Tianbao, Qin; Huanhuan, Wang --- "Environmental E-governance in China: Insights from Government-citizen Interaction" [2012] ELECD 270; in Martin, Paul; Zhiping, Li; Tianbao, Qin; Du Plessis, Anel; Le Bouthillier, Yves; Williams, Angela (eds), "Environmental Governance and Sustainability" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Environmental Governance and Sustainability

Editor(s): Martin, Paul; Zhiping, Li; Tianbao, Qin; Du Plessis, Anel; Le Bouthillier, Yves; Williams, Angela

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781000472

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Environmental E-governance in China: Insights from Government-citizen Interaction

Author(s): Tianbao, Qin; Huanhuan, Wang

Number of pages: 21

Extract:

7. Environmental e-governance in China:
insights from government-citizen
interaction1
Qin Tianbao2 and Wang Huanhuan3

7.1 INTRODUCTION
In what has been labeled the "Information Age", information, predominantly
through the Internet and other Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs), is widely and ever freely produced, disseminated and accessible. This,
in turn, has had major impacts at the social, economic, cultural and political
levels as was anticipated long ago by John Dewey: "Our modern state-unity is
due to the consequences of technology employed so as to facilitate the rapid
and easy circulation of opinions and information, as so as to generate constant
and intricate interaction far beyond the limits of face-to-face communities ...
The elimination of distance, at the base of which are physical agencies, has
called into being the new form of political association" (Dewey (1946), pp.
114­15). Indeed, the impacts of ICTs can be found in almost every realm of
modern society with the advent of so many "electronic things" such as e-
commerce, e-governance, and e-government.
Environmental governance is also changing as a result of the Information
Age. A new environmental governance mode based on ICTs, defined later in
this chapter as environmental electronic governance (EEG), is emerging.
Many leading countries have pioneered the use of ICTs in varied aspects of
environmental governance. For instance, in their decision-making processes,
the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Forest
Service have both used the Internet as a major channel to solicit ...