portrait

 冉 冉
Ran Ran

This is Ran RAN(冉冉), I am currently an associate professor of political science at Renmin University of China. I earned my Ph.D. from the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2009 and in 2009-2010 I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Southern California.

My research interests are in Comparative Environmental Politics and Policy, Climate Change Policy Analysis, Blame Avoidance Politics, and Environmental Justice in China. My publications have appeared in Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, China Quarterly, Journal of Cleaner Production, among others. My book published in 2015 systematically examined the paradox of the "Environmental Policy Implementation Gap" in China's local environmental politics. You can visit my Google Scholar Page to know more about my work.

I was selected as one of the "Chinese Highly Cited Researcher in Political Science" by Elsevier in 2021 and 2022. You can reach me at or . This is my homepage in Chinese.

As a mother raising kid in between Beijing and Silicon Valley, I am also a story teller and writer of cross-cultural parenting in a global immigration society.


我是冉冉，目前是中国人民大学国际关系学院副教授。 我于2009年在德国杜伊斯堡-埃森大学获得博士学位，随后加入南加州大学美中学院从事博士后研究工作。

我的主要研究兴趣为比较环境政治与政策、气候变化的政策分析、避责政治、和中国的环境正义。 我的学术文章发表在China Quarterly、Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning、 Journal of Cleaner Production、《经济社会体制比较》、《教学与研究》等中英文杂志。 著有专书《中国地方环境政治：政策与执行之间的距离》。 入选Elsevier 2020、2021中国高被引学者（政治学）榜单。

作为一个在北京和硅谷之间跨文化育儿的妈妈，我也热衷于发现、讲述和书写在全球移民社会背景下跨文化养育的故事。


Publications (selected)

Dissertation

  • Environmental Politics at Local Levels in China: Explaining Policy Implementation Gap and Assessing the Implications, Duisburg-Essen·University, Germany, July 2009.

    Book

  • Local Environmental Politics in China: The Gap between Policy and Its Implementation, Beijing: CCTP, 2015 (in Chinese).

    Journal Articles (selected)

  • Jian Yan, Rongrong Li, Ran Ran*, The Dilemma of Safe Water Supply Project in Coal Mining Villages of China's Shanxi Province, Sustainability, 14, 1277, 2022.
  • Environmental Governance and Political Legitimacy: Case Study of Beijing's Coal to Gas (Electricity) Project, Comparative Economic & Social Systems, No.4, 2021 (in Chinese).
  • Ran Ran, Jian Yan, When Transparency Meets Accountability: How the Fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic Became a Blame Game in Wuhan, The China Review, Vol.21. No.1, 2021.
  • Ran Ran, The Mystery of China's Glorious Green Dreams, Issues in Science and Technology, 37(1), 2020.
  • Legitimacy and Environmental Governance: Research Agenda, Paradigm and Resources, Journal of Theoretical Trends, No.11, 2019 (in Chinese).
  • Ran Ran, Understanding Blame Politics in China's Decentralized System of Environmental Governance: Actors, Strategies and Context, China Quarterly, Vol.231, 2017.
  • Ran Ran, Tian Yan, Deliberative Democracy and the "Giddens Paradox" of Global Climate Change Governance, World and Socialism, No.4, 2016, (in Chinese).
  • Ran Ran, Environmental Governance and Democratic Transition: The Environmental Movement in Soviet Union and East European Communist Countries, Journal of Theoretical Trends, No.4, 2015, (in Chinese).
  • Ran Ran, Moral incentive, Party Disciplining and the Local Environmental Policy Implementation Gap, Comparative Economic & Social Systems, No.2, 2015 (in Chinese).
  • Xiao Zhu, Lei Zhang, Ran Ran, Arthur Mol, Regional Restriction on Environmental Impact Assessment Approval in China: The Legitimacy of Environmental Authoritarianism, Journal of Cleaner Production, No.92, 2015.
  • Ran Ran, Regime Type and Environmental Governance Performance, Journal of Theoretical Trends, No. 5, 2014 (in Chinese).
  • Ran Ran, Perverse Incentive Structure and Policy Implementation Gap in China's Local Environmental Politics, Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 15:1, 2013.
  • Ran Ran, Political Incentives and Local Environmental Governance under a "Pressurized System", Comparative Economic & Social Systems, No.3, 2013 (in Chinese).

