Miss Dan Lin - University of Sheffield

Personal Information

Country: United Kingdom

City: Sheffield

Nationality: Chinese

Research Interests

General Research Interests:

I’m interested in the politics of local economic development, urban environmental policy and politics. I’m also interested in the relationship between the physical and social dimensions of the urban environment.

PhD/Postdoctoral Research Title: Nature Conservation Management in China-A Case Study in a Rapid Growth Industrial Area, Shenzhen

PhD/Postdoctoral Research Abstract::

The primary aim of this research is to explore how decisions are being taken about the planning and management of ecological conservation areas in China. There are a number of reasons for choosing this topic. One set of influences comes from theoretical debates about the politics of conservation management. Another set of influences relates to the specific context for conservation management in China, including: (a) increased pressure on ecological areas due to rapid urban development; (b) increased attention to ecological concerns, and especially to the protection of natural areas, in China; and (c) evidence of a distinctively ‘Chinese’ approach to the philosophy of society-nature relations in the past. Contemporary ecological protection policy in China is thus interesting from both a theoretical and polical perspective. The theoretically informed approach to conservation management is drew together into a set of research questions that need to be empirically tested, they are: what are those crucial issues that are emerging from management process? Who are involved in the process of decision-making around the issues mentioned-above, with what kind of value positions? How those different social actors and their value positions are involved and compete for ecological resources by power struggles in the conservation management process?

A critical realism position on conservation management helps to show how social actors across a broader spatial scales and social division might be involved in the decision-making process of conservation management, and how their particular social value positions towards nature may be used to justify different conservation management options. Using qualitative research method, a case study of the Dapeng Peninsula in Shenzhen is conducted. The Shenzhen ‘Special Economic Zone’ (SEZ) is China's first ‘special economic zone’ (SEZ) which has grown up at an amazing speed. Its astonishing developing speed, however, has brought about sharp contradictions between development and resource conservation. Being as the long-preserved ecological area for Shenzhen, Dapeng peninsula is now becoming the focus of increasing social, culture and political debates. Data is collected from the followings sources: (1) Documents – both official and non-official documents. The official documents included the governmental publications as well as the governmental files, which are, of necessity, selected based on their relevance and availability. Non-official documents, like those that research reports, novels, diaries, memories, newspaper etc., are reviewed; (2) Observation (3) Interviews – semi-structured interviews, group interviews with selected participants and open-ended interviews.

Curriculum Vita: Download