Doomed to Suffer in Silence? Living with Pollution in Industrialized Rural China

 
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China’s rapid emergence as an economic power over the past quarter century has been accompanied by growing concerns over environmental impacts, particularly in terms of pollution. Food safety scandals, large-scale pollution accidents, and widespread, persistent and routine pollution feature regularly in the media, both within China and beyond it. Rural villagers in China have a sophisticated awareness of the risks they face. Yet over time they learned they cannot demand an end to pollution and that concerns with health effects are not a productive focus for their demands.

DOI: doi.org/10.5282/rcc/6341