Beyond high carbon society

Kuei Tien Chou; Kuei Tien Chou

doi:10.3934/energy.2016.2.313

AIMS Energy

2016, Volume 4, Issue 2: 313-330. doi: 10.3934/energy.2016.2.313

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Beyond high carbon society

Kuei Tien Chou ^,

Director of Risk Society and Policy Research Center, Social Science College, National Taiwan University No.1, Sec. 4 Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10167, Taiwan

Received: 30 December 2015 Accepted: 01 March 2016 Published: 11 March 2016

In the past two decades, despite seemingly violating its policy of sustainable development, the government of Taiwan has continued to develop its petrochemical industry. As a result of which public resistance has emerged. This study examines the social robustness and sub-politics capacity of the movement against Kuo Kuang Petrochemical Corp. from 2010 to 2011. Among the various civil groups engaged in the movement, the anti-expert coalition was formed by local environmental, literary and medical groups as well as universities and university professors. These groups mobilized independently, while supporting one another; leading to a multi-risk movement coalition. One significant difference between this anti-expert coalition and past environmental movements was that it not only constructed systematic risk knowledge and resisted official discourse from a professional perspective, but also developed perceptual literary thought, triggering a response from the general public. Therefore, no matter whether it be through systematic, rational participation in the environmental assessment process, proposing socio-economic assessment and health risk paths or their more perceptual initiation of green thought processes (generation justice, land subsidence, good and agriculture safety and the sustainability of villages) and methods of promoting civil trust, the sub-political pluralism has been able to break through authoritative expert politics, and seek for a dynamic reflexive governance of social sustainable development.
- sub-politics,
- socially robust knowledge,
- high carbon emission,
- reflexive governance,
- participatory paths
Citation: Kuei Tien Chou. Beyond high carbon society[J]. AIMS Energy, 2016, 4(2): 313-330. doi: 10.3934/energy.2016.2.313

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Abstract

In the past two decades, despite seemingly violating its policy of sustainable development, the government of Taiwan has continued to develop its petrochemical industry. As a result of which public resistance has emerged. This study examines the social robustness and sub-politics capacity of the movement against Kuo Kuang Petrochemical Corp. from 2010 to 2011. Among the various civil groups engaged in the movement, the anti-expert coalition was formed by local environmental, literary and medical groups as well as universities and university professors. These groups mobilized independently, while supporting one another; leading to a multi-risk movement coalition. One significant difference between this anti-expert coalition and past environmental movements was that it not only constructed systematic risk knowledge and resisted official discourse from a professional perspective, but also developed perceptual literary thought, triggering a response from the general public. Therefore, no matter whether it be through systematic, rational participation in the environmental assessment process, proposing socio-economic assessment and health risk paths or their more perceptual initiation of green thought processes (generation justice, land subsidence, good and agriculture safety and the sustainability of villages) and methods of promoting civil trust, the sub-political pluralism has been able to break through authoritative expert politics, and seek for a dynamic reflexive governance of social sustainable development.

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