Environmental Actions in China Campus Environmental Clubs

Abstract

China campus environmental clubs are college student clubs committed to the mission of environmental protection. In the past three decades, their environmental actions have made important contributions as part of China’s environmental movement. However, they are also under heavy influence from both the higher education context and Chinese environmentalism. What features describe the context of China campus environmental clubs? What environmental actions are they taking today? This study addresses these questions based on the records from online club networks and field data from two summer club camps. The findings summarize the features of China campus environmental clubs and describe their “lost environmental actions”--the feelings of ambiguity, of deviation from expectations, and of loss of quality among club members regarding their actions. This study fills the gap in literature on environmental actions of China’s young generations, as well as contributes to our understanding of environmental action more broadly. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“_______”——______________________________________________________________