Cheryl S.F. Chi

Public participation in environmental impact assessment for public projects: a case of non-participation

Public participation in environmental impact assessment is recognised as key to sustainable development. However, its role in public projects in China remains limited. The issue of non-participation is explored by focusing on the attitude and capacity of the citizens who experienced the Wuhan-Guangzhou High Speed Railway project through interviews and field surveys in multiple geographical sites along the line. Passive attitudes and low capacity were observed. While some respondents considered participation in government-owned projects unthinkable, most of them were discouraged by the absence of a sense of security and significance. Institutional barriers identified include a lack of participation channels and project information and the absence of transparent and proper processes of handling social impacts. Policy suggestions beyond the regulatory realm to encourage effective public participation are provided.

Institutional effects on project arrangement: high‐speed rail projects in China and Taiwan

Previous studies recognize institutional impacts on the arrangement of large infrastructure projects but they have not analysed the process by which a host country’s institutions shape infrastructure projects. Institutional theory was applied as an analytical lens to identify different effects of regulatory, normative and cultural institutions on project arrangements. A cross‐case comparative study of high‐speed rail projects in China and Taiwan was conducted to investigate the processes through which political cultures and industrial structures determined the decisions for project arrangements, including delivery method, financing, participants’ roles, the degree of private and foreign participation, and organization. Longitudinal archival methods combined with exploratory case studies were employed to examine project decisions by analysing government regulations, official publications, news articles, project documents and 20 interviews. A conceptual model was presented to integrate the findings. The political culture in each host country defines the political goals and legitimate approaches of large infrastructure projects, while industrial structure limits feasible alternatives for project arrangements. Collectively, they shape project arrangements and largely dictate the roles played by the government, private enterprises and foreign actors.

Concern or apathy: the attitude of the public toward urban air pollution

It is important to understand public attitudes when designing policy instruments to motivate actions. Attitude is partially socially constructed and thus must be studied locally rather than inferred from other settings. This study explored public attitudes toward air pollution among Beijing residents through interviews and thematic analysis. In contrast to previous studies mostly focusing on a certain dimension of attitudes, we attempted to show an initial picture of attitudes in three dimensions, knowledge and belief, perception and concern, and covert and overt behaviors, and identify underlying factors accounting for such attitudes. The results showed that the interviewees largely knew the sources and impacts of air pollution but also demonstrated misunderstandings; half of them perceived air pollution as ‘severe’ and three-fourths of them showed little concern about air pollution; their protective and mitigation responsive behaviors were inadequate. Factors affecting such attitudes, both existing and missing in current literature, were identified. Perceived air pollution is determined by sensory cues and imagination, and mediated by lived experiences and place identity. Lack of concern about air pollution can largely be explained by a feeling of uncontrollability and the crowding effect in competing for attention. This lack is further influenced by the perceived benefits of living in large cities, perceived fairness of the impact across the population, and perceived delay of the health impacts posed by air pollution. Protective behaviors, specifically wearing facemasks, are influenced by perceived severity, vulnerability, efficacy, and barriers. Mitigation behavior, which refers to reducing car use in this case, is discouraged by a lack of feeling responsible and by perceived inconvenience and ineffectiveness. At an academic level, the results of this exploratory study are expected to provide a base for further investigations of factors affecting public attitudes. From a policy perspective, the results should provide information for designing policy instruments to raise awareness and motivate actions to cope with air pollution.

China's Energy Reduction Policy System: Outcomes and Responses of Local Governments

The paper examines the outcomes of and responses to the policy system (the “obligatory indicator system”) used by the Chinese central government to induce provincial governments to meet energy-saving targets during the 11th Five Year Plan. The institutional mechanisms underlying the policy system that promotes implementation of energy saving are identified An analytical framework is developed to identify the strategic responses of provincial governments and the factors shaping their responses. Comprehensive sets of provincial data on economic and energy performance are collected and analyzed. The findings indicate that the central governments credible commitment to implement the policy system drove the initially disparate attitudes of provinces to a converged outcome. However, the outcome is significantly constrained by provinces’ initial energy intensity. In particular, provincial governments have applied strategies of ceremonial implementation, efficiency-oriented efforts and effectiveness-focused efforts to attain specific targets. This paper discusses the implications in comparison with the modified obligatory indicator system in the 12th Five Year Plan and offers policy suggestions accordingly.

Multinational teams incorporating freelance expatriates in the construction industry: case studies of high-speed railways in China and Taiwan

Freelance expatriates are an important element of the workforce in international projects that are relatively knowledge-intensive and highly specialized. Their expertise and knowledge, accumulated through experience gained by travelling from project to project, is a crucial asset for projects. Incorporating freelance expatriates into project teams allows firms to be flexible and competitive in the international market. However, despite a wide range of research on expatriation in fields such as human resource management and international business management, studies of freelance expatriates in the international construction industry have just begun. Little is known about the major challenges impeding their working relationship with their local colleagues. This paper addresses this question in four ways: (1) we identify eight challenges—expectation gaps, outsider effects, client–contractor tensions, cultural differences and subgroup formation, different values, different norms, different practices and langu...

Environmental impact assessment of infrastructure projects: a governance perspective

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been promoted as an instrument for preventive environmental management in construction projects, but its performance in safeguarding the environment through influencing project decision-making is questioned. This paper probes the underlying reasons from a governance perspective as an important supplement to the regulatory and technical perspectives. A framework, with process integration, professional governance, and public engagement being its key components, is proposed to analyze the governance arrangements that enable or inhibit the effective functioning of EIA, based on which a comparative study of three infrastructure projects in China, the United States and Finland was conducted. The results reveal that, while the level of process integration and public engagement of EIA determines the degree to which EIA influences project decisions, it is the professional governance that controls the accountability of EIA. The paper has implications on institutionally where efforts should be directed to improve the performance of EIA.

Influence of culture on human–system interaction of emergency response to Xiaolin Village incident in Typhoon Morakot

This study explores the influence of culture on the dynamic relation between an institutionalized organizational system and individuals who work under the system in a special context of emergency. In this context, a tragic event – the Xiaolin Village incident – which occurred during Typhoon Morakot in 2009, a mudslide buried the entire village killing 491 residents in all. This put Taiwan’s disaster management system to the test. It failed to demonstrate a convincing emergency response. This shock disclosed the misalignment between the disaster management system and de facto interpersonal interactions under the system and pointedly revealed a crucial operational problem in the disjuncture between the system and the government agents. In this paper, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (specifically, power distance and uncertainty avoidance) are employed to explore the influence of culture on the operation of the system. Thirty-two governmental officials were interviewed and their styles of handling conflict assessed using Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument. The cultural influence is appraised by detecting the shift of their styles under the emergency situation. Our findings expose the cultural cognitive constraints imposed on individuals by the system and help explain why the actual reactions to the Xiaolin Village incident differed greatly from the expected response.