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Vietnam at the Vanguard: New Perspectives Across Time, Space, and Community (Asia in Transition #15)
by Le Ha Phan Jamie Gillen Liam C. KelleyThis transdisciplinary edited book explores new developments and perspectives on global Vietnam, touching on aspects of history, identity, transnational mobilities, heritage, belonging, civil society, linguistics, education, ethnicity, and worship practices. Derived from the Engaging With Vietnam: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue conference series, this cutting-edge collection presents new scholarship and also represents new ways of knowing global Vietnam. Over the past 10 years, knowledge production about Vietnam has diversified in various ways as globalization, the internationalization of higher education, and the digital revolution have transformed the world, as well as Vietnam. Whereas as late as a decade ago, knowledge about Vietnam was still largely the preserve of scholars in Vietnam and a coterie of related experts outside of the country at a select few universities, today we find scholars working on Vietnam in myriad contexts. This transformation has introduced new voices and new perspectives, which this book champions. A critical text engaging a range of historical and contemporary debates about Vietnam, this book is an indispensable volume for the Southeast Asian Studies student and scholar in the humanities and social sciences.
Contesting the Olympics in American Cities: Chicago 2016, Boston 2024, Los Angeles 2028 (Mega Event Planning)
by Greg Andranovich Matthew J. BurbankThis book examines the changing nature of opposition to bidding for and hosting the Olympic Games in contemporary American cities. It explores and critiques the process by which cities bid for the Olympics in the current context of the International Olympic Committee’s changing bid requirements and from the social justice perspectives of Olympics opponents. Using detailed case studies of the Olympic bids in Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles, it shows how opposition to bidding for and hosting the Olympics has changed dramatically in American cities.
Development, Governance and Gender in South Asia: Perspectives, Issues and Challenges
by Anisur Rahman Niharika TiwariThis book offers a multidisciplinary and comprehensive approach to understand the trends and issues of development, governance, and dynamics of gender in the South Asian region. It familiarizes the reader with the quantitative as well as qualitative aspects of governance and development. Contributing authors pay close attention to the socio-political and economic developments in South Asia in their respective chapters. The book is divided into four parts. The first part analyzes the social and economic development of South Asia in the context of human development, state apparatus, and migration. The second part focuses on issues of good governance and human rights. Issues related to minorities and corporate governance are also discussed specifically. The third part deals with the role of media and literature in the development narratives of South Asia. The last part highlights the inter-linkages between gender narratives and development. It is a must-read for those interested in understanding the socio-economic fabrics, political dynamics, and trajectory of development in South Asia.
Modernity, Development and Decolonization of Knowledge in Central Asia: Kazakhstan as a Foreign Aid Provider (Politics and History in Central Asia)
by Nafissa InsebayevaThis book joins the discussion on foreign aid triggered by the rise of multiplicity of emerging donors in international development and explores the transformation of Kazakhstan from a recipient country to a development aid provider. Drawing on fieldwork in Nur-Sultan and Almaty (Kazakhstan) between 2016 and 2019, this research evaluates the philosophy and core features of Kazakhstan’s chosen development aid model and explains the factors that account for the construction of aid patterns of Kazakh donorship. This book will be of interest to scholars of Central Asia and the emerging politics of Eurasia as well as scholars of politics and aid.
Local Tax Benefits at a Distance: Japan's Hometown Tax Donation Payment (SpringerBriefs in Economics)
by Takaaki Hoda Richard B. DasherThis book discusses the concepts, types, models, and patterns of Japan’s Hometown Tax Donation Payment system, to provide a clear picture of this newly developed unique and innovative fund-raising tool used by municipalities. It also sheds light on the influences that reciprocal gifts provided by each municipality to donors have on local economies by reviewing empirical works and surveys targeting local business owners and local financial institutions. A distinguishing feature of the book is that it introduces a new social finance mechanism that is unique to the Japanese market and could provide policy implications for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as regional development. Furthermore, the book explores the efficacy of the demand–pull approach to support-strengthening SMEs, especially in rural areas. Finally, the book identifies some lessons learned from the system with a view toward advancing research on this phenomenon and making the system efficient and sustainable. As a whole, the book can provide ample benefits to novices, academics, researchers, and policymakers interested in Hometown Tax Donation Payment, an innovative social finance tool.This is an open access book.
