Network Analysis of Actors and Policy Keywords for Sustainable Environmental Governance: Focusing on Chinese Environmental Policy

Dan Zhang, Fan Fan and Sang Do Park
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Dan Zhang: School of International Business Management, Woosong University, 171, Dongdaejeon-ro, Dong-gu, Daejeon 34606, Korea
Fan Fan: School of International Business Management, Woosong University, 171, Dongdaejeon-ro, Dong-gu, Daejeon 34606, Korea
Sang Do Park: Department of Global Business, Konkuk University, 120, Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 05029, Korea

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 15, 1-29

Abstract: Environmental issues are viewed as a serious problem with a complex network structure involving various stakeholders. Environmental governance is considered the most reasonable way to promote environmental policy, and it is an important mechanism contributing to the sustainable development of society. Through the network analysis of actor and policy keywords, this study demonstrated whether environmental governance policies are being pursued through the cooperation of various participants in China, the epicenter of global environmental issues. We collected text big data from 2001 to 2018 under the theme of “environmental policy” on the main online portal web in China. Through text mining, key actors and policy keywords were selected according to the timing of environmental policy promotion, and network analysis and core-periphery analysis were conducted based on this actor/keywords data set. The results of this study are as follows. First, China’s environmental policy is a rudimentary governance cooperation structure, and the central and local governments are still the main policy-promoting actors. Second, the fundamental solution of the environmental problem through readjustment of the environment-related system and industrial restructuring has become the keyword for China’s implementation of environmental policy at present. Third, there were certain words, such as social, public, enterprise, and institution, in the aspects of environmental governance, while these words failed to be at the center of multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) analysis for the actors. This result shows that environmental governance and network are still at an early stage and that the Chinese government’s strong power lies in its environmental policy. Based on these results, policy recommendations are presented.

Keywords: environmental governance; China’s environmental policy; text-mining; network analysis; core-periphery analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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