Leong Ching

Leong Ching is Co-Director, Institute of Water Policy and Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Her work lies in making sense of apparently irrational environmental behavior, whether in refusal to use recycled water, underinvesting in water utilities, or decision making in building dams and managing rivers. She uses narratives, perceptions and stories to understand collective public behavior as well as environmental identities. Her field research is focused on water institutions and governance in Asia.

Leong Ching has graduate degrees in philosophy, information technology and journalism. Before joining the university, she had a career in television and newspaper journalism.

Research Areas

• Environmental Identities
• Institutional Change
• Narratives of Water
• Policy Communications
• Recycled Drinking Water
• Role of Emotions in Policy Making

Media Expertises

• Environmental identities
• Institutional Change
• Narratives of Water
• Policy communications
• Recycled Drinking Water
• Role of Emotions in Policy Making

Courses

• Governance Studies Project (MPA CORE)
• Moral Reasoning and Policy Communications

Journal articles

• The Role of Narratives in Sociohydrological Models of Flood Behaviors. 2018. Water Resources Research, 54(4), 3100-3121
• On Credit and Blame: Disentangling the Motivations of Public Policy Decision-Making Behaviour (with Michael Howlett). 2017. Policy Sciences, 50(4):599–618
• A Lived-Experience Investigation of Narratives: Recycled Drinking Water. 2016. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 32(4):1-13
• Managing the Socio-Ecology of Very Large Rivers: Collective Choice Rules in Integrated Water Resources Management Narratives. 2015. Global Environmental Change 34:172–184
• A Hermeneutic Approach to Explaining and Understanding Public Controversies (with Raul Lejano). 2012. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART), 22(4)