The struggle for sustainability in rural China - Bryan Tilt

Though China's economy is projected to become the world's largest within the next twenty years, industrial pollution threatens both the health of the country's citizens and the natural resources on which their economy depends. Capturing the consequences of this reality, Bryan Tilt conducts an in-depth, ethnographic study of Futian Township, a rural community reeling from pollution.

The industrial township is located in the populous southwestern province of Sichuan. Three local factories-a zinc smelter, a coking plant, and a coal-washing plant-produce air and water pollution that far exceeds the standards set by the World Health Organization and China's Ministry of Environmental Protection. Interviewing state and company officials, factory workers, farmers, and scientists, Tilt shows how residents cope with this pollution and how they view its effects on health and economic growth. Striking at the heart of the community's environmental values, he explores the intersection between civil society and environmental policy, weighing the tradeoffs between protection and economic growth. Tilt ultimately finds that the residents are quite concerned about pollution, and he investigates the various strategies they use to fight it. His study unravels the complexity of sustainable development within a rapidly changing nation.

Bryan Tilt is assistant professor of anthropology at Oregon State University. His research focuses on economic development and environmental protection in China, and he has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

Tilt's remarkable... timely book, which offers a major contribution to the study of China and environmental governance in the developing world.
The China Journal - Anna Lora-Wainwright

An interesting and illuminating book for scholars who wish to understand the present ecological situation in rural China and the daily conflict between values and actions that confront the local governments and citizens of China.
China Quarterly - Li Ying

An important addition to environmental studies of China.
H-Environment - Yan Gao

Struggle for Sustainability has something important to offer a wide audience...its manageable rendering of technical and scientific industrial production and pollution measurement reaches the nonenvironmental specialist; and its lucid prose and compelling ethnographic evidence have the potential to attract a lay readership beyond the environs of academia.
American Anthropologist - Jennifer Hubbert