This dissertation research examines the role of local officials in natural resource management (water supply) in urban China in the context of economic restructuring and infrastructure reform. The study promises to advance western-based theories (e.g. the producer-regulator model of change) and research on processes of resource management reform. A systematic study of actors located in different branches of municipal government, who are involved in water management and provision, will effectively disaggregate the State, and this approach will reveal the extent to which urban restructuring is mediated by local state agents.
