The Rise of a Green Society
Dayong Hong
Ever since its emergence, human being has been in a relation of unity of opposites
with the environment. On the one hand, obtaining resources from the environment
is the basic condition of human survival and development, and man’s productive
and living activities always exert impacts on the environment, as reflected in the
consumption, deterioration and damage of it. On the other hand, excessive exploitation of resources and environmental damage will eventually affect human survival
and development. Therefore, in different development stages of productivity and
different social systems, man, based on its understanding of its relation with environment that is acquired from productive and living practices, has always incorporated environmental factors in its activities of social construction in various ways,
aiming at the coordination between human society and environment. In this sense,
there is always an environmental dimension to social construction though it varies
in different historical periods and backgrounds. For one thing, the human perception
of environmental status and impacts varies in different stages of social development;
for another, the inclusion of environmental factors in social construction varies in
breadth, depth and intensity. This paper tries to analyze how China has incorporated environmental factors in its social construction and gradually evolved into a
green society since reform and opening-up. A green society refers to a process and
state where man, on the basis of understanding the interaction between society and
environment, consciously pushes for social reform for their coordination. This is an
important aspect, even a key connotation with dispersive and penetrative effect, of
social construction in contemporary China.
D. Hong (B)
Department of Degree Management & Postgraduate Education, Ministry of Education, Beijing,
China
© China Environment Publishing Group Co., Ltd. 2021
J. Pan et al. (eds.), Beautiful China: 70 Years Since 1949 and 70 People’s Views
on Eco-civilization Construction, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6742-5_46
461
Dayong Hong
Ever since its emergence, human being has been in a relation of unity of opposites
with the environment. On the one hand, obtaining resources from the environment
is the basic condition of human survival and development, and man’s productive
and living activities always exert impacts on the environment, as reflected in the
consumption, deterioration and damage of it. On the other hand, excessive exploitation of resources and environmental damage will eventually affect human survival
and development. Therefore, in different development stages of productivity and
different social systems, man, based on its understanding of its relation with environment that is acquired from productive and living practices, has always incorporated environmental factors in its activities of social construction in various ways,
aiming at the coordination between human society and environment. In this sense,
there is always an environmental dimension to social construction though it varies
in different historical periods and backgrounds. For one thing, the human perception
of environmental status and impacts varies in different stages of social development;
for another, the inclusion of environmental factors in social construction varies in
breadth, depth and intensity. This paper tries to analyze how China has incorporated environmental factors in its social construction and gradually evolved into a
green society since reform and opening-up. A green society refers to a process and
state where man, on the basis of understanding the interaction between society and
environment, consciously pushes for social reform for their coordination. This is an
important aspect, even a key connotation with dispersive and penetrative effect, of
social construction in contemporary China.
D. Hong (B)
Department of Degree Management & Postgraduate Education, Ministry of Education, Beijing,
China
© China Environment Publishing Group Co., Ltd. 2021
J. Pan et al. (eds.), Beautiful China: 70 Years Since 1949 and 70 People’s Views
on Eco-civilization Construction, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6742-5_46
461