Special Issue: Chinese Low-Carbon Innovation - Opportunities and Constraints
Special issue call for papers from Journal of Knowledge-based Innovation in China
In association with a workshop to be held at Zhejiang University in November 2009
Call for Papers
‘Chinese Low-Carbon Innovation: Opportunities and Constraints’
Special Edition of Journal of Knowledge-Based Innovation in China, Autumn 2010
Edited by CHEN Jin (Zhejiang U), JIN Jun (Zhejiang U) and David Tyfield (Lancaster U)
Climate change is perhaps the single greatest challenge facing humanity, demanding a global transition to low-carbon societies. Carbon use, however, is embedded into everyday life, so profound innovation is needed for this low-carbon shift – to develop different ways of dwelling and working, building and producing, traveling and shopping. As these large social changes show, however, ‘low-carbon innovation’ means more than just new technology. But neither is it just a matter of behavioural change, based on individual choices. Rather new technologies and new social practices interact closely and both will be needed. Similarly, new breakthroughs in high-technology solutions may well be important, but they by no means exhaust the relevant forms innovation.
Given the global dimensions of the climate challenge and its extraordinary growth in emissions, it is clear that low-carbon innovation in China is an urgent priority, both for China and the world as a whole. There are also exceptional opportunities for low-carbon innovation in China, based on the strength of its economic growth, the great improvements in its national innovation system, the relative lack of high-carbon lock-in and the urgent national pressures towards environmental sustainability. There are also, therefore, enormous opportunities for international collaboration based on mutual benefit, particularly in the context of the current global economic crisis.
This special issue will explore the opportunities and barriers to low-carbon innovation in China in the context of this broader conceptualization of ‘innovation’ as much more than just technology or R&D. Papers are invited that consider the following issues, either through theoretical analysis or novel empirical work:
- What forms of low-carbon innovation are most effective in the Chinese context and why?
- What is China’s capacity for low-carbon innovation, how is it developing and how can it be improved?
- What is the role for high-technology innovation in a low-carbon shift for China?
- What is the role for ‘disruptive’ innovation, including low-cost and low-technology alternatives to existing products that have the medium-term potential to overtake dominant incumbents?
- What are the policy and economic barriers to low-carbon innovation in China?
- How does the specific context of China change what is possible regarding low-carbon innovation?
- How can international collaboration best leverage the opportunities and possibilities for low-carbon innovation in China?
Practical Matters
Papers should be formatted according to house style of Emerald Publishing (please see http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=jkic)
Please send abstracts (300 words) by email to lowcarbonchina@lancaster.ac.uk, subject heading ‘JKIC Special Issue’, by 26 September 2009.
Authors will be notified by the end of October 2009. Full first drafts will be expected by the end of December 2009. All papers will then be subject to double blind peer review, to be completed by June 2010. The special edition will be published in Autumn 2010.
N.B. This Call for Papers is in association with a workshop to be held at Zhejiang University in November 2009:
http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/news_story.htm?PHPSESSID=f8fgb7mal06purn756vlkrse71&id=1359 ).