Airborne: Pollution, Climate Change, and Visions of Sustainability in China (completed)
How did people’s experiences and fears of air pollution transform into new visions of sustainability and creative forms of action?

In 2013, people concerned with air pollution provided statues in Beijing University with face masks. Photo: Weibo.
雾与霾:空气污染与中国可持续发展的新愿景
About the project
Airborne studied human dimensions of air pollution in China in a historical perspective.
Airborne started from the assumption that people’s experiences and imaginaries of the impact of air pollution are in the process of transforming into entirely new visions of sustainability and creative forms of action in China, the world’s largest energy consuming state.
We explored how political authorities, industry, scientists, population and media interaedct in responding to the inseparable risks of air pollution in China and global climate change.
Case studies
Airborne was organized in three interdisciplinary cases where sub-studies were carried out in smaller research teams with scholars from the disciplines of anthropology, political science, chemistry, media science, and sinology.
The Interface between Air Pollution Science and People
This case explored Chinese medie discourses and education of air pollution in a historical perspective.
China's Air Pollution Control Policy Goes Local
This case investigated how China’s newly launched and highly prioritised 'PM2.5 air pollution prevention' policy was implemented locally.
The Class and Gender of Individual Air Pollution Exposure
This case explored if and how gender and social class determine critical differences in levels of exposure to air pollutants, and in people’s ways of making sense of and reacting to pollution.
Objectives
The project has conducted a historically grounded and future-oriented study into how popular experiences and scientifically produced knowledge of air pollution and climate change lead to new and creative mitigation policies and expectations of sustainable lifestyles in China.
Financing
Airborne had funding from:
- The Research Council of Norway (FRIPRO) for 4 years (from March 2015).
- Centre for Advanced Study (Senter for grunnforskning) for 11 months (August 2016 - July 2017).
- The Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Studies, University of Oslo.
- The research program UiO: Energy, University of Oslo.
- Zhejiang University
Project period
From March 1st 2015 to February 28th 2019.
Cooperation
The project's main partner institution in China was the Institute of Anthropology at Zhejiang University.
Phd and postdoc projects
- Yongdong Shen:Local Government-Society Interactions in Air Quality Protection Politics in China
- Erling H. Agøy: Historical Climate Change in the Jiāngnán Region in the Late Míng and Early Qīng Periods
- Edwin A. Schmitt: Catalysis of a Social Disaster: An Institutional History of the Energy Sector in China
- Hedda Flatø: Polluted Perspectives: Environmental Troubles and Popular Opinion in China
- Hans Henrik Moe: Breathing in the Anthropocene: Air Pollution, Teleological Thinking and Parallel Narratives
Airborne in the media
- Khrono, July 17th 2018
- UNIFORUM, May 5th 2018
- UNIFORUM, April 6th 2018
- Studio 2, September 27th 2017
- Morgenbladet, September 20th 2017
- Ekko, June 8th 2017
- forskning.no, June 4th 2017
- Vårt Land, January 4th 2017
- Energi og Klima, June 15th 2016
- APOLLON, April 2016
- KLIMA (CICERO), March 1st 2016
- Dagsavisen, February 26th 2016
- UiO, June 26th 2015
- Ny Tid, March 25th 2015
- Dagens Næringsliv, March 4th 2015
Publications
-
Aunan, Kristin; Hansen, Mette Halskov; Liu, Zhaohui & Wang, Shuxiao (2019). The Hidden Hazard of Household Air Pollution in Rural China. Environmental Science and Policy. ISSN 1462-9011. 93(March), p. 27–33. doi: 10.1016/j.envsci.2018.12.004. Full text in Research Archive
-
Svarverud, Rune (2019). Genealogy of Chinese Perceptions of “Polluted Air”: Conceptual Change and the Terminological Landscape of Air Pollution in Modern China. 東亞觀念史集刊. ISSN 2303-9205. 17. Show summary
-
