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FRISAM2-FRIPRO forskerprosjekt, samfunnsvitenskap

Airborne: Pollution, Climate Change, and Visions of Sustainability in China

Alternative title: Luftforurensning og Nye Visjoner om Bærekraft i Kina

Awarded: NOK 9.2 mill.

In January 2013, inhabitants of China's capital Beijing woke up to a thick layer of smog and scientists announced that air pollution was now the worst on record. Experiences of exceptionally heavy smog, combined with increased information about the effects of air pollution, prompted unprecedented public debates in China about health and environment. The upsurge in public expressions of environmental fear coincided with an intensification of government concern, both with local air pollution and with its long-term effects on climate change. Airborne addresses the topic of air and air pollution in China from different perspectives. In January 2013, inhabitants of China's capital Beijing woke up to a thick layer of smog and scientists announced that air pollution was now the worst on record. Experiences of exceptionally heavy smog, combined with increased information about the effects of air pollution, prompted unprecedented public debates in China about health and environment. The upsurge in public expressions of environmental fear coincided with an intensification of government concern, both with local air pollution and with its long-term effects on climate change. Airborne has addressed the topic of air and air pollution in China from different perspectives. How do Chinese authorities, scientists, citizens and the media interact in responding to the risks of air pollution and climate change? How do people's experiences and imaginaries of the impact of air pollution transform into new visions of sustainability and creative forms of action? We have sought answers to answer these question through an interdisciplinary approach that took "air" as its focal point of departure. Air carries pollutants and climate gasses that impact people's health and result in climate change. The acknowledgment of this, may trigger both fears and new anticipations of the future. In close and systematic cooperation across disciplines within the humanities, social and natural sciences, the members of the Airborne team have produced new empirical knowledge of China's path towards sustainability, highlighting the deep conflicts of interests that are vested in this endeavor. Theoretically, Airborne has generated new understandings of the limits and possibilities of human creativity in the face of global environmental risks, and especially how such experiences are are manifested within a China - politically authoritarian state with undisputed importance for global climate change. The results from Airborne have been published in key international journals, as books, and in popular forms in Chinese and Norwegian languages.

Etter 5 års samarbeid mellom norske, kinesiske og amerikanske forskere på tvers av disipliner har vi fått mye erfaringer med felles data-innsamling og sampublisering. Dette har skapt grunn for utvikling av nye prosjekter og mot slutten av prosjektet ble partnerne enige om at vi trengte å institusjonalisere samarbeidet videre mtp fremtiden. I Kina har miljøvitenskapene sjeldent inkludert humsam-perspektiver, og vi tok derfor initiativ til å danne et nytt tverrfaglig senter: Sino-Norwegian Center for Research on Environment and Society. SINORSE ble offisielt åpnet sept. 2019 på Zhejiang U. med målet om å fremme tverrfaglig miljø- og klimarelatert forskning, samt styrke studentutveksling på MA- og Ph.D.-nivå innen disse tema. SINORSE vil sikre at erfaringene fra Airbornes tverrfaglige samarbeid vil kunne brukes inn i videre og utvidet samarbeid mellom kinesiske og norske forskere på tvers av disipliner.

This project takes "air" (kongqi) as its focal point of departure. Air carries pollutants and climate gasses that impact people's health and result in climate change, and therefore also trigger both fears and new anticipations of the future. Human energy consumption is at the root of global warming. At the same time, human agency is both a response and the source of solutions to the global challenge. In the context of China - the world's largest energy consuming state - Airborne studies how people's experiences and imaginaries of the impact of air pollution transform into new visions of sustainability and creative forms of action. Through three carefully designed interdisciplinary case studies, Airborne will answer the question of how, and to which extent, Communist authorities, scientists, rural/urban inhabitants, and environmental organizations interact in responding to the inseparable risks of air pollution in China and global climate change. In sum, the cases produce new empirical knowledge of China's path towards sustainability by highlighting the deep conflicts of interests that are vested in this endeavor. Theoretically this will generate new understandings of both the limits and possibilities of human creativity in the face of global environmental risks, as experienced within a politically authoritarian state with undisputed importance for global climate change. Airborne's three case studies require new forms of cooperation across the disciplines of sinology, anthropology, media science, political science, and environmental chemistry. All cases are based on fieldwork and other forms of data collection in China or on Chinese internet: Case 1: The Interface between Air Pollution Science and People Case 2: Central PM Pollution Policy Goes Local Case 3: The Class and Gender of Individual Air Pollution Exposure

Publications from Cristin

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FRISAM2-FRIPRO forskerprosjekt, samfunnsvitenskap

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