Scottish Centre for China Research

Abstract: The delineation and interaction of property rights between the state and society provide an important theoretical perspective for explaining environmental protection and resource development. Based on a case study of Lake W, this study approaches the issue from the perspective of property rights and proposes a dual property-rights framework in which state ownership and community ownership coexist. By describing the divergent positions, powers, and behavioral orientations of different property-rights actors regarding the same environmental resource, the study analyzes the paradox between environmental protection and resource development in western China. Over a long period of production and development, Lake W has formed a pattern characterized by state ownership of resources and community possession and use. Since the beginning of the 21st century, facing severe eutrophication and pollution of the lake, the local government has launched lake management initiatives dominated by environmental protection, while ignoring the community residents’ demands for resources development and participation in environmental protection. This has led to a series of social problems and undermined the effectiveness of lake management efforts.

Short Bio: Chai Ling is an Associate Professor and Deputy Chair of the Department of Sociology at the School of Ethnology and Sociology, Minzu University of China. She is now a visiting scholar of the School of Social and Political Sciences in the University of Glasgow. Her main research areas include environmental sociology and ethnic sociology. She has published multiple academic papers in leading domestic and international journals such as Xinhua Digest, Sociological Studies, and Ethno-National Studies, and has authored two academic monographs. She has led several research projects funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China and the Beijing Social Science Foundation. She concurrently serves as an executive council member of the Environmental Sociology Committee of the Chinese Sociological Association.