Ahlers, Anna Lisa & Shen, Yongdong (2019). Blue Sky Fabrication in China: Science-Policy Integration in Air Pollution Regulation Campaigns for Mega-Events. Environmental Science and Policy. ISSN 1462-9011. 94, p. 135–142. doi: 10.1016/j.envsci.2018.12.005. Full text in Research Archive
-
Hu, Ruolan; Wang, Shuxiao; Aunan, Kristin; Zhao, M.J.; Chen, L. & Liu, Zhaohui [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2019). Personal exposure to PM2.5 in Chinese rural households in the Yangtze River Delta. Indoor Air: International Journal of Indoor Environment and Health. ISSN 0905-6947. 29(3), p. 403–412. doi: 10.1111/ina.12537. Full text in Research Archive
-
Aunan, Kristin; Hansen, Mette Halskov & Wang, Shuxiao (2018). Introduction: Air Pollution in China. The China Quarterly. ISSN 0305-7410. 234, p. 279–298. doi: 10.1017/S0305741017001369. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
-
Aunan, Kristin; Ma, Qiao; Lund, Marianne Tronstad & Wang, Shuxiao (2018). Population-weighted exposure to PM 2.5 pollution in China: An integrated approach. Environment International. ISSN 0160-4120. 120, p. 111–120. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.07.042. Show summary
-
Ahlers, Anna Lisa & Shen, Yongdong (2018). Local Environmental Governance Innovation in China: Staging ‘Triangular Dialogues’ for Industrial Air Pollution Control . Journal of Chinese Governance. ISSN 2381-2346. 3(3), p. 351–369. doi: 10.1080/23812346.2018.1486347. Full text in Research Archive
-
Svarverud, Rune (2018). Ventilation for the Nation: Fresh Air, Sunshine, and the Warfare on Germs in China's National Quest for Hygienic Modernity, 1849-1949. Environment and History. ISSN 0967-3407. doi: 10.3197/096734018X15254461646558. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
-
Li, Hongtao & Svarverud, Rune (2018). When London Hit the Headlines: Historical Analogy and the Chinese Media Discourse on Air Pollution. The China Quarterly. ISSN 0305-7410. 234, p. 357–376. doi: 10.1017/S0305741017001400. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
-
Hansen, Mette Halskov & Liu, Zhaohui (2018). Air Pollution and Grassroots Echoes of “Ecological Civilization” in Rural China. The China Quarterly. ISSN 0305-7410. 234(June), p. 320–339. doi: 10.1017/S0305741017001394. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
-
Zhao, Bin; Zheng, Haotian; Wang, Shuxiao; Smith, Kirk R.; Lu, Xi & Aunan, Kristin [Show all 14 contributors for this article] (2018). Change in household fuels dominates the decrease in PM2.5 exposure and premature mortality in China in 2005–2015. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. ISSN 0027-8424. 115(49), p. 12401–12406. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1812955115.
-
Hansen, Mette Halskov; Li, Hongtao & Svarverud, Rune (2018). Ecological civilization: Interpreting the Chinese past, projecting the global future. Global Environmental Change. ISSN 0959-3780. 53(November), p. 195–203. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.09.014. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
-
Hansen, Mette Halskov & Ahlers, Anna Lisa (2017). Air Pollution: How Will China Win its Self-Declared War Against it? In Sternfeld, Eva (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Environmental Policy in China. Routledge. ISSN 1138831115. Full text in Research Archive
-
Ahlers, Anna Lisa & Shen, Yongdong (2017). Breathe Easy? Local Nuances of Authoritarian Environmentalism in China's Battle against Air Pollution. The China Quarterly. ISSN 0305-7410. 234, p. 299–319. doi: 10.1017/S0305741017001370. Full text in Research Archive
-
Svarverud, Rune (2014). The Terminological Battle for 'Air' in Modern China. Wakumon. ISSN 1345-9899. 26, p. 23–44. Full text in Research Archive
-
Hansen, Mette Halskov; Svarverud, Rune & Ahlers, Anna Lisa (2020). The Great Smog of China: A Short Event History of Air Pollution. Association for Asian Studies. ISBN 9780924304927. 184 p. Show summary
-
Hansen, Mette Halskov & Liu, Zhaohui (2018). A Window on the Sky: Chinese and Foreign Scholars Discuss the Atmospheric Environment and Its Governance. Zhejiang University Press. ISBN 978-7-308-18125-9. 193 p.
