Alana Boland, University of Toronto

In much of the scholarship on urban environmental governance in China, understanding the logics and effects of state power has been a central concern. Of late, there has been increasing reference to an emergent eco-developmental state to explain the greening of Chinese cities. This framing can risk narrowing our analysis of urban natures, while also obscuring the historical antecedents of the 'new' eco-developmental state. This talk explores theories of state-environment relations specific to China's urban context, with a focus on interpretative frames and associated questions of method. I draw on illustrative cases to highlight how political economic processes, questions of scale, and incentive structures have served as explanatory factors to understand the state's role in China's green urban futures.