Ecological States: Politics of Sustainable Urbanization in China
China's recent central state mandate to transform 20% of urban land into urban ecological protection areas precipitated one of the largest urban-agrarian transformation on earth. My first book project, Ecological States: Politics of Sustainable Urbanization in China, traces the roots of environmental land classification policies through the global interconnections of China's premier ecologists. These ecologists shaped the state's green modernization campaigns, which are collectively referred to as "ecological civilization building." Alongside this environmental genealogy, I illustrate how comprehensive urban-rural planning, emerging from this modernization platform, extends the reach of the municipal state through green governance relations that intersect with state-private interests. Uneven valuations of village land and housing shape the politics of displacement and livelihood transition for villagers incorporated into urban conservation projects. This project is based on mixed methods and multi-sited research in three cities of Southwest China from 2014-2018 that included government officials, environmental scientists, villagers, resettlement complex migrants, and archives. This research has been supported by the Chiang-Ching Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, the Fulbright Association, the Institute for International Studies, and the Social Science Research Council, among others. I maintain ongoing research collaborations related to this project with Sichuan University's School of Public Administration and Land Resources.
Publications Related to this Project:
Book
Jesse Rodenbiker. (Forthcoming, 2023). Ecological States: Politics of Science and Nature in Urbanizing China. Ithaca, NY. Cornell University Press.
Peer Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters
Jesse Rodenbiker. Making Ecology Developmental: China's Environmental Sciences and Green Modernization in Global Context. (2021) Annals of the American Association of Geographers. doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2020.1863766.
Jesse Rodenbiker. Adapting Visual Participatory Research Methods for Reflexive Environmental Management. (2021). Qualitative Research. doi.org/10.1177/1468794121990966
Runqiu Liu, Jian Jiang, Chao Yu, Jesse Rodenbiker, and Yongmu Jiang. The Endowment Effect Accompanying Villagers' Withdrawal from Rural Homesteads: Field Evidence from Chengdu, China (2021) Land use Policy. 105107.
Jesse Rodenbiker. Urban Ecological Enclosures: Conservation Planning, Peri-urban Displacement, and Local State Formations in China. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. (2020). 44(4), 691-710
Jesse Rodenbiker. Sustainability as Environmental Justice: Uneven Inclusion into China's Ecological Cities. (2020) Olivier Krischer and Luigi Tomba (Eds). Shades of Green: Notes on China's Eco-Civilisation. (Made in China Notebooks 1).
Jesse Rodenbiker. Uneven Incorporation: Volumetric Transitions in Peri-urban China's Conservation Zones. Geoforum. (2019): 104, 234-243 (Elsevier Student Paper Award)
Jesse Rodenbiker. Superscribing Sustainability: The Production of China's Urban Waterscapes. Upland: Journal of Urban Planning, Landscape, and Environmental Design. (2017) 2.3, 71-86
Jesse Rodenbiker. A Political Ecology of Conservation Planning in Municipal Regions. in preparation for Fulong Wu and Fangzhu Zhang (Eds.) Handbook on China's Urban Environmental Governance. London. Edward Elgar Press.
Urban Oceans: Consumption, Conservation, Contested Sovereignties
China is the world's largest producer and consumer of seafood, with its Southern cities in particular cycling distant water catches from around the world. My second book project, Urban Oceans: Consumption, Conservation, Contested Sovereignties, traces the global reach of China's urban demand for highly valued and endangered oceanic life. In the wake of campaigns to limit consumption of shark fins in China, the consumption of fish maw, a dried fish organ from large species valued for medicinal, beautifying, and nutrient properties, has risen drastically. To elucidate the global interconnections of urban China with the ocean, I trace the sprawling contours of tastes, sovereignty, and environmental governance surrounding ocean wildlife. My research links upper-class palettes of urban China with global trading networks, labor on the high seas and U.S. Mid-Atlantic fisheries, and politics of taste in New York City. Urban Oceans will demonstrate that crucial aspects of sustainable urban development lie in intimate urban relationships that span the world's oceans. In doing so, I redefine the "urban" while centering China at the heart of global ocean governance and sustainable futures. For this project, I have partnered with WWF Hong Kong and the Therkildsen Conservation Genomics and Molecular Ecology Lab at Cornell University. Additionally, I created the Sustainable Maritime China Lab at Cornell University, which provides opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in research.
Publications Related to this Project:
Jesse Rodenbiker. Urban Oceans: Social Differentiation in the City and the Sea. 2022. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. DOI: 10.1177/25148486221078690
Jesse Rodenbiker. Hope for Vaquita Lies with Consumers. China Dialogue Oceans. 2020 (8) 6.
