A Spark in the Smokestacks: Environmental Organizing in Beijing Middle-Class Communities

In the 2000s, environmental organizing in Beijing emerged in new gated residential communities, where first-time homeowners faced waste incinerator projects. Jean Yen-chun Lin's book "A Spark in the Smokestacks" demonstrates how a rising middle class acquires the capacity for organizing in an authoritarian context, creating civic life through everyday associational activities and developing citizen science-based tactics to interact with government agencies. Although only one of the three incinerator projects was ultimately canceled, some communities established durable organizations that went on to tackle other environmental problems. Lin's book casts urban Chinese communities as "schools of democracy" where residents learn civic skills and build capacity for collective organizing.

Format: Hardback
Length: 344 pages
Publication date: 29 August 2023
Publisher: Columbia University Press

Environmental organizing in Beijing emerged in an unlikely place in the 2000s: new gated residential communities. After rapid population growth and housing construction led to a ballooning trash problem and overflowing landfills, many first-time homeowners found their new neighborhoods facing an unappetizing prospect—waste incinerator projects slated for their backyards.

Delving into the online and offline conversations of communities affected by the proposed incinerators, A Spark in the Smokestacks demonstrates how a rising middle class acquires the capacity for organizing in an authoritarian context. Jean Yen-chun Lin examines how urban residents create civic life through everyday associational activities—learning to defend property rights, fostering participation, and mobilizing to address housing-related grievances. She shows that homeowners cultivated petitioning skills, informational networks, and community leadership, which they would later deploy against incinerator projects. To interact with government agencies, they developed citizen science-based tactics, a middle-class alternative to disruptive protests. Homeowners drew on their professional connections, expertise, and fundraising capabilities to produce reports that boosted their legitimacy in city-level dialogue. Although only one of the three incinerator projects Lin follows was ultimately canceled, some communities established durable organizations that went on to tackle other environmental problems.

Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and ethnography, A Spark in the Smokestacks casts urban Chinese communities as “schools of democracy,” in which residents learn civic skills and build capacity for collective organizing. Through compelling case studies of local activism, this book sheds new light on the ways in which ordinary citizens can challenge powerful institutions and shape the urban environment.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231194501