Econo-Legal Studies: Thinking Through the Lenses of Economics and Law
by Takashi Yanagawa Hiroshi Takahashi Shinya OuchiThis book is the first attempt to establish a collaborative and interdisciplinary field of economics and legal studies. It is designed to help readers – advanced undergraduate and graduate students, but also fellow scholars who are interested in interdisciplinarity – to think through the dual lenses of economics and law. “Econo-Legal Studies,” as we call it, is an economics that pays greater attention to the perspective and heritage of legal studies, and at the same time legal studies that fully utilize the views and methods of economics – while “law and economics” is just a one-way economic approach to law focusing on the effects of the latter on efficiency. The aim of this book is to encourage readers to think like economists and, at the same time, legal scholars as they analyze complex real-world issues. It presents stimulating discussions on the intersection of law and economics, the differences and unexpected similarities between the two perspectives, and the new insights to be gained when approaching a problem from both angles. For this purpose, the extensive corpus of knowledge produced within the framework of the Econo-Legal Studies interdisciplinary program at Kobe University can be capitalized on. Basic knowledge of both economics and law is also included in this volume, making it an engaging read for beginners in both fields as well.
Accountability and Transparency in the Modern Anthropocene
by Glen LehmanThe book is about accountability processes and how they contribute solutions to our current environmental and global political problems. This book is different to other literature in this field. This is so because the dominant accountability discourse is shaped by what is defined as a neoliberal business case for social and environmental reform. This book assumes a nirvana stance within globalisation where all citizens operate within the parameters of the free market and will recover from adverse economic and political damage. Further this book uses neoliberalism and free-market reforms aims as examples to implement efficient management technologies and create more competitive pressures. Central to the argument of the book are perspectives on authenticity, expressivism and interpretivism which are found to provide a radical reworking of our understanding of being in the world. These frameworks offer a starting point for rethinking the way individuals, businesses and communities ought to be dealing politically with accountability and ecological crises. The argument builds to an accountability perspective that utilises work from expressivism, interpretivism, classical liberalism and postmodern theory. The theoretical quest undertaken in this book is to develop connections between accountability, democratic, ethical and ecological perspectives.
Education in South Korea: Reflections on a Seventy-Year Journey
by Don-Hee Lee Sam-Geun Kwak Jae-Woong Kim Dong-Joon Park Jung-Ho Yang Myung-Hee LeeThis book, the result of a landmark colloquium held in Korea to reflect on the role of education in Korean society, provides fascinating insights into the interplay of political evolution and pedagogy. Korea has gone from one of the world's poorest societies after the Korean War to one of its richest, and is a home of technological innovation; many attribute this ‘Korean Miracle’ to the emphasis placed on education in this Confucian society. How did the Korean state form, and how were educational institutions created and given legitimacy? During the industrialization period- roughly, 1961-1994- how did education foster national development? Lastly, since 1995's May 31 Education Reform, how has the educational system responded to and created a new information age in a newly democratic Korea? This book will be of interest to East Asian scholars, scholars of education, human resources development, and IT, and historians looking for ways to achieve the ‘Korean Miracle’ in their own countries.
The Relationship between Regime “Type” and Civic Education: The Cases of Three Chinese Societies (Governance and Citizenship in Asia)
by Hui LiUsing comparative qualitative methodology, this book examines three Chinese societies, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China, as specific cases of democratic, hybrid and authoritarian regimes, presenting the theoretical underpinnings of civic education in contexts other than liberal democracy. It highlights on the concept of ‘good citizens’ in these three regime contexts and explores how these concepts are reflected in civic education and perceived by students in the three societies. The book focuses on three levels of comparison to ensure that all relevant issues can be identified: Level 1: regime “type”; Level 2: curriculum and policy formulations; Level 3: students’ personal experiences. These three levels are linked with each other and form a continuous process of civic education implementation in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China.
