UEP 340 China's Environmental Challenges: A Sociological Perspective

This course examines China's environmental challenges and the policies and institutions that have an impact on those challenges.  This course is divided into three parts.  The first part guides student through a brief introduction of China's political system and its recent environmental history.  The second part delves into specific environmental issues ranging from air pollution, food, urbanization, biodiversity, and climate change.  The last part considers China's environmental challenges through the lens of environmental governance, focusing on the roles of the central state, local governments, businesses, NGOs, and other international institutions.  To deal with such a complex topic, this course will draw insights across disciplines from political science, human geography, history, urban studies, to China studies, but we will especially use sociology to conceptualize China's environmental ills as a deeper challenge to organize societies with sustainability.