Dr. Ran RAN is currently an associate professor of political science at Renmin University of China. Her research interests are in Comparative Environmental Politics, Decentralization and Chinese Politics. She earned the Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2009 and in 2009-10 she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Southern California. Dr. Ran’s publications have appeared in Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, China Quarterly, Journal of Cleaner Production, among others. Her book published in 2015 systematically examined the paradox of the Environmental Policy Implementation Gap through the framework of “environmental authoritarianism.” Dr. Ran was selected as one of the seven “2020 Chinese Highly Cited Researcher in Political Science” by Elsevier in 2021. Dr. Ran was selected as one of the “Chinese Highly Cited Researcher in Political Science” by Elsevier in 2020 and 2021.
EDUCATION
• Ph.D. summa cum laude Duisburg- Essen University, Germany. July 2009.
Dissertation: “Environmental Politics at Local Levels in China: Explaining Policy Implementation Gap and Assessing the Implications”.
• M.A. Renmin University of China. July 2004.
Master thesis: “The Political Logics of Land Claim and Housing Demolition: Case Study of an E&T Developmental Zone in Y City” (in Chinese).
• B.A. Renmin University of China. July 2002.
Working Experience
• September 2015 – now, Associate Professor, School of International Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing.
• Sep.2010 – Sep.2015 Assistant Professor, School of International Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing.
• August 2009 -- June 2010, Postdoctoral Fellow, US-China Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
MAIN RESEARCH AREAS
• Environmental Politics and Policy • Public Policy Analysis
• Comparative Environmental Politics • Decentralization and Local Governance in China
PUBLICATIONS (selected)
Dissertation: “Environmental Politics at Local Levels in China: Explaining Policy Implementation Gap and Assessing the Implications”, Duisburg-Essen University, Germany. July 2009.
Book: Local Environmental Politics in China: The Gap between Policy and Its Implementation, Beijing: CCTP, 2015 (in Chinese)
Journal Article (selected)
• When Collaborative Water Governance Meets Authoritarian Environmentalism: The Dilemma of Safe Water Supply Project in Coal Mining Villages of China’s Shanxi Province. Sustainability 2022, 14, 1277. (With JianYan and Rongrong Li)
• “Environmental Governance and Political Legitimacy: Case Study of Beijing’s Coal to Gas (Electricity) Project”, Comparative Economic &Social Systems, No.4, 2021 (in Chinese).
• “When Transparency Meets Accountability: How the Fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic Became a Blame Game in Wuhan”, The China Review, Vol.21. No.1, 2021. (With Jian Yan)
• “The Mystery of China’s Glorious Green Dreams”, Issues in Science and Technology, 37(1), 2020.
• “Legitimacy and Environmental Governance: Research Agenda, Paradigm and Resources”, Journal of Theoretical Trends, No.11, 2019 (in Chinese).
• “Understanding Blame Politics in China’s Decentralized System of Environmental Governance: Actors, Strategies and Context”, China Quarterly , Vol.231, 2017.
• “Deliberative Democracy and the “Giddens Paradox” of Global Climate Change Governance”,
Contemporary World and Socialism, No.4, 2016, (in Chinese).
• “Environmental Governance and Democratic Transition: The Environmental Movement in Soviet Union and East European Communist Countries”, Journal of Theoretical Trends, No.4, 2015, (in Chinese).
• “Moral incentive, Party Disciplining and the Local Environmental Policy Implementation Gap”, Comparative Economic &Social Systems, No.2, 2015 (in Chinese).
• “Regional Restriction on Environmental Impact Assessment Approval in China: The Legitimacy of Environmental Authoritarianism”, Journal of Cleaner Production, No.92, 2015 (with Xiao Zhu, Lei Zhang and Arthur Mol).
• “Regime Type and Environmental Governance Performance”, Journal of Theoretical Trends, No. 5, 2014 (in Chinese).
• “Perverse Incentive Structure and Policy Implementation Gap in China’s Local Environmental Politics”, Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 2013, 15:1.
• “Political Incentives and Local Environmental Governance under a ‘Pressurized System’”, Comparative Economic &Social Systems, No.3, 2013 (in Chinese).
Book Chapter
• “Introduction to Environmental Politics”, In Keping Yu eds, Frontiers in Political Science. Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2022 (forthcoming).
• “Perverse Incentive Structure and Policy Implementation Gap in China’s Local Environmental Politics”, In Genia Kostka and Arthur Mol eds, Local Environmental Politics in China: Challenges and Innovations. London: Routledge, 2014.