Outdoor Thermal Comfort in Urban Environment: Assessments and Applications in Urban Planning and Design (SpringerBriefs in Architectural Design and Technology)
by Kevin Ka-Lun Lau Zheng Tan Tobi Eniolu Morakinyo Chao RenThis book highlights the importance of outdoor thermal comfort for improving urban living quality in the context of urban planning and urban geometry design. It introduces readers to a range of assessment methods and applications of outdoor thermal comfort and addresses urban geometry and thermal environment at the neighbourhood scale using real-world examples and parametric studies. In addition, the subjective evaluations by urban dwellers and numerical modelling tools introduced in this book provide not only a comprehensive assessment of outdoor thermal comfort but also an integrated approach to using thermal comfort indicators as a standard in high-density cities. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable guide for urban climate researchers, urban planners, and designers, and policymakers pursuing more liveable urban environments.
China: The Bankable State
by Bhabani Shankar NayakThe volume on China: The Bankable State rejects neoliberal consensus and focuses on crucial contributions of the Chinese state in shaping Chinese economy. This book makes crucial theoretical contributions to the study of local political economy of China. This book engages with Chinese state responses to challenges China faces in the processes of reform, transition and development of both commercial and non-commercial banks.This book explores Chinese economic growth and development policy processes and its uniqueness in the wider world economy. The book examines Chinese financial policy praxis and offers an insightful account of its successes for the wider resurgence of alternative political economy of local development. Additionally, this book also showcases state led entrepreneurship in China.
Community Empowerment, Sustainable Cities, and Transformative Economies
by Jacob Wood Taha ChaiechiThis edited volume presents the conference papers from the 1st International Conference on Business, Economics, Management, and Sustainability (BEMAS), organized by the Centre for International Trade and Business in Asia (CITBA) at James Cook University.This book argues that the orthodox methods of external risks, climate change adaptation plans, and sustainable economic growth in cities are no longer adequate. These methods, so far, have not only ignored the ongoing structural changes associated with economic development but also failed to account for evolving industries’ composition and the emergence of new comparative advantages and skills. Specifically, this book looks at the vulnerable communities and exposed areas, particularly in urban areas, that tend to experience higher susceptibility to external risks (such as climate change, natural disasters, and public health emergencies) have been largely ignored in incremental adaptation plans. Vulnerable communities and areas not only require different adaptive responses to climate risk but also possess unlocked adaptive capacity that can motivate different patterns of sustainable development to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda. It is essential, therefore, to view transformative growth and fundamental reorientation of economic resources as integral parts of the solution. Social disorganisation and vulnerability are other undesired outcomes of the unpredictable and widespread external economic shocks. This is due to a sudden and tough competition between members of society to acquire precious resources, most of which may be depleted during unprecedented events such as natural disasters or pandemics resulting in an even more chaotic and disorganised conditions.
Asian Tourism Sustainability (Perspectives on Asian Tourism)
by Yue Ma Ann Selvaranee BalasingamThis book brings together a collection of chapters that investigate sustainable tourism development in different Asian contexts; from stakeholders’ perspectives, existing issues in the market, as well as the impacts of COVID-19 on tourism. It highlights the importance of tourism sustainability in Asia. Specifically, this book examines these themes by examples related to Asian tourism such as; social-cultural impact of sustainable growth, environmental constraints and policies, community engagement, moral limits of the market, stakeholders’ participation in tourism development, the hindered interaction between foreign tourists and local community, impact of the pandemic and proposed ways forward. This edited volume substantiates this by using evidence of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches aligned with empirical data to show sustainable efforts and impacts. This book is of interest to researchers and practitioners as it offers timely understandings of sustainable tourism from multiple perspectives within the Asian context.