(republished in The Maritime Executive)
Jesse Rodenbiker. China's Global Reach: Urban Social Lives of the More-than-Human. Society and Space, 2020.
Max Woodworth, Xuefei Ren, Jesse Rodenbiker, Ettori Santi, Yining Tan, Li Zhang, and Yu Zhou . Researching China During the Covid-19 Pandemic. (Forthcoming) Book Chapter in COVID-19 and Emerging World of ad-hoc Geographies. Springer Publishing Stanley Brunn, Editor.
Jesse Rodenbiker. The Global Shark Fin Trade in Local Contexts: Hong Kong Markets and U.S. Mid-Atlantic Artisanal Fisheries. in preparation for Global Environmental Change
Jesse Rodenbiker. Green Silk Roads. Belt and Road Infrastructures in East Africa and Global Environmental Governance Futures. Under Review. Under Review
Global China and Asian Studies
I have a longstanding interest in the ways that area, place, and space come to be constituted historically and through daily practices, particularly in relation to global China. In 2018, I co-convened an interdisciplinary conference including scholars across the social science and humanities on themes related to area studies broadly and Asian studies. The description of the conference asked:
What is Asia? Since the evolution of Asian Studies out of its singular post-war focus on defining and understanding alterity, the field has grappled with this central question through an array of analytical frames: the nation-state, identity, culture, belief systems, economies, flows, and connectivity. This conference seeks to move area studies forward, beyond these analytic containers that have been used to explain how Asia comes to be constituted. To do so, the panels explore novel approaches to Placing Asia through place projections, temporalities, events, space, and professionalism.
Scholars who participated in this conference collectively engaged with a wide array of research materials that transected interdisciplinary and theoretical debates in effort to broaden the possibilities for how Asia can be studied and understood in global and regional contexts.
Publications Related to this Project:
Jesse Rodenbiker. Making Ecology Developmental: China's Environmental Sciences and Green Modernization in Global Context. (2021) Annals of the American Association of Geographers. doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2020.1863766.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2015). Towards an Emancipatory Anthropocene: Climate Change and Everyday Life. 迈向解放的 “人类世”—气候变化与你的选择. Human and Nature. 人与自然 (2015) (11).11-17
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2015). Globalizing Hexigtan: Spatial Anomalies of Making a Global Geopark. 全球化进程中的克什克腾: 打造世界地质公园的空间特殊性. Human and Nature. 人与自然 September, (2015) (9) 22-27
Jesse Rodenbiker. Green Silk Roads. Belt and Road Infrastructures in East Africa and Global Environmental Governance Futures. Under Review.
Jesse Rodenbiker. The Global Shark Fin Trade in Local Contexts: Hong Kong Markets and U.S. Mid-Atlantic Artisanal Fisheries. in preparation for Global Environmental Change
I have a longstanding interest in the ways that area, place, and space come to be constituted historically and through daily practices, particularly in relation to global China. In 2018, I co-convened an interdisciplinary conference including scholars across the social science and humanities on themes related to area studies broadly and Asian studies. The description of the conference asked:
What is Asia? Since the evolution of Asian Studies out of its singular post-war focus on defining and understanding alterity, the field has grappled with this central question through an array of analytical frames: the nation-state, identity, culture, belief systems, economies, flows, and connectivity. This conference seeks to move area studies forward, beyond these analytic containers that have been used to explain how Asia comes to be constituted. To do so, the panels explore novel approaches to Placing Asia through place projections, temporalities, events, space, and professionalism.
Scholars who participated in this conference collectively engaged with a wide array of research materials that transected interdisciplinary and theoretical debates in effort to broaden the possibilities for how Asia can be studied and understood in global and regional contexts.
Publications Related to this Project:
Jesse Rodenbiker. Making Ecology Developmental: China's Environmental Sciences and Green Modernization in Global Context. (2021) Annals of the American Association of Geographers. doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2020.1863766.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2015). Towards an Emancipatory Anthropocene: Climate Change and Everyday Life. 迈向解放的 “人类世”—气候变化与你的选择. Human and Nature. 人与自然 (2015) (11).11-17
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2015). Globalizing Hexigtan: Spatial Anomalies of Making a Global Geopark. 全球化进程中的克什克腾: 打造世界地质公园的空间特殊性. Human and Nature. 人与自然 September, (2015) (9) 22-27
Jesse Rodenbiker. Green Silk Roads. Belt and Road Infrastructures in East Africa and Global Environmental Governance Futures. Under Review.
Jesse Rodenbiker. The Global Shark Fin Trade in Local Contexts: Hong Kong Markets and U.S. Mid-Atlantic Artisanal Fisheries. in preparation for Global Environmental Change
