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As the climate crisis intensifies, overlapping with the emergence of a lethal virus, and a planet poisoning economy, questions regarding thinking-and-doing transition become increasingly urgent. In this article, we explore the concept of “ecological civilisation” (EcoCiv) as a productive conjunction of Chinese concepts and ways of thinking that precede China’s encounter with Western modernity, and their re-reading and revision from a post-Western modernity lens. China’s role in any possible global transition to sustainability is unquestionably central – yet curiously neglected in transition studies. At the same time the official project of EcoCiv is in fact emerging as the very opposite of its proclaimed spirit. The article offers a reconceptualisation of shengtai wenming (ecological civilisation) as a paradigm shift to life-ising the economy (and society) instead of economising life. From this altered perspective, the article presents and discusses preliminary evidence of a largely neglected, but potentially significant, bottom-up, extra-state dynamism in contemporary China that entails both elements and principles for a genuinely ecological, trans-modern civilisation. It concludes with reflections on the resulting change in agenda, not least for transition studies, outlining a set of four principles of doing shengtai wenming – i.e. of life-ising transition., International Quarterly for Asian Studies, Vol. 53 No. 3 (2022): China beyond China, Part II

Since the call for papers for this Special Issue less than two years ago, the world has faced a stream of existential challenges, with the background drumbeat of environmental catastrophe(s) and geopolitical tensions growing ever louder. At this moment of unprecedented global challenges, it is increasingly apparent that the sphere of international politics and government, to which citizens would turn for action, is itself also displaying a deep crisis of structural dysfunction. The growing influence of China appears to be both a contributing cause and partial effect of the perceived international vacuum of the multilateral action needed to prevent and respond to such a serious moment of planetary crises. The burning question of the age arguably concerns how China will use, expand or lose its remarkable sources of economic, political and technological influence in this system crisis scenario while attempting to stabilise (or at least not upend) its own economic and socio-political conditions in the process. How will China actually go beyond China? And what world – what world order, what planet and nature, what globe-spanning sociotechnical systems – will this singularly important but not yet well-understood phenomenon create? This Special Issue opens up this agenda, presenting a series of insightful papers across a range of empirical sites that illuminate not only that profound change is underway with the (uncertain) rise of China and the global reach of its infra­structural projects amidst planetary phase shift, but also how that is currently unfolding., International Quarterly for Asian Studies, Vol. 53 No. 2 (2022): China beyond China, Part I

Disruptive innovation offers significant promise regarding expedited global low-carbon transition, set against currently inadequate efforts. In order to appreciate its significance, however, disruptive low-carbon innovation must be analysed in the light of three key shifts in perspective: to an analysis of system transition and low-carbon innovation itself in terms of power/knowledge; to appraisal of the significance of digital innovation (similarly reconceptualised) and its embryonic convergence with disruptive innovation; and to a geographical focus on innovation happening not (just) in locations usually presumed as leading in hi-tech, but to developing countries and especially China. Indeed, exploring disruptive innovation in this way shows that assenting to the commonplace discourse through which Silicon Valley Tech innovation is identified as 'disruptive' is to conflate problem with solution. Conversely, this approach shows just how significant disruptive innovation is likely to prove to low-carbon transition, effecting a disruption of innovation itself, and thence of capitalism, from which any such transition must ultimately emerge.

Efforts at urban e-mobility transition in China are of crucial global significance. Exploring these developments, however, demands significant reframing of dominant theories of socio-technical system transition to accommodate the strikingly different socio-political context of China to that of the global North where these theories have been developed. In particular, greater attention must be paid to issues of power, conceptualized as dynamic power/knowledge relations constitutive of social formations and evolving in interactive parallel with specific innovation trajectories. We illustrate such a productive reframing focusing on complex processes of empowerment and highlight that there remains relative stasis in the grand plan of a rapid transition to electric cars (EVs) in China's growing cities, with the EV still widely regarded as “risky” mobility. At the same time the EV in China is becoming a constituent of a new kind of digitized and smart mobility, as Chinese ICT companies emerge as globally powerful players establishing alliances with traditional automobile companies. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

A book review of Paula Stephan's (2012) 'How Economics Shapes Science', Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

This CeMoRe Report sets out 4 scenarios for future Chinese urban e-mobility, drawing on qualitative evidence regarding changing practices and social power relations.

In March 2014 a group of early career researchers and academics from São Paulo state and from the UK met at the University of Campinas to participate in a workshop on ‘Responsible Innovation and the Governance of Socially Controversial Technologies’. In this Perspective we describe key reflections and observations from the workshop discussions, paying particular attention to the discourse of responsible innovation from a cross-cultural perspective. We describe a number of important tensions, paradoxes and opportunities that emerged over the three days of the workshop.

This paper explores environmental innovation in the largest emerging economy – China - and its potential for contributing to global transitions to low-carbon, more sustainable patterns of development. It builds on earlier studies bringing alternative forms of low(er)-technology, ‘below-the-radar’, ‘disruptive’ and/or social innovation into its analysis. In addition, however, the paper develops our understanding of low-carbon innovation by paying particular attention to issues of changing power relations and social practices; theoretical issues that need attention in the literature generally but are notably absent when studying transitions in China. This shift in perspective allows four neglected questions to be introduced and, in each case, points to both opportunities and challenges to low-carbon system transition that are overlooked by an orthodox focus on technological innovations alone. These are briefly illustrated by drawing on examples from three key domains of low-carbon innovation: solar-generated energy; electric urban mobility; and food and agriculture.

