NIMBY-place Crisis

With the advancement of global energy utilization,the deepening of China’s urbanization process,the continuous deterioration of the ecological environment and the gradual growing of civil society,the NIMBY(not in my back yard)movements have become nonnegligible crisis phenomena which have threaten China’s urban development and social stability,and brought significant challenges for the construction of “harmonious China” and modern national governance.Since China’s economy has entered into the “new normal” stage,a number of heavy chemical cities and resource-dependent cities have stepped into a period of deep adjustment in industrial structure.The social-economic structure and interest pattern have been continuously broken,and the relationship of "community-industry-ecological environment" has been reshaped.Environmental protests,conflicts of interest and local development dilemmas are intertwined together,forming a new crisis phenomenon,being called “Place Crisis”.This paper proposes the concept of “NIMBY-Place” crisis,aiming to explore the evolution of NIMBY crisis and the process and mechanism of NIMBY’s being “embedded” in Place Crisis.From the interdisciplinary perspectives of social psychology,risk sociology and cultural geography,this paper explains the evolution process and mechanism of the complex social and economic phenomena of the “NIMBY-Place” crisis,though establishing a holistic analysis framework.Finally,policy implications of integrated governance are proposed.The main work and conclusions are as follows:(1)The evolution mechanism of NIMBY crisis.Firstly,we establish a “structure-situation-action” framework.Basing on the case of “Protesting against Asuwei Waste Incineration Project” and grounded theory method,we investigate the evolution process of the NIMBY movement and analyze the action logic and strategy of the government and protestors,by which we provide an integral analysis.Secondly,we examine quantitatively the causal relationships between risk perception,trust,fairness and anti-incinerator sentiment.Finally,by constructing the theory of “risk chain” of NIMBY,we proposes that there is an evolutionary track of risk,namely “real risk-perceived risk-social stability risk-public crisis” in NIMBY crisis.(2)The process and mechanism of NIMBY movement’s being embedded into “Place Crisis”.Basing on the case of “Protest against Botian Chemical Community and Local Transformation”,at first,we examine quantitatively a phenomenon of “risk tolerance” ——why do communities get along with risk facilities?——and find that place attachment and employment relationships can significantly alleviate the risk perception and reduce willingness to protest,improving the social acceptance of the NIMBY facilities;Secondly,under the structural tension of external emergencies,we examine the whole process of risk “variation”——why the community’s attitude transforms from tolerance to resistance,finally resulting in long-term “ripple effects” ?——and then analyze the formation process of place crisis.The study finds that although place attachment can “shrink” the risk of social stability,sudden accidents have rapidly intensified risk perception with strong external thrust,resulting in a sharp amplification of social risks and long-term “ripple effects”.The disorderly “exiting” and “transferring” of the NIMBY-related industry from cities,the failing of industrial succession and upgrading,the people’s livelihood problems and other social problems have caused complicated dilemmas in local transformation and formed a new form of “place crisis”.(3)The overall governance of the “NIMBY-Place” crisis.On the one hand,this paper proposes a series of governance strategies,such as reforming underlying institutional restricts,implementing effective risk communication and public participation mechanisms,and adopting various governance tools,to build positive institutional trust,mitigate the risk perception of the public,and eliminate the risks of social stability.On the other hand,the paper concludes that,through actively integrating emergency management into long-term mechanism,promoting industry leadership and driving,fostering a positive and stable attachment to place,the place will leapfrog the development traps and develop into harmonious “ industry-city-human” relationships.