All Climate Events

Wednesday, November 7, 2018. 12:30 PM. The Changing Organizational Landscape of Energy and Climate Change International NGOs in China.  Rachael Shwom, Rutgers University.  Sponsored by Department of Human Ecology.  More information.

In institutional theory, an organization’s legitimacy in its institutional field influences its ability to successfully achieve its mission. International NGOs working on climate and energy in China face the unique challenge of maintaining legitimacy for two sets of institutional expectations: Chinese society and the international community. The expectations of Chinese society for international NGOs has changed with a series of regulatory reforms from 2014 to 2018. This talk will first describe these regulatory changes and how it has changed the landscape for international NGOs working on energy and climate change. The talk will then report on interviews conducted in spring 2018 with these international NGOs in China to provide insight on how they are making sense of these changes and responding to maintain their legitimacy and effectively pursue their energy and climate change goals.

Rachael has a PhD in Sociology and specialization in Environmental Science and Policy from Michigan State University and a Masters in Environmental Management from Duke University. She is interested in how different groups of people in society make sense of and respond to energy and climate change problems. She understands these processes as not just technological or economic processes, but inherently social and political processes. She is particularly focused on the role of civil society, such as environmental groups and the public in general and how they perceive and act to remedy climate change. Rachael has studied public opinion on climate change, non-profits decisions to partner with business to address energy issues, household energy consumption, long term risk governance, and risk communication. She uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to study these issues including surveys, social network analysis, and semi-structured interviews.