Abstract:

The existing literature on environmental governance have mostly examined interactions between and strategies of different actors, with a particular focus on power relations between the state and environmental groups. However, few have investigated the spatial characteristics of power deployed in the process of territorial construction and their practical impacts. Based on a decade-long water conservation project conducted by an international environmental group, this paper demonstrates evolving community-based strategies for territorial construction and how the process of territorialization influences the formats, scope and effectiveness of environmental governance. The findings suggest that: (1) the environmental group adopted differentiated strategies in dealing with different levels of governments and constructed a relatively independent territory for conservation activities, but the autonomy and independence also created a barrier between the environmental group and the village that restricted further development of the project; (2) the environmental group adjusted its strategies by integrating into a local social network which expanded the territorial scope at the cost of autonomy and independence; (3) the environmental group chose to nurture a local grassroot group as a proxy to maintain its influence in the community due to its organizational values and resource constraints, but the proxy was unable to operate as a result of territorial reconstruction that reduced autonomy and independence, thus limiting the scope and effectiveness of public participation. From the perspective of territorial construction, this paper explains characteristics of environmental governance and the development of an environmental group and offers new insights into the relationships between the state, the environmental group and communities.

Key words: territory, environmental politics, environmental organization, power, community

摘要：

现有的环境政治文献多关注环境治理中多元主体之间的互动和策略，尤其是国家与环保组织之间的权力关系，但对权力在空间上的领域特征及其实践影响探讨不足。通过对一个国际环保组织乡村水资源保育项目的田野观察，分析了该组织近十年社区领域建构的策略演化，并探讨动态的领域化过程如何影响环境治理的形式、范围和效果。研究发现：（1）环保组织通过与不同层级政府建立差异化联系，能够在农村社区中建构相对独立的社会领域，自主开展环保活动，但与农村社区之间的隔离也限制了环保项目进一步发展的空间；（2）环保组织通过融入本土社会关系网络的策略调整，重新建构了更具流动性、融合性的社会领域，为项目发展提供了新的动力；（3）面对长期的资源挑战，环保组织通过培育本土组织来保持自身在社区“飞地”的长期影响，但“代理人”在融合后的新领域空间内却难以再维持独立性和专业性，从而制约了公众参与环保的范围和效果。通过动态的领域化过程及其影响，解释了环境治理和环保组织发展的规律，为认识国家-环保组织-社区之间的关系提供了新视角。

关键词: 领域, 环境政治, 环保组织, 权力, 社区