In between the Western and the Chinese New Year the IASQ completed two studies in the context of the EU-China project on environmental protection. In January 2015 a delegation from Jiaxing and other Zhejiang Province cities and a number of people from the city of The Hague discussed their interpretation of effective environmental protection at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS). A main issue was how environmental conflicts in the Western world are handled. The project’s overall aim was to create an understanding of the applied model of the city of Jiaxing (in the Zhejiang Province) in order to strengthen the role of its citizens in environmental protection issues.
The IASQ explored the role of citizens in Jiaxing according a number of essential social quality assumptions, namely the interplay of the tension between systems (political, business) and the world of daily life (of communities) and between societal and biographical processes. Following the work in Jiaxing, this frame of reference was applied in explorations of the Dutch city of The Hague. This research report was then used as basis for a comprehensive study about citizens as main actors in the development toward overall sustainability. See EU-China Environmental Governance Project
Download Final Report Kai Wang IASQ 25 November 2014
Download: Working Paper 14 Environmental Protection & Position Citizens
Read the complete IASQ newsletter of 19 Februari 2015