John Powell will be attending the first workshop on commons to be held in China. As President of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC), he will be giving a presentation at the opening ceremony on the governance of surface and groundwaters from a commons perspective.
The workshop, ‘Enhancing Water Governance and Policy‘, will be held on 14th and 15th October 2017 at the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
This will be the first professional academic conference around Commons in China, and has been approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education. It has been co-organized by the China Institute for Rural Studies at Tsinghua University, the International Association for the Study of the Commons, the Third World Centre for Water Management, the International Journal of the Commons, the International Journal of Water Resources Development, and the Center for Water Resources Research at Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The study of commons is a relatively new area of research in China and the aim of the workshop is to bring together multi-disciplinary researchers, practitioners and policymakers in order to promote the study of commons in China. China is facing a wide range of new challenges due to rapid economic growth, urbanization, environmental pollution, increasing demand for land and water resources, and higher expectations from an expanding middle class for a better quality of life. The focus of the workshop is on water governance and policy and will explore innovative approaches and instruments which can be effectively used in countries like China.
John has researched extensively into commons governance and common resources management. Recently, together with Chris Short and Kate Ashbrook (Open Spaces Society), he has put together a collection of blog posts and other writings associated with attending and organising international IASC conferences, which is available as a FREE download.
