Another Picture From China

Juliana explains the RESOLVE approach to public participation in China.

A picture from China

A Chinese land use legal scholar and public interest lawyer,
Lisa Bova-Hiatt (New York City Law Department) and me
Juliana Birkhoff

Juliana's China Trip - Update 2

An anthropology professor of mine once explained that culture shock proceeds through several phases:

1. Oh, My! What's This?
   In the first phase you experience surprise, physical disorientation, and a strong emotional sense of how different are people's behaviour, language, appearance, and the surroundings.
   
2. We're Just the Same!
   The second phase is characterized by recognition that we are all exactly the same. The differences that in phase one jumped out at you now seem trivial as our common experiences and goals come to the foreground.
3. They Are Totally Different!
   In the third phase you begin to understand the beliefs, perceptions, and world views of the other culture. You realize that they are seeing and experiencing the world differently.
4. Integration
   Finally culture shock subsides as you synthesize your reactions into some kind of understanding.

---

By the end of the delegation's visit to Shanghai, I realized that I have entered into stage two of culture shock. My struggles with chopsticks, food, language, and rituals are fading. I'm recognizing similar challenges and approaches for North Americans and Chinese.

In Shanghai, the delegation met with senior Chinese Communist party leaders, Shanghai city planners, law professors, housing administrators, and homeowners associations. Shanghai is growing and changing at an incredible pace. There are cranes, literally, on every block. Historic buildings are being demolished and new offices and malls replace them. Single story and mid level substandard housing is making way for skyscraper apartment buildings.

Shanghai leaders have developed impressive public participation processes. However just as in the U.S. and Canada they face challenges to early, meaningful, and efficient public participation. How do you involve people early in comprehensive planning when plans are large scale and conceptual? How do you move from public recommendations on for comprehensive plans to local development? What do you do with public input that focuses on past issues? Or people who won't participate because they are waiting for a better or separate deal?

I've been impressed with the strong commitment to transparency and participation. On the other hand I worry about the incredible scale, scope, and pace of development and redevelopment. How can people have a meaningful impact on the plans and projects that affect their lives?

Globalization, population growth, rural to urban migration, and environmental degradation are large forces. Can citizens provide input and make recommendations that really improve their living conditions? Or do people have to trust that for the most part government agencies
are trying to take care of health, education, and housing needs? How can governments involve citizens to efficiently address in common economic, social, and environmental problems?

As we move from Shanghai to Xian I am hoping to learn more from our Chinese hosts and to share our public participation experiences. I'm also hoping to discover the real differences in beliefs, behaviours, and ideas. I'm hoping in Xian I move into phase three of culture shock -- deepening my learning about public participation and land use in China.

Juliana Birkhoff

Juliana's China Trip - Update 1

Land use and Public Participation in China

I landed in Shanghai on Saturday after a long flight. I am one of four prople in a land use and public participation delegation in China. We are here to present workshops, meet and discuss issues, and visit important land use sites.

The public participation project was organized by The National Committe on U.S. China relations. The National Committee is a private, non partisan, non profit organization dedicated to exchange, education, and shared learning. Our delegation includes a law expert in condemnation, an expert in public participation fr a public agency, and an expert in land use law. I'll talk more about them later.

Our route to China took us over Maine, Qurbec, Northern Canada, Northern Russia, Mongolia, and down to Shanghai. My last night in Washington was a blur of approving invoices and monthly reports, sending off meeting summaries for finished projects, draft agendas for meetings in September, and proposals to support a climate change project and a forestry collaborative. So it is not surprising that as I looked out my plane window I tried to imagine what the land look like, what the demographic changes would be, and what people below would be doing in a future shaped by different climate. Flying up the rocky Eastern North American coast I tried to see the storms, rising sea levels, and warmer weather. How would people in the resource dependent economies below respond? As we crossed over snow and ice I pictured inland seas, lakes, rock. And little towns in warmer inland areas.

Then my imagination failed me as we flew over Irkutz and Ulan Batar. I realized that I couldn't fantasize their new globally changed life without some vague idea of their lives now.

We flew for hours then over Mongolia without seeing any sign of villages, fields, or roads. My eyes closed and I fell asleep wondering how global climate change would affect the dry rocky terrain below me. I woke up over China seeing dams, towns, fields, and factories. My global change visions faded as my excitement grew. Global climate change is just the latest challenge. Human beings create a wide variety of economic, natural resource management, and social systems. I hope to hear some new ways to think about our challenges and my work. I also hope that my knowledge, skills, and experiences are helpful to my Chinese hosts as they address social, enonomic, and ecological challenges.

Juliana Birkhoff

Juliana's Going to China!

Juliana Birkhoff, RESOLVE's Vice President of Programs and Practice, will be visiting China as part of a delegation to discuss land use and public participation. She'll be leaving September 4 and will be returning September 16.

While in China, Juliana will be blogging about her experiences.