The Promise of the University: Reclaiming Humanity, Humility, and Hope (Debating Higher Education: Philosophical Perspectives #10)
by Áine MahonThis book offers philosophical readings of the contemporary university and is motivated by a series of pressing challenges in the global context of Higher Education. It argues that the university is a place for community, for refuge, for enlightenment and the careful questioning of knowledge, but it is also a place for visceral ambition and for intellectual cowardice, for blinkered individualism and professional competitiveness. In the context of a highly competitive post-crash global economy, contemporary students are placed under increasing pressure to distinguish themselves from their peers via a portfolio of learning excellence and extracurricular achievement. Growing numbers undertake part or full-time employment in order to cover registration fees and the basic costs of living. University staff take on very different forms of pressure that operate across the life-course of an academic career – from early-career anxieties to the worries of more privileged and permanent faculty who fear they do not meet ever-changing structures, assumptions and demands of the university itself. This book argues that these interlinked agendas demand consideration from philosophers of education in Ireland, Europe and further afield. It proposes that we must embody a very careful balancing act: one where we remember the romantic ideals and promises of the university while still acknowledging the very real and pressing challenges faced by our staff and students. The book will be of interest to academics, graduate students, and advanced-level undergraduates in Philosophy, Education, Mental Health, and Organizational Psychology in both North America and Europe.
Love and Death of King Ananda Mahidol of Thailand
by Pavin ChachavalpongpunThis book examines two aspects of the abbreviated reign of King Ananda Mahidol (1935-1946), or King Rama VIII, of the current Chakri dynasty of Thailand. First, it discusses the royal family’s plot to thwart a romantic relationship between the young king, Ananda, and his Swiss girlfriend, Marileine Ferrari, a daughter of a famous pastor of Lausanne, Switzerland. Interracial marriage, particularly with Westerners, has been strictly forbidden for Thai kings or heirs apparent. The restriction stems from the interwoven connection between sexual relationship and the security of the throne. The second part investigates the mysterious death of King Ananda, a long-held taboo topic in Thailand. Although the two events were not specially related, both in their own way served to unavoidably shake the position of the monarchy and hence threaten its existence. The palace’s reactions to these events demonstrated its continuous search to maintain its power and ultimately to warrant its survival.
Visual Culture Wars at the Borders of Contemporary China: Art, Design, Film, New Media and the Prospects of “Post-West” Contemporaneity (Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics)
by Paul Gladston Beccy Kennedy-Schtyk Ming TurnerThis edited collection brings together essays that share in a critical attention to visual culture as a means of representing, contributing to and/or intervening with discursive struggles and territorial conflicts currently taking place at and across the outward-facing and internal borders of the People’s Republic of China. Elucidated by the essays collected here for the first time is a constellation of what might be described as visual culture wars comprising resistances on numerous fronts not only to the growing power and expansiveness of the Chinese state but also the residues of a once pervasively suppressive Western colonialism/imperialism. The present volume addresses visual culture related to struggles and conflicts at the borders of Hong Kong, the South China Sea and Taiwan as well within the PRC with regard the so-called “Great Firewall of China” and differences in discursive outlook between China and the West on the significances of art, technology, gender and sexuality. In doing so, it provides a vital index of twenty-first century China’s diversely conflicted status as a contemporary nation-state and arguably nascent empire.
Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Economic Management and Green Development (Applied Economics and Policy Studies)
by Chunhui Yuan Xiaolong Li John KentThe proceedings shed light on selected topics including economic management, public administration, and green development. Featuring scholarly works from the 4th International Conference on Economic Management and Green Development (ICEMGD 2021), this volume of proceedings showcases the papers composed with regard to a diverse range of topics situated at the intersecting field of Economic Management, Public Administration and Green Development. Arising as the top concern of the global community, issues of green development impose challenges for the academia to bridge the interdisciplinary prowess in tackling the gap of knowledge within concerned fields. ICEMGD 2021 is an annual conference initiated by the year of 2017 under the goal of bringing together intellectuals from economics, business management, public administration, and otherwise related spheres for the share of research methods and theoretical breakthroughs. The aim of the proceeding volume is for the integration of social scientific research methods with research into alarming development issues. The ICEMGD 2021 seeks to promote joint initiatives among well-established fields like macro- and microeconomics, international economics, finance, agricultural economics, health economics, business management and marketing strategies, regional development studies, social governance, and sustