental governance of social transformation in China. Here, “institutions” refers to formal institutions established in the name of the state that support its agents at various levels and in different departments in the exercise of their functions, and “life” refers to the everyday activities of social beings, involving not only theinterests, powers, and rights-based claims of expedient production and life strategies and techniques, but also relatively routine popular mores and informal institutions.According to this new paradigm, environmental NGOs interact with the powerfulgovernment through informal practices like personal relationships. Moreover, these informal practices can gradually promote formal institutions, such as the government’s admission of the subjectivity of environmental NGOs in the establishment of the environmental governance system.
出版者	Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University
収録物名	Osaka Human Sciences
巻(号)	10
ページ	107-131
刊行年月	2024-03
言語	英語
ハンドルURL	https://hdl.handle.net/11094/94831
DOI	https://doi.org/10.18910/94831
NCID	AA12727839
アクセス権	open access
出版タイプ	Version of Record
カテゴリ	紀要論文 Departmental Bulletin Paper
カテゴリ	Osaka Human Sciences / Vol.10

資源タイプ	紀要論文
ローカル資源タイプ	紀要論文
DCMI資源タイプ	text
DCTERMS.bibliographicCitation	Osaka Human Sciences. 2024, 10, p. 107-131
DC.title	A Reconsideration of Environmental NGOs and the Environmental Governance of Social Transformation in China : The paradigm shift from “State and Society” to “Institutions and Life”
DC.creator	Leng, Xinyuan
	Lin, Lizhao
	Miyoshi, Emako
DC.publisher	Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University
DC.language' scheme='DCTERMS.RFC1766	英語
DC.type' scheme='DCTERMS.DCMIType	text
DCTERMS.issued' scheme='DCTERMS.W3CDTF	2024-03
DC.subject	environmental governance
	environmental NGOs
	institution and life paradigm
	social transformation in China
	state and society paradigm
DCTERMS.abstract	China has undergone a social transformation since the establishment of its Reform and Opening-Up Policy, becoming a market economy under a socialist system. However, environmental problems associated with urbanization and economic development have become increasingly serious, and the government has been unable to address these problems. This situation was affected by the emergence of environmental NGOs in the 1990s, which played an important role in environmental governance. Previous researchers have used the “state and society” paradigm, which is based on civic society theory, to analyze the development of environmental NGOs in China and determine whether environmental NGOs are independent from the powerful government in environmental governance. The aim of these studies is to answer questions like “Are there environmental NGOs that operate autonomously under the current situation of strong state power in China?” or “What kind of relationships do environmental NGOs have with the state and what functions do they perform in the public domain of environmental governance?” The authors’ previous study found that the development of environmental NGOs differs from the trend of the “state and society” paradigm because NGOs interact with the strong government in various senses of development in social transformation in China. Social transformation researchers have found that the “state and society” paradigm does not fit the reality of China, so they have established the “institutions and life” paradigm. The aim of this study is to investigate the limits of the “state and society” paradigm presented in earlier studies and introduce an alternative paradigm of “institutions and life” to explain the involvement of NGOs and the environmental governance of social transformation in China. Here, “institutions” refers to formal institutions established in the name of the state that support its agents at various levels and in different departments in the exercise of their functions, and “life” refers to the everyday activities of social beings, involving not only theinterests, powers, and rights-based claims of expedient production and life strategies and techniques, but also relatively routine popular mores and informal institutions.According to this new paradigm, environmental NGOs interact with the powerfulgovernment through informal practices like personal relationships. Moreover, these informal practices can gradually promote formal institutions, such as the government’s admission of the subjectivity of environmental NGOs in the establishment of the environmental governance system.
DC.identifier	10.18910/94831
DC.format	94831
citation_title	A Reconsideration of Environmental NGOs and the Environmental Governance of Social Transformation in China : The paradigm shift from “State and Society” to “Institutions and Life”
citation_author	Leng, Xinyuan
	Lin, Lizhao
	Miyoshi, Emako
citation_publisher	Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University
citation_language	英語
citation_date	2024-03
citation_journal_title	Osaka Human Sciences
citation_volume	10
citation_firstpage	107
citation_lastpage	131
citation_public_url	https://hdl.handle.net/11094/94831
citation_doi_detail	10.18910/94831
citation_doi	https://doi.org/10.18910/94831

A Reconsideration of Environmental NGOs and the Environmental Governance of Social Transformation in China : The paradigm shift from “State and Society” to “Institutions and Life”

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