In the Taipei City University 2024 USR Environmental Sustainability Lecture Series, we were honored to invite Dr. Chen Liangyu, an assistant professor in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at Yuanze University, to share his fieldwork experience in the field of climate governance in China. Dr. Chen holds a PhD in human geography, planning and international development studies from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and is an author in the Journal of Chinese Governance" has published research on local climate governance in China. His education and research background provide him with the ability to deeply understand and analyze complex policy issues, especially in the Chinese context of climate change policy, a global challenge. Dr. Chen's speech covered the basic concepts of climate change policy and sustainable governance, and then launched a discussion on China's current situation in this regard. He introduced in detail how he conducted research with experts as the focus and raised several research questions. For example, what types of knowledge do policymakers need at different levels of governance to formulate or implement policies, and the roles that experts play in China’s climate policy process at different levels. Next, Dr. Chen shared the methods he used in researching China's climate policy, including document analysis and in-depth interviews. His fieldwork experience is rich, from participating in international climate conferences to field interviews in Beijing and Guangzhou, involving a wide range of networks and various institutions. During this process, he faced multiple anxieties, such as poor communication with interviewees, differences in policy understanding, and how to effectively integrate the collected information into his research. His experience highlights the uncertainties and challenges of fieldwork nature, but also reveals unique insights into conducting research in a political environment like China. Finally, Dr. Chen summarized his experiences and reflections, emphasized that the accumulation of fieldwork is non-linear, and discussed how The dual identities of Taiwanese/international students conducting fieldwork in China. He also conducted verification research on triangulation. Significance in the data is illustrated. The entire presentation provides an insight into conducting fieldwork in China, while delving into the international and local dimensions of climate change policy. Through Dr. Chen's personal experience, the audience was able to understand the complexity and multi-dimensional considerations when conducting climate governance research.

Implemented by Center for Teaching and Learning Development
Date: 2024/03/29