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China’s Not-in-My-Backyard Protest in the Process of Urbanization

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Urban China in the New Era

Abstract

Concomitant with the growth of conflicts over land use, China has witnessed an increasing ‘Not-In-My-Backyard’ (NIMBY) syndrome throughout the country. The legal foundation for environmental action, public environmental awareness and latent NIMBY participants have shown the potential for a forthcoming neighbourhood environmental protest in urban China, and also implied some special resistance tactics. This chapter explores two NIMBY protests in Beijing and suggests that NIMBY action in China is similar to that in the West in some protest tactics and internal rhythms but distinctive in the single supportive network. Rather than relying on a diversified external social network, like non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or media, the most effective supporter for China’s NIMBY action is government. Therefore, Chinese NIMBY action struggles for support from government by using China’s administrative system ethos. Furthermore, with NIMBY practices, the residents strengthen their awareness of property rights, as well as establish their identity, as the citizens pursue public participation and environmental justice.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘Fangya Garden’ and all individuals mentioned in this study are aliases in order to protect privacy.

  2. 2.

    The Bureau of Letters and Calls is a comprehensive department in the Chinese governmental system. People can report all kinds of problems to this department. The Bureau of Letters and Calls takes charge of investigating, reflecting, coordinating and providing proposals.

  3. 3.

    For details of the Liu Li Tun protest, please see Otsuka Otsuka (2009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Social Development, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China

    Ying Wu

  2. School of Management Science and Engineering, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China

    Xuezhen Dai

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  1. Ying Wu
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  2. Xuezhen Dai
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Correspondence to Ying Wu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, The University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

    Zhiming Cheng

  2. Department of Resource Management and Geograph, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Mark Wang

  3. School of Management Science and Engineering, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China

    Junhua Chen

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Wu, Y., Dai, X. (2014). China’s Not-in-My-Backyard Protest in the Process of Urbanization. In: Cheng, Z., Wang, M., Chen, J. (eds) Urban China in the New Era. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54227-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54227-5_5

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