Grassroots practice of environmental planning: Enabling community actions toward local environmental sustainability in Taiwan (China).

摘要

Grassroots environmental actions have become an important mechanism for communities and citizens around the world to address threats to their environment. In many developing and newly industrialized countries (NICs), the grassroots actions often occur in stark contrast to the modernization paradigm and the technocratic environmental planning model transplanted from the industrialized countries. However, while environmental planning in the U.S. has increasingly focused on collaborative planning and consensus building, the theory and practice of environmental planning in developing countries and NICs remain technocratic and lack consideration of local social and political processes. Understanding grassroots environmental actions, particularly what actions local communities are using to influence planning process, could provide insights for improving environmental planning practice in grassroots communities and regions.; This study examines two recent grassroots environmental movements in Taiwan—the Meinung Anti-dam Movement and the Chiku Anti-Binnan Movement. In both cases, the local communities and citizens have successfully delayed adverse development projects and initiated planning for environmental sustainability. The study addresses two main questions: (1) what types of actions have the communities and citizens undertaken to effectively participate and influence the planning process and its outcome? (2) What are the implications of these actions for reshaping environmental planning theories and practice in contexts similar to Taiwan? Based on a converging set of planning and social movement theories, the study proposes a framework of social, intellectual and political actions for examining the characteristics and functions of grassroots actions. Based on field interviews, observations and secondary data, the study argues that the three interconnected sets of actions have enabled the local communities and citizens to effectively participate in the planning process and influence its outcome. Specifically, the actions included building of organizations and networks, construction of discourses, issue framing, engagement in political processes, and structuring and exploitation of political opportunities. Based on these findings, the study outlines a framework of grassroots practice for environmental planning. By providing mechanisms for community mobilization, social-ecological learning and strengthening of discursive democracy, this alternative practice should help citizens in disadvantaged communities overcome institutional, social and political constraints in pursuing local environmental sustainability at the grassroots.