-
Hansen, Mette Halskov (2019). Imagining Eco-Civilization and Protesting Air Pollution in China.
-
Hansen, Mette Halskov (2019). Luftforurensning som game changer i Kina.
-
Hansen, Mette Halskov (2019). The hidden hazards of air pollution in China: The gender and class of household air pollution.
-
Hansen, Mette Halskov (2019). Kina - vår verden.
-
Svarverud, Rune (2019). Programpost om miljø og klima i Kina. [Radio]. Radio Nova.
-
Flatø, Hedda (2019). Studio 2, P2: Kinesiske holdninger til klima og luftforurensning. [Radio]. NRK Radio.
-
Hansen, Mette Halskov (2019). Miljø i grisens år.
-
Svarverud, Rune (2019). Air pollution before air pollution: Smoke nuisance, fresh air and dust in the air before air pollution became an issue in China.
-
Flatø, Hedda (2019). Polluted perspectives: Perceived air quality, economic well-being and trust in China’s local governments.
-
Ahlers, Anna Lisa (2018). Let a blue sky shine again: Air pollution governance in the German Ruhr area. In Hansen, Mette Halskov & Liu, Zhaohui (Ed.), A Window on the Sky: Chinese and Foreign Scholars Discuss the Atmospheric Environment and Its Governance. Zhejiang University Press. ISSN 978-7-308-18125-9. p. 133–145.
-
Flatø, Hedda (2018). Risk, inequality and popular demand for government environmental protection in China.
-
Flatø, Hedda (2018). Class, air pollution and air quality awareness in China.
-
Ahlers, Anna Lisa & Shen, Yongdong (2018). Policies and actions for air pollution control in Chinese cities. In Hansen, Mette Halskov & Liu, Zhaohui (Ed.), A Window on the Sky: Chinese and Foreign Scholars Discuss the Atmospheric Environment and Its Governance. Zhejiang University Press. ISSN 978-7-308-18125-9. p. 146–154.
-
Aunan, Kristin (2018). Exposure matters: Integrated Population-Weighted Exposure as a metric for cost-effective and equitable air pollution abatement.
-
Aunan, Kristin & Wang, Shuxiao (2017). The role of household energy for population exposure and equitable air pollution policies.
-
Ahlers, Anna Lisa (2017). Something’s in the air as environment becomes new battleground for China’s cadres. [Newspaper]. South China Morning Post.
-
Aunan, Kristin (2017). China's 'Airpocalypse'. Impacts on human health and current efforts to reduce air pollution .
-
Ahlers, Anna Lisa (2017). invited book review - "Ma Jun, 'The Economics of Air Pollution in China: Achieving Better and Cleaner Growth', New York: Columbia University Press, 2017". The China Quarterly. ISSN 0305-7410. p. 814–815. doi: 10.1017/S0305741017001138.
-
Aunan, Kristin & Wang, Shuxiao (2016). Air pollution in China. Concentration levels, exposure, and health damage – status and trends.
-
Ahlers, Anna Lisa (2015). 鲁尔区“变回蓝天”对北京的启示 (Title of English version: "How the Sky over the Ruhr Became Blue Again - Or: A German researcher’s optimism about China’s opportunities to tackle the problem of air pollution"). 小康 Xiaokang (Insight China). ISSN 1672-4879.
-
Shen, Yongdong (2015). Protest against Industrial Air Pollution: A Case from Hangzhou City, China .
-
Ahlers, Anna Lisa & Munro, Neil (2020). Polluted Perspectives: Environmental Troubles and Popular Political Attitudes in China. Universitetet i Oslo.