Häyhä, Laura. China’s Economic, Environmental and Social Development in Crossfire –
Province-specific Analysis of China’s Ecological Modernization and Sustainability. Master
thesis. Autumn 2014. Supervisor: Pertti Jokivuori. Sociology. University of Jyväskylä.
Pages 89 + 1 appendix.
This study concentrated to examine ecological modernization process and sustainability of
Chinese provinces. The examination focused on the differences between the westernmost
and the easternmost China. Data of Chinese Statistical Yearbook was used during the years
2001–2010. Analyses were implemented with SPSS 20. and Excel 2010. Among general
statistical analysis, Principal Component Analysis and a relatively new sustainability
window analysis were carried out in this study.
The new sustainability method was used to determine the minimum (socially sustainable)
and maximum (environmentally sustainable) economic growth level in certain sociotechno-
economic production system. Among sustaina
bility analysis of the provinces, other
purpose of the study was to test the sustainability window assessment tool at provincial
level (earlier applied at national comparisons).
Sustainability assessment was done for 25 provinces, which were located in the
westernmost and the easternmost China. The sustainability assessment concentrated to
study changes in socio-techno-economic production systems of each provinces. The
method can produce three different outputs of analysed regions: socially and
environmentally sustainable regions; only socially sustainable, but environmentally
unsustainable regions; socially and environmentally unsustainable regions. The method
aimed to examine ecological modernization process of provinces and this meant that three
dimensions of sustainable development (economic, environmental, socio-cultural) were
taken into account in the analyses. In practice, the analyses were implemented by using
GDP as economic dimension, SO2 emissions to illustrate environmental dimension, and
composite indicator of social well-being (consisted of private owned vehicles, employment
and literacy) reflecting socio-cultural dimension of sustainable development. The
composite indicator was built based on the analysis of the Principal Component Analysis.
Main results can be divided into three different categories: the easternmost provinces with
sustainability window and actual economic growth in side of the window (totally
sustainable regions), the easternmost provinces with sustainability window and economic
growth outside of it (only socially sustainable regions), and the westernmost provinces
without sustainability window (unsustainable regions). As a summary, the first group of
division had relatively succeeded ecological modernization process and, their sociotechno-
economic production systems were able to change into sustainable. In the second
group, ecological modernization process succeeded to change tracks of socio-technoeconomic
production systems towards sustainable direction, but efficiency the systems
weren't enough for sustainable economic growth. The third group of provinces had very
inefficient socio-techno-economic production systems, and the whole structure of the
system wasn't proper for sustainable economic growth.
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