Explaining the sustained public participation of ENGOs in China’s water governance: a case study of the ‘civilian river chiefs’ under the theoretical framework of ‘double embeddedness’

ABSTRACT

Although essential to successful environmental governance, public participation has been sporadic and fragmented in China. Drawing on in-depth interviews conducted in the southern Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou, this paper explores how environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) have carried out ‘civilian river chiefs’ projects as novel approaches to water governance. We propose a framework of ‘double embeddedness’, within which ENGOs have built political and social legitimacy, reciprocity, and networks that enable their sustained participation in water governance. Our findings suggest that new patterns of state–community–non-governmental organization relationships are key to understanding public participation in China’s future environmental governance.

KEYWORDS:

• Public participation
• environmental non-governmental organization
• sustainability
• water governance
• river chiefs
• China

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all the informants who participated in this research. Special thanks also go to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Development Project of Guangdong Academy of Sciences [grant number 2020GDASYL-20200102002]; the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 42130712]; the National Social Science Fund of China [grant number 19CZZ027]; and the Colleges Special Innovation Project of Guangdong [grant number 2021WTSCX079].