Environmental Advocacy in East Asia

―A New Policy Network Model―

October 18, 2018 6:00 PM (finished)


Mary Alice Haddad

(Wesleyan University)

Date/Time October 18, 2018 6:00 PM
Location Room 549 5th floor, Akamon Sogo Kenkyuto Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo  [map]
Abstract East Asia is hostile to environmental advocacy. It is home to developmentalist, pro-business governments, not all of which are democratic. It has few professional advocacy organizations, and weak Green parties. And yet, Japan has been a leader in emission standards for decades, China has recently become the world’s largest producer of photovoltaic panels, and Korea and Taiwan have both embarked on major green initiatives that involve not just green business development but also new national parks, widespread energy conservation, and comprehensive recycling efforts. This presentation will lay out new evidence showing that activists across East Asia, indeed across the world, utilize a relatively small number of strategies (e.g., make a friend on the inside, make it work for business, make it work locally, contribute to education, art, and radical innovation) that are particularly successfully in achieving pro-environmental behavior change among governments, businesses, and citizens. The presentation will develop a new model of how networks influence policymaking to explain why these strategies are particularly effective.
Bio Mary Alice Haddad is a Professor of Government, East Asian Studies, and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University. Her publications include/Building Democracy in Japan/ (Cambridge 2012), /Politics and Volunteering in Japan: A Global Perspective/ (Cambridge 2007), and /NIMBY is Beautiful: Cases of Local Activism and Environmental Innovation Around the World/, co-edited with Carol Hager (Berghahn Books, 2015), and articles in journals such as /Comparative Political Studies, Democratization, Journal of Asian Studies, /and /Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly./ She has received numerous grants and fellowships from organizations such as the Institute of International Education (Fulbright), the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, the Japan Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, and the East Asian Institute. She is currently a visiting scholar at the Universities Service Centre for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, working on a book about environmental politics in East Asia.