Practicing policy mobility of payment for ecosystem services through assemblage and performativity: lessons from China's Xin'an River Basin Eco-compensation Pilot

This paper explores the process and practices of policy mobility for the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) in China's Xin'an River Basin Eco-compensation Pilot, through the lens of assemblage and performativity. We argue that various practices of assemblage create the possibility for PES policy mobility, while the actualization of PES policy mobility also depends on local institutional and political support, for which performativity can help justify the economic rationality and channel PES technologies. PES policy mobility can trigger power reconfigurations between governments at different levels, and between the government and the market. Moving beyond the Western-centric interpretation of policy mobility, our detailed empirical study also reflects China's adaptive ecosystem governance in practicing PES policy mobility.