Conference Paper (selected)
• “Environmental Nationalism and Sino-US Environmental and Climate Diplomacy”, US-China Young Scholar’s Forum, Carter Center, Atlanta, January. 2018.
• “Blame and Central-Local relations in China’s environmental politics”, Workshop on “Environmental Health Challenges to China’s Rise”, Council on Foreign Relations, New York Nov. 2016.
• “Consuming Environmentalism: Why and How Was Environmentalism Selected as the Ideology of Environmental Protests in Urban China? Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2016 Annual Conference, Seattle, March 2016.
• “Decentralization Discourse and Legitimacy Construction in China’s Environmental Politics”, “workshop on China Environmental Governance”, Brown University, March 2015.
• “Dreaming for Clean Environment: The Role of Political Discourse in China’s Environmental Politics”, Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2014 Annual Conference, Philadelphia , March 2014.
• “Policy Architecture of ‘State-in-Society’: Eco-System Governance in India and China”, VII Annual International Conference on Public Policy and Management, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India, August 2012 (with Sony Pellissery and Biju Abraham).
• “Perverse Incentive Structure and Policy Implementation Gap in China’s Local Environmental Politics”, Association for Asian Studies (AAS ) 2012 Annual Conference, Toronto, March 2012.
• “Analysis Local Environmental Policies Implementation Gap and Its implications in China”, Paper accepted and presented at the International Conference of “Implementation on Environmental Policies in Urban and Rural China”, Mülheim, Germany, May 2010.
• “Is Environmental Policies Implementation Failures in China Challenging Security and Party-State Legitimacy?”, paper presented at the Nordic Association for China Studies 9th Annul Meeting “China’s Economy, Environment and Education”. Iceland University, June 2009.
• “System, Incentive Structure and Environmental Policies Implementation Gap at Local Levels of China: Case Study in Three Cities”, paper presented at the 5th Annual Graduate Seminar on China, Hong Kong Chinese University, January 2009.
TEACHING
Introduction to Environmental Politics Introduction to Comparative Politics
Introduction to Public Administration Environmental Politics and Governance
Introductions to Contemporary Chinese Government and Politics
Introduction to Political Science
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
• September 2015 – now, Associate Professor, School of International Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing.
• 2011, Research Associate, Project on “The Governance of Climate Change: Prospects for a Regional Initiative”, Hills Governance Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies, Washington, DC.
• Sep.2010 – Sep.2015 Assistant Professor, School of International Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing.
• August 2009 -- June 2010, Postdoctoral Fellow, US-China Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
• 2006 – 2009 Research Assistant, Project on “Administrative Reform in Germany and China (2): Decentralized Policies in the Domain of Environmental Policies”, Duisburg-Essen University, Germany.
• 2004- current Research Fellow, Project on “Local Government governance & Innovations in China”, China Center for Comparative Politics & Economics.
Peer Review
Invited peer reviewer for: Environmental Politics, Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning
Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, China Quarterly, China Journal, Asian Survey, Journal of Asian Studies, Society and Natural Resources, Local Environment, International review of Administrative Science, Journal of Development Studies, Urban Policy and Research, Modern China, Review of Policy Research, Public Management Review, Ecological Economics, Public Administration Review (in Chinese), Comparative Economic & Social Systems (in Chinese), Journal of Nanjing Forestry University (in Chinese)
Media
Opinion Pieces
• “How to revise the centralization vs. decentralization dichotomy in China’s local environmental politics study”, Chinese Social Sciences Today, Nov. 21, 2015 (in Chinese).
• “Anti-pollution like anti-corruption? ”, Southern Weekly, Sep. 7, 2016 (in Chinese).
• “Public participation and water governance”, China Environment, Nov. 23, 2016 (in Chinese).
Media Interview
• Democracy and Rule of Law Time, “Environmental governance and local political elites”, July 7, 2017 (in Chinese).
• Associated Press, “Revamped environmental law raises hope for cleanup in China”, March 13, 2015.
• Los Angeles Times, “China's battle plans in war on air pollution under scrutiny”, Sep.10, 2014.
Honors and Awards
• April 2021, “2020 Chinese Highly Cited Researcher in Political Science” by Elsevier.
• June 2010, “2010 Best Dissertation Award”, Duisburg-Essen University.
• 2009-2010 Postdoctoral fellowship, US-China Institute, University of Southern California.
• March 2009, “2008 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Students Abroad”, China Scholarship Council.
• 2006-2009, Graduate students fellowship, Haniel Foundation, Germany.
Languages
English (working languages) Chinese (native languages) German (fluent)
