Emerging environmental challenges continuously push against the theoretical and methodological borders of the International Relations discipline, in terms of new understandings about agency-structure dynamics and state behavior. A comparative analysis of non-Western polities such as India and China bring forth interesting observations regarding state praxis in dealing with the above-mentioned challenges. This study assesses environmental NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) protests in Xiamen, China using fieldwork observations from September 2016 to December 2016 and September 2017 to July 2018 and undertakes a comparison with a major protest movement in Tamil Nadu, India. (NIMBY stands for Not In My Backyard. NIMBY protests denote the objection of local citizens to the installation of environmentally hazardous projects in their vicinity.) The comparative assessment of protests in both countries reveals that despite dissimilarities in political cultures, new media advocacy and Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations (ENGOs) are the key factors directly responsible for facilitating public participation in environmental policy-making in both countries. It also suggests that comparative analyses can unravel similarities among the interaction among social institutions in dealing with issues such as environmental threats across spatial and temporal dimensions. The study is based on a discursive analysis of technical study reports, media reporting, and extensive interviews and fieldwork observations. 新兴的环境挑战持续推进国际关系学科的理论边界和方法论边界，为政府机构-架构动态和国家行为提供新见解。对例如印度和中国等非西方政体进行比较分析，能带来关于应对上述挑战的国家实践的有趣发现。通过使用从2016年9月到2016年12月、以及2017年9月到2018年7月进行的实地观察，本研究评估了中国厦门市的环境邻避抗议，同时与印度泰米尔纳德邦的一项大型抗议运动进行比较。对两国的抗议进行比较评估，发现除政治文化差异外，新媒体倡导和环境非政府组织（ENGOs）是促进两国公众参与环境决策的直接关键因素。本研究暗示，在应对例如跨越时空维度的环境威胁等问题时，比较分析能阐明社会机构互动之间的相似性。本研究基于一项话语分析，分析对象包括技术研究报告、媒体报道、广泛访谈和实地观察。 Los desafíos ambientales emergentes empujan continuamente contra las fronteras teóricas y metodológicas de la disciplina de las Relaciones Internacionales, en términos de nuevos entendimientos sobre la dinámica de la estructura de la agencia y el comportamiento del estado. Un análisis comparativo de las políticas no occidentales, como India y China, arroja observaciones interesantes sobre la praxis estatal para enfrentar los desafíos mencionados anteriormente. Este estudio evalúa las protestas ambientales NIMBY (Not In My Backyard o “no en mi patio trasero”) en Xiamen, China, utilizando observaciones de campo de septiembre de 2016 a diciembre de 2016 y de septiembre de 2017 a julio de 2018, y realiza una comparación con un importante movimiento de protesta en Tamil Nadu, India. La evaluación comparativa de las protestas en ambos países revela que, a pesar de las diferencias en las culturas políticas, la defensa de los nuevos medios y las Organizaciones Ambientales No Gubernamentales (ONG) son los factores clave directamente responsables de facilitar la participación pública en la formulación de políticas ambientales en ambos países. También sugiere que los análisis comparativos pueden desentrañar las similitudes entre la interacción entre las instituciones sociales al tratar temas como las amenazas ambientales en las dimensiones espacial y temporal. El estudio se basa en un análisis discursivo de informes de estudios técnicos, informes de los medios y entrevistas extensas y observaciones del trabajo de campo. 

Public protests and environmental policy‐making: The cases of Xiamen antiparaxylene protests in China and the civic movement against Kodaikkanal mercury poisoning in India

The concept of Ecological Civilization was recently inscribed in the Chinese State Constitution - a sign of its importance - but what is this concept about? And what is its importance, in the light of dialectics and historical materialism, for China's national development project? By making a qualitative analysis of primary and secondary sources, we seek to draw a theoretical picture of this concept and fit it in the objective that the Chinese State set itself, for the year 2049, of building a modern socialist society. Analyzing the existing literature, one can see the diversity of the study and the interpretation of this concept. We also see that the understanding of Ecological Civilization must be made based on the study of the material conditions existing in China and that the answer to the problem of development occupies the centrality of the question. We conclude that Ecological Civilization - an integral part of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics - is born in response to the contradictions that the post-1979 development model created and that its appearance corresponds to the need to find a new development model that focuses on the qualitative question.

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A contradição como motor do progresso: a civilização ecológica como etapa rumo à sociedade socialista moderna

Xi Jinping's thought on ecological civilization construction is an important part of the socialist ideology with Chinese characteristics in a new era, which inherits and develops the ecological theory of Marxism and Sinicized Marxism based on the reality of the national conditions and the ecological wisdom rooted in traditional Chinese philosophy. In this paper, the basic connotation, significance, goals, requirements and realization ways of ecological civilization construction are expounded profoundly. This is of great significance to move toward a new era of socialist ecological civilization and promote the construction of beautiful China.

Xuhui Yin

Papers

Connotation of Xi Jinping's Thought on Construction of Ecological Civilization in the New Era