116 Janice Hua Xu
more effective than expert knowledge, when facing environmental problems; thus
questions remain about the role that local people and researchers might play in the
monitoring process (Hambly 1996).
Some researchers suggest that CBM is mostly likely to appear in economically
advantaged countries that have “higher standards of living and an age and/or class
structure that assures an adequate supply of potential volunteers” (Pfeffer and
Wagenet 2007, p. 235). As a form of community science, defined as an interaction
between professionals and lay people (Carr 2004), in developed countries it is
contributing to the democratization of environmental decision making by offering
avenues for citizens to make meaningful inputs into environmental management.
On the other hand, CBM activities can be understood in the framework of
grassroots environmental action, which refers to the ways ordinary people
participate in the management of their environment, including a wide range
of actions people take on the local level to manage and protect their natural
resources, with the potential to help reverse, arrest, or prevent environmental
decline (Ghai and Vivian 2014). In Asian countries without a liberal democracy,
environmentalist activities initiated at the grassroots level can occur when they
are motivated, encouraged, and supported by outside actors such as the state or
international organizations. They can also occur in situations where the people
must “formulate their plans and conduct their activities in spite of the neglect,
resistance or even active opposition of external forces” (Ghai and Vivian 2014, p.
1). In many cases, grassroots movement organizations have a choice with regard
to the modes through which they engage the state—“bypassing, challenging,
pressuring, and supporting the state” (Breyman 1993, p. 147).
As a CBM case with wide influence, Chinese urban citizen air quality
monitoring activities from 2011 to 2012 attempted to variously bypass, challenge,
and pressure the state due to a sense of its lack of transparency or accuracy on
PM2.5. In this context, this chapter poses a number of questions and discusses
the issues they raise: What are the communication mechanisms of involving
citizens to volunteer in monitoring activities? What is the relationship of CBM
with state environmental agencies? Can citizen-collected data be used not only for
environmental awareness raising but also to promote policy change?
Grassroots environmental monitoring in China
CBM relies on the consistent efforts of volunteers with green awareness,
including attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions, in order to understand the nature
and source of environmental problems. Scholars found in a comparative study
that there is a reasonably coherent sense of generalized environmental awareness
among Chinese citizens similar to that found with North American respondents,
especially among well-educated urban residents (Xiao, Dunlap, and Hong
2013). Among China’s environmentalists, there is a shared identity—a sense of
socio-environmental responsibility, a combination of social responsibilities and
environmental care (Xie 2011)—which is related to the tradition of Chinese
intellectuals being concerned about the fate of the nation and its people. Among