Ecological States

Ecological States examines ecological policies in the People's Republic of China to show how campaigns of scientifically based environmental protection transform nature and society. While many point to China's ecological civilization programs as a new paradigm for global environmental governance, Jesse Rodenbiker argues that ecological redlining extends the reach of the authoritarian state.

Although Chinese urban sustainability initiatives have driven millions of citizens from their land and housing, Rodenbiker shows that these migrants are not passive subjects of state policy. Instead, they creatively navigate resettlement processes in pursuit of their own benefit. However, their resistance is limited by varied forms of state-backed infrastructural violence.

Through extensive fieldwork with scientists, urban planners, and everyday citizens in southwestern China, Ecological States exposes the ways in which the scientific logics and practices fundamental to China's green urbanization have solidified state power and contributed to dispossession and social inequality.

With support from the Henry Luce Foundation, our goal is to produce all titles in this series both in Open Access, for reasons of global accessibility and equity, as well as in print editions.

Jesse Rodenbiker is Associate Research Scholar at Princeton University with the Center on Contemporary China at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and Assistant Teaching Professor at Rutgers University with the Department of Geography.

Rodenbiker's Ecological States brings to the forefront, through rich ethnographic work and nuanced theoretical engagement, another crucial aspect of state-led processes of urban transformation: China's ecological turn.

A beautifully written scholarly monograph, the book is an important addition to the rapidly growing environmental social science literature on contemporary China.

The book provides valuable insights into the environmental politics of contemporary urban China. Rodenbiker demonstrates a solid understanding of the unique political, administrative, and social systems in China and presents them in a clear manner that is accessible to readers unfamiliar with the Chinese context.

Rodenbiker's study is both timely and urgent, as Xi Jinping cements what appears to be indefinite rule over the country and maintains the ecological civilization campaign as a centerpiece of his Beautiful China vision. In this sense, Ecological States is a window into current and future Chinese governance.

Ecological States is a must read for those concerned about environmentalism, sustainability, urbanization, and governance.

Anna L. Ahlers, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science:

Ecological States is significant, innovative, and groundbreaking. Jesse Rodenbiker combines insightful ethnographic detail with ambitious theorizing and interpretation of science and policy interfaces in the Chinese political system, drawing connections to topics of global relevance.

Emily Yeh, University of Colorado, author of Taming Tibet:

Ecological States masterfully illuminates how ecology has become instrumental to state power and urbanization in China. Jesse Rodenbiker chronicles the counter-conduct of those facing involuntary resettlement, which has been legitimated in the name of aestheticized eco-development. Essential reading for understanding governance through ecological zoning in China and beyond.