Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Conclusion
h is topic situates sustainability discourses in Shanghai as a particularly
signifi cant case study of ideological formations of the “environment” in a
specifi c place at a particular moment. I have used a multimethodological
analysis that takes diff erent spatial and temporal scales into account in
understanding what happened on Chongming Island, at Dongtan, in the
suburbs, and at the world expo in Shanghai in the latter half of the fi rst dec-
ade of what has been called the coming “Chinese Century.” At the same time
that I argue that my case study is unique and exceptional, I also suggest that
the failures of imagination that animated Dongtan and the other cases are all
too prominent outside of the Shanghai and Chinese context.
h e methodological approach taken in this study contests those tenden-
cies to see the “environment” as a thing fi xed in time and space, but rather
to see “environments” through multiple lenses—from above, below, and
sideways and in the past, present, and future simultaneously. Rather that
fi xate on an “environmental good” or any single eco-city to rescue society
from the specter of climate change—a fantasy island of ecological virtue, in
other words—we need accounts of multiple environmentalisms. h ese mul-
tiple environmentalisms look diff erent, situated in particular ecological and
