INTRODUCTION: DEVELOPMENT, SUSTAINABILITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA

Alana BOLAND

doi:10.1080/10225706.2006.9684129

BOLAND, Alana

2006-01-01 00:00:00

INTRODUCTION: DEVELOPMENT, SUSTAINABILITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA Alana BOLAND Department of Geography & Program in Planning University of Toronto China's rapid economic growth over the past two decades has raised many concerns about the environmental impacts of the country's rapid industrialization, growing cities, and rising levels of consumption. There is no shortage of studies documenting the dire conditions, regulatory failures, and - in a somewhat more hopeful vain - the role that civil society actors might play in addressing these seemingly insurmountable problems (e.g., Cooper, 2006; Economy, 2004; Lo and Tang, 2006; Tilt, 2007; Van Rooij, 2006; Yang, 2005). Less attention, however, has been paid to understanding how the environment, and sustainability in particular, has been incorporated into broader development and investment strategies. Like elsewhere in the world, China has seen 'sustainability' emerge as a catchall phrase, used to promote such things as organic agriculture, clean production in industry, and consumer products, including some with questionable environmental value such as bottled water and air filters. It is precisely because the meaning of environmental sustainability is so ambiguous and its range of use so broad, that more attention needs to be paid to the way the term has

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Asian Geographer Taylor & Francis

http://www.deepdyve.com/lp/taylor-francis/introduction-development-sustainability-and-the-environment-in-hVkLJycKtK