    • Book Chapters

  • Introduction to Environmental Politics, in Keping Yu eds, Frontiers in Political Science. Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2022 (forthcoming).
  • Perverse Incentive Structure and Policy Implementation Gap in China's Local Environmental Politics, in Genia Kostka and Arthur Mol eds, Local Environmental Politics in China: Challenges and Innovations. London: Routledge, 2014.

    • Conference Papers (selected)

  • Environmental Nationalism and Sino-US Environmental and Climate Diplomacy, US-China Young Scholar's Forum, Carter Center, Atlanta, January 2018.
  • Blame and Central-Local Relations in China's Environmental Politics, Workshop on "Environmental Health Challenges to China's Rise", Council on Foreign Relations, New York, November 2016.
  • Consuming Environmentalism: Why and How Was Environmentalism Selected as the Ideology of Environmental Protests in Urban China? Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2016 Annual Conference, Seattle, March 2016.
  • Decentralization Discourse and Legitimacy Construction in China's Environmental Politics, Workshop on "China Environmental Governance", Brown University, March 2015.
  • Dreaming for Clean Environment: The Role of Political Discourse in China's Environmental Politics, Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2014 Annual Conference, Philadelphia, March 2014.
  • Policy Architecture of "State-in-Society": Eco-System Governance in India and China, VII Annual International Conference on Public Policy and Management, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India, August 2012 (with Sony Pellissery and Biju Abraham).
  • Perverse Incentive Structure and Policy Implementation Gap in China's Local Environmental Politics, Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2012 Annual Conference, Toronto, March 2012.
  • Analysis Local Environmental Policies Implementation Gap and Its implications in China, paper accepted and presented at the International Conference of "Implementation on Environmental Policies in Urban and Rural China", Mülheim, Germany, May 2010.
  • Is Environmental Policies Implementation Failures in China Challenging Security and Party-State Legitimacy?, paper presented at the Nordic Association for China Studies 9th Annul Meeting "China's Economy, Environment and Education", Iceland University, June 2009.
  • System, Incentive Structure and Environmental Policies Implementation Gap at Local Levels of China: Case Study in Three Cities, paper presented at the 5th Annual Graduate Seminar on China, Hong Kong Chinese University, January 2009.

    Teaching

  • Introduction to Environmental Politics
  • Introduction to Comparative Politics
  • Introduction to Public Administration
  • Environmental Politics and Governance
  • Introductions to Contemporary Chinese Government and Politics
  • Introduction to Political Science

    • Peer Review

    Invited peer reviewer for: Environmental Politics, Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, China Quarterly, China Journal, Asian Survey, Journal of Asian Studies, Society and Natural Resources, Local Environment, International Review of Administrative Science, Journal of Development Studies, Urban Policy and Research, Modern China, Review of Policy Research, Public Management Review, Ecological Economics, Public Administration Review (in Chinese), Comparative Economic & Social Systems (in Chinese), Journal of Nanjing Forestry University (in Chinese).

    Media

    Opinion Pieces

  • Public participation and water governance, China Environment, November 23, 2016 (in Chinese).
  • Anti-pollution like anti-corruption? Southern Weekly, September. 7, 2016 (in Chinese).
  • How to revise the centralization vs. decentralization dichotomy in China's local environmental politics study, Chinese Social Sciences Today, November 21, 2015 (in Chinese).

    Media Interview

  • Environmental governance and local political elites, Democracy and Rule of Law Time, July 7, 2017 (in Chinese).
  • Revamped environmental law raises hope for cleanup in China, Associated Press, March 13, 2015.
  • China's battle plans in war on air pollution under scrutiny, Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2014.

    Honors and Awards

  • 2021 Chinese Highly Cited Researcher in Political Science by Elsevier, April 2022.
  • 2020 Chinese Highly Cited Researcher in Political Science by Elsevier, April 2021.
  • 2010 Best Dissertation Award, Duisburg-Essen University, June 2010.
  • Postdoctoral fellowship, US-China Institute, University of Southern California, 2009-2010.
  • 2008 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Students Abroad, China Scholarship Council, March 2009.
  • Graduate students fellowship, Haniel Foundation, Germany, 2006-2009.