Environmental Politics in East Asia: Strategies that Work

FAIN: FO-50251-15

Mary Alice Haddad
Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT 06459-3208)

This project uses the Japanese experience to uncover and explain which environmental advocacy strategies are the most successful in generating pro-environmental behavior change among governments, businesses, and individuals. The study combines the quantitative analysis of two original large-n datasets of environmental organizations and events with qualitative case studies of environmental politics in Japan, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China, and the Republic of Korea. It finds that the strategies that have been most effective in Japan and East Asia are also the most common and effective environmental advocacy strategies around the world although they have gained less academic attention than the strategies more prevalent in North American and Western Europe. The work will be a contribution to Japanese studies, comparative politics, and environmental studies, demonstrating how Japan can be a starting place for new theories and understandings of environmental politics.

Associated Products

"NIMBY is Beautiful: How Local Environmental Protests are Changing the World" (Book Section)
Title: "NIMBY is Beautiful: How Local Environmental Protests are Changing the World"
Author: Mary Alice Haddad
Editor: Carol Hager
Abstract: "This new edited volume provides an innovative, empirically driven perspective on controversial facilities that will be of interest to many scholars, decision makers, and residents around the world. The volume's international perspective helps make its conclusions convincing and robust and it rests on a well developed set of theories and hypotheses." · Daniel P. Aldrich, Purdue University NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) protests are often criticized as parochial and short-lived, generating no lasting influence on broader processes related to environmental politics. This volume offers a different perspective. Drawing on cases from around the globe, it demonstrates that NIMBY protests, although always arising from a local concern in a particular community, often result in broader political, social, and technological change. Chapters include cases from Europe, North America, and Asia, engaging with the full political spectrum from established democracies to non-democratic countries. Regardless of political setting, NIMBY movements can have a positive and proactive role in generating innovative solutions to local as well as transnational environmental issues. Furthermore, those solutions are now serving as models for communities and countries around the world.
Year: 2015
Publisher: New York: Berghahn Books
Book Title: NIMBY is Beautiful: Cases of Local Activism and Environmental Innovation around the World

"From Backyard Environmental Advocacy to National Democratisation: The Cases of South Korea and Taiwan" (Book Section)
Title: "From Backyard Environmental Advocacy to National Democratisation: The Cases of South Korea and Taiwan"
Author: Mary Alice Haddad
Editor: Carol Hager
Abstract: see other book sections
Year: 2015
Publisher: New York: Berghahn Books
Book Title: NIMBY is Beautiful: Cases of Local Activism and Environmental Innovation around the World

"Paradoxes of Democratisation: Environmental Politics in East Asia" (Book Section)
Title: "Paradoxes of Democratisation: Environmental Politics in East Asia"
Author: Mary Alice Haddad
Editor: Paul Harris and Graeme Lang
Abstract: Nowhere is the connection between society and the environment more evident and potentially more harmful for the future of the world than in Asia. In recent decades, rapid development of Asian countries with very large populations has led to an unprecedented increase in environmental problems such as air and water pollution, solid and hazardous wastes, deforestation, depletion of natural resources and extinction of native species. This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of the cultural, social and policy contexts of environmental change across East Asia. The team of international experts critically examine a wide range of environmental problems related to energy, climate change, air, land, water, fisheries, forests and wildlife. The editors conclude that, with nearly half of the human population of the planet, and several rapidly growing economies, most notably China, Asian societies will determine much of the future of human impacts on the regional and global environments. As climate change-related threats to society increase, the book strongly argues for increased environmental consciousness and action in Asian societies. This handbook is a very valuable companion for students, scholars, policy makers and researchers working on environmental issues in Asia.
Year: 2015
Publisher: New York: Routledge
Book Title: Routledge Handbook of Environment and Society in Asia

"Increasing Environmental Performance in a Context of Low Governmental Enforcement: Evidence from China" (Article)
Title: "Increasing Environmental Performance in a Context of Low Governmental Enforcement: Evidence from China"
Author: Mary Alice Haddad
Abstract: Vol 24:1, pp. 3-25, March 2015 How can activists and policy makers encourage better environmental behavior in a context of poor governmental enforcement? This article examines the case of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, a Chinese nonprofit organization, to show how a transparency-based platform can encourage brand-sensitive multinational corporations, their suppliers, their investors, local governments, and consumers to behave in more environmentally responsible ways, even in a context of low governmental enforcement. Using Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs as its model, this article argues that a transparency-based platform can serve an important coordinating function across multiple sectors, creating a mechanism through which market forces are channeled in pro-environmental ways. Transparency-based platforms can help develop new norms about public disclosure, corporate governance, and consumer responsibility, but they only function in places with sufficient state monitoring capacity, adequate legal protections, and in markets where local firms are vulnerable to external financial pressure.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://jed.sagepub.com/content/24/1/3.abstract
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Journal of Environment and Development

"Network-based Policymaking in East Asia and Beyond" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: "Network-based Policymaking in East Asia and Beyond"
Author: Mary Alice Haddad
Abstract: na
Date: 5/14/15
Conference Name: Wesley Conference in Environmental Politics and Governance, Bainbridge Island, WA

"Environmental Advocacy in East Asia" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: "Environmental Advocacy in East Asia"
Author: Mary Alice Haddad
Abstract: na
Date: 9/28/15
Conference Name: Australian Political Science Association annual meeting, Sydney, Australia

"East Asia Green Networks: Digital Technology and Environmental Activism in South Korea and Japan" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: "East Asia Green Networks: Digital Technology and Environmental Activism in South Korea and Japan"
Author: Mary Alice Haddad
Abstract: na
Date: 8/30/14
Conference Name: American Political Science Association annual meeting, Washington, DC

"Improving Environmental Outcomes: Evidence and Ideas from East Asia" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: "Improving Environmental Outcomes: Evidence and Ideas from East Asia"
Author: Mary Alice Haddad
Abstract: na
Date: 5/19/15
Conference Name: Institute for Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization, Tokyo, Japan

Effective Advocacy: Lessons from East Asia's Environmentalists (Book)
Title: Effective Advocacy: Lessons from East Asia's Environmentalists
Author: Mary Alice Haddad
Abstract: An examination of successful environmental advocacy strategies in East Asia that shows how advocacy can be effective under difficult conditions. The countries of East Asia—China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan—are home to some of the most active and effective environmental advocates in the world. And the governments of these countries have adopted a range of innovative policies to fight pollution and climate change: Japan leads the world in emissions standards, China has become the world's largest producer of photovoltaic panels, and Taiwan and South Korea have undertaken major green initiatives. In this book, Mary Alice Haddad examines the advocacy strategies that persuaded citizens, governments, and businesses of these countries to change their behavior. How did environmental activists succeed in countries that favor business interests and are generally hostile to citizen-based advocacy? Haddad identifies and describes, with examples, five of the most effective advocacy strategies used by environmentalists in East Asia: cultivate policy access, make it work locally, make it work for business, engage the heart, and think outside the box. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data, she develops the Connected Stakeholder Model to show how advocates work through personal and professional networks to influence people in power. Stakeholders involved in policymaking are connected to diverse and multiple networks, which help them to develop complex ideas about the policies they develop. East Asia's effective advocacy strategies, as well as Haddad's theoretical framework, offer valuable lessons for activists, policy makers, and researchers. The open access edition of this book was made possible by generous funding from Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/1162793133
Primary URL Description: Worldcat listing
Secondary URL: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262363419/effective-advocacy/
Secondary URL Description: The MIT Press listing, including link for open access version.
Access Model: Print book and open access ebook
Publisher: The MIT Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780262542357

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