The Evolution of Urban Environmental Governance Networks: Evidence from China

Kai Wang (), Huiqing Han and Chunyan Tan
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Kai Wang: School of Economics and Management, Guizhou Institute of Technology, Huaxi University Town, Guiyang 550025, China
Huiqing Han: College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Guizhou Institute of Technology, Guiyang 550025, China
Chunyan Tan: Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang 550006, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 14, 1-18

Abstract: Urban environmental issues are fundamental to ecological civilization development, with key stakeholders such as governments, enterprises, social organizations, and community residents playing crucial roles in the governance process. From a network governance perspective, this study innovatively applied social network analysis (SNA) to policy co-occurrence networks, analyzing over 2300 policy documents related to China’s urban environmental governance from 2017 to 2023 to investigate evolutionary trends. The key findings indicate the following. (1) The comparative analysis across two periods reveals that China’s urban environmental governance network structure has stabilized, with both network density and centralization indices showing an upward trend. (2) The degree of centrality and betweenness centrality shows that government agencies remain the core entities within the network, while the role and influence of business enterprises have steadily increased. (3) The participation of social organizations in governance continues to increase, but community public participation in governance is insufficient. Therefore, China’s ecological environment governance network has formed a network structure with the government as the leader, enterprises as the key role, and social organizations providing effective support.

Keywords: governance network; policy texts; social network analysis; stakeholders; urban environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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