Sustainability, space and supply chains: The role of bamboo

What is it about?

One rural county that vividly illustrates both the challenges and opportunities of rural development is Anji in Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Anji is held up as a model of rural sustainable development. In this paper we analyse the basis for the sustainability claims made of Anji and to do so, we examine how the production and processing of bamboo materials transformed Anji into a place-specific bamboo-making locality that is lauded for its sustainability.

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Why is it important?

We analyse how thinking on a place and a material (bamboo) come together to reinforce thinking on sustainability in rural China. We then go on to critically question the politico-economic arrangements that construct Anji and bamboo as models of sustainability. We argue that whilst both Anji and bamboo do have notable features that characterise them as sustainable and together can make an even more persuasive case for rural sustainability, a more detailed analysis allows us to uncover the deep-rooted tensions that persist in Chinese rural development between environmental protection and economic growth.

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