School of Geography research fellow Stephen Parkes reports on his fieldwork in Shanghai, which was partly funded by the Institute for Asia and Pacific Studies.
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In August 2017 I undertook a piece of field work in Shanghai, which was financially supported by IAPS with a grant of £500. The interest in undertaking this fieldwork in Shanghai was driven by the work I am conducing in my role as a Research Fellow on the project: ‘Sustaining Urban Habitats: An Interdisciplinary Approach’, which match-funded the £500 from IAPS.
The field work in Shanghai was focused on studying the transfer of knowledge into and out of the city, specifically with regard to industrial waste management. Along with a colleague from the University of Southampton, I conducted face-to-face interviews with a range of stakeholders (including businesses, non-governmental organisations, and academics). These interviews explored the role of multinational corporations bringing knowledge into the city through their subsidiaries, how this knowledge is transferred within Shanghai through supply chains, and how this might influence wider waste management policies within the city.
The interviews have now been transcribed and will be analysed and written up into a paper, which will be submitted to the journal ‘Business Strategy and the Environment’ before the end of 2017. I am very grateful to IAPS for their funding which helped support this research.
Posted on Thursday 2nd November 2017