land sales as well as large, profitable projects to drive GDP growth in order to further political careers. Finally, the failure to implement environmental policy is also driven by public and private interests. Large local businesses typically put the bottom line above the public interest and can use their considerable leverage vis-à-vis local governments to shirk on costly regulations. Finally, the participation of NGOs and the public often remains ad hoc and limited in scope, especially in non-coastal, low profile cities.

# **4. Behavioral and Sociocultural Barriers**

While the incentives of key players and implementation capacity of relevant institutions as well as civic participation are key barriers for environmental policy implementation, the available literature also suggests that sociocultural and behavioral factors may also stand in the way of positive change.<sup>20</sup> This section therefore follows a more bottom-up perspective at the level of the individual, evaluating how personal preferences, values, norms and social pressures drive individuals’ behavior and thereby influence local environmental policy implementation at the local level.

A focus on behavioral and sociocultural factors helps us to understand how individuals’ actions can be influenced by aspects of the environment in which they find themselves. Apart from a person’s basic ability to perform a certain action – determined by the availability of resources, the cooperation of others etc. – behavior is influenced primarily by one’s intentions. Intentions are in turn mediated by three factors: a) the person’s attitude towards the behavior (i.e., if she or he wants to perform an action), b) an individual’s subjective normative orientation, referring to the question of how much social pressure she or he feels to either perform an action or

## **Box 9: Sustainable urban planning – sociocultural and behavioral constraints**

While people’s attitudes may in practice vary, Kaufman (2012) identifies three patterns in terms of individuals’ perceptions of a good city and the values and norms that shape these perceptions.

- (1) _The modern city utopia:_ Although people are aware of what constitutes a sustainable city, they often prefer to live in a modern Chinese city that is characterized by open-spaces, wide roads, grand squares, superblocks, and a car-oriented infrastructure. In other words, the dominant Chinese vision of urban modernity is in fact quite contradictory to the small-scale, mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly image of a sustainable urban city.

- (2) _The Chinese consumer culture:_ In many Chinese cities, the striving of individuals to lead a modern, comfortable life has led to a strong focus on consumption. This behavior is strongly shaped by sociocultural factors and the wish to signal a person’s value, social status, and also individuality. The strong normative expectations of owning a car and living in an attractive, spacious apartment has driven the expansion and suburbanization of cities, the emergence of low-density apartment and villa communities, suburban shopping centers as well as the construction of large-scale car-oriented urban areas. The wish to demonstrate social status within a closed environment of like-minded neighbors has also intensified the focus on gated communities and thereby the fragmentation of the city landscape.

- (3) _Cosmopolitan city utopia:_ Contemporary Chinese urban utopia is not only that of a modern city but also of an international city. Cities of various sizes are striving to upgrade their status by renewing core areas with modern, mono-functional business districts.

In sum, these beliefs and norms can lead local cadres and urban planers to promote an urban landscape which is not compatible with long-term sustainable urban planning.

_<u>Source: Kaufman (2012)</u>_ 20 This section draws from Kaufman (2012).

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