Agrofuels are increasingly sourced and sold as a socially and environmentally beneficial solution to oil dependence. The promotion of sugar-derived ethanol as a substitute for petroleum has thus been key to state development and international trade policies by Brazil and the European Union, respectively, and subsequent investment by leading energy and food transnational corporations has transformed socio-spatial relations in the new sites of production. Brazilian rural worker testimonies, however, point to large-scale labour exclusion rather than reform and a deepening, rather than disruption, of historic power inequalities in the sector. Labour contestation challenges a converging institutional discourse of responsible technological innovation and social upgrading associated with emerging commodity chains and the 'green' economy. Although corporate and statutory response has been market-orientated certification and 'more technology' the idea of the 'techno-institutional fix' provides a power relation-attentive analysis that invites the further exploration of socially committed alternatives to food and energy production.

Much discourse on low-carbon transition envisages progressive social change towards environmentally sustainable and more equitable societies. Yet much of this literature pays inadequate attention to the key question of (productive, relational) power. How do energy infrastructures and socio-technical systems interact with, construct, enable and constrain political regimes, and vice versa? Conceiving low-carbon energy transitions through a power lens, the paper explores a case study of huge, but overlooked, significance: the paradox of the ‘phenomenal’ resurgence of coal in an era of low-carbon innovation. Through exposition of the strong connections between coal-based socio-technical systems and a political regime of classical liberalism, illustrated in two eras, we trace an emerging constellation of energy and political regimes connecting ‘clean coal’ with a ‘liberalism 2.0’ centred on a rising China. This affords a critique of the low-carbon society emergent from these developments – a society more reminiscent of coal's previous Dickensian heyday than the progressive visions of much ‘low-carbon transition’ literature.

Current efforts at 'low-carbon transition' are marked by a striking paradox: the 'phenomenal' and 'historically incredible' resurgence of coal. Exploration of the source of this conundrum opens up an analysis of current trends regarding low-carbon energy transitions in terms of the forging and emergence of 'cosmopolitan climate risk communities'. Such an analysis is a case study in a broader shift to a methodologically cosmopolitan social science that involves empirical examination of processes of cosmopolitization and associated social, and not just technological, challenges of low-carbon transition. This leads to exposition of an emerging constellation of energy and political regimes connecting 'clean coal' with a 'liberalism 2.0' centred on a rising China. The low-carbon society emergent from these developments, however, is shown to be marked with intra-national inequality, violence, absurdity and a haunted schizophrenia more reminiscent of coal's previous Dickensian heyday than the progressive and normatively cosmopolitan visions of much 'low-carbon transition' literature. The implications and possible emerging configurations of such a 'clean coal'-based liberalism 2.0 are explored with particular reference to the changing natures and social definitions of techno-nationalism and cosmopolitan innovation., Les efforts actuels en direction d'une " transition vers la sobriété en carbone " sont caractérisés par un paradoxe saisissant : la résurgence " phénoménale " et " historiquement incroyable " du charbon. L'exploration des sources de cette enigme conduit à analyser les tendances actuelles de la transition vers une énergie sobre en carbone en termes de création et d'émergence de " communautés cosmopolitiques de risque climatique ". Une telle analyse constitue une étude de cas dans le cadre d'un mouvement plus large vers une science sociale méthodologiquement cosmopolitique qui implique l'examen empirique des processus de cosmopolitanisation et les enjeux sociaux - et pas seulement technologiques - inhérents à cette transition vers la sobriété en carbone. Ceci conduit à mettre en lumière une constellation émergente d'énergie et de régimes politiques mettant en relation le "charbon propre" avec le " libéralisme 2.0 " centré sur une Chine en plein essor. La société sobre en carbone qui émerge de ces développements, cependant, apparaît marquée par des formes d'inégalités infra-nationales, de violence, d'absurdité et une schizophrénie qui rappelle davantage l'âge d'or du charbon avant Dickens que les visions progressistes et normativement cosmopolites de la majorité de la littérature sur la " transition vers la sobriété en carbone ". Les implications et les configurations qui pourraient émerger d'un tel libéralisme 2.0 basé sur le " charbon propre " sont explorées en faisant particulièrement référence aux changeantes natures et définitions sociales du techno-nationalisme et de l'innovation cosmopolitique.

Includes bibliographical references.

Big hydro, big solar photovoltaic (PV) and big wind - these are the usual focus of accounts of low carbon technologies in China. But a very different type of innovation - ranging from a farm cooperative in Yunnan, to woodchip and corn pellets in rural Beijing and air-conditioning using just salt and water in Hangzhou and Shenzhen - could be even more significant as examples of how to achieve a low carbon economy and society for China and the world. This report follows a 2007 NESTA report that profiled eight disruptive low carbon innovators from the UK, and explores the particular importance of this type of innovation to China with seven case studies. These are the Chinese 'Game-Changers', each of which has developed a low carbon innovation that has the potential to make a significant contribution to emissions reductions and the move to a low carbon society.