TY - THES A1 - Gohli, Hannes T1 - 'Protect the Environment, Build the Homeland' - A Study of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco City's Measures for Citizens to Act in an Environmentally Sustainable Fashion T1 - 'Beschützt die Umwelt, Baut das Vaterland': Eine Studie zu Bürgerinitiativen der Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco City zur Förderung einer nachhaltigen Konsumgesellschaft N2 - In order to achieve objectives of sustainable development, the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco City has devised a set of Key Performance Indicators, which require the collaboration of regional government and industrial entities, but also residents to be accomplished. Through qualitative interviews with eco citizens, this study offers an insight into life in an eco city and how aware residents are of their new home’s targets and incentives. The thesis investigates, how the eco city encourages residents, who have often never received adequate environmental education, to recycle and adapt their purchasing behaviour. The findings reveal the existence of several technical measures, practical incentive schemes and dissemination techniques that encourage residents to act according to environmental considerations. However, residents are often unaware of the numerical targets or do not make the connection between incentive and intended behaviour. The study highlights possibilities for improvement, in order to enhance residents’ understanding of the eco city’s objectives. After all, without resident participation and understanding, the Key Performance Indicators may be unattainable and the eco city’s eventual economic, social and environmental success in jeopardy. N2 - Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht, basierend auf acht qualitativ-ausgewerteten Interviews die Motivation der Bürger einer Chinesischen Eco City in diese neuartige, auf Nachhaltigkeit hinzielende Siedlung zu ziehen und ob nach dem Umzug eine spürbare Veränderung im Konsumverhalten auf Grund der örtlichen Anreizsysteme zu verspüren war. Die Resultate zeigen, dass trotz technisch ausgeklügelter und in China einzigartigen Maßnahmen in der Wiederverwertung, Elektrizitätsgewinnung und Konsumsteuerung, die Bürger noch zu wenig in die Ziele der Eco City mit eingebunden werden und deshalb oft über potentielle Vorteile einer umweltfreundlichen Lebensweise in der Stadt nicht informiert sind. KW - Green Consumer Behaviour KW - Eco Cities KW - Qualitative Research KW - China Studies KW - Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco City KW - Key Performance Indicators KW - Green Purchasing Behaviour KW - Incentives KW - Qualitative Study Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-206607 ER - TY - THES A1 - Hauser, Anna Si-Lu T1 - A comparative approach to local organisation of the energy transition N2 - In recent years, numerous renewable energy cities were established worldwide, piloting different pathways to transition to clean energy. With the ability to address local needs more precisely in their unique geographic, social and economic contexts, cities play a vital role in implementing overall climate mitigation goals on the local level. In China, many renewable energy cities have emerged as well. However, official documents suggest that Chinese government authorities establish such renewable energy cities strategically, which leads to the assumption that the impulse to become renewable is different from other countries, where bottom-up initiatives are more common. Hence, this thesis explores answer to the question why and how the Chinese government promotes the energy transition of Chinese cities and regions. To explore the dynamics of local energy transition projects, this thesis adopts two frameworks from the field of sustainability transitions, the multi-level perspective and strategic niche management, and applies them to seven European and two Chinese case studies. The European sample includes the cities Graz, Güssing, Freiburg, and Helsinki as well as the communities Feldheim, Jühnde and Murau. The Chinese sample consists of the bottom-up initiative Shaanxi Sunflower Project and the demonstration project Tongli New Energy Town. A comparative analysis evaluates in how far the cases correspond to the multi-level perspective or strategic niche management. The comparison of the case studies reveals that the development of renewable energy cities in China goes beyond a top-down vs. bottom-up logic. In the Chinese context, strategic niche management should be understood as experimentation under hierarchy, which serves at pretesting different approaches before rolling them out nationwide. In addition, the analysis shows that both the multi-level perspective and strategic niche management have their advantages and disadvantages for niche development. Niches following the logic of the multi-level perspective may result in higher stakeholder acceptance, whereas strategic niche management can in turn accelerate niche development. However, since natural niche development cannot be steered intentionally, decision-makers who intend to induce local renewable energy projects have no other option but to resort to strategic niche management. To increase stakeholder acceptance and thus to improve the project outcome, decision-makers are advised to accommodate sufficient room for stakeholder participation in the project design. KW - China KW - multi-level perspective KW - strategic niche management KW - energy transition KW - top down KW - bottom up Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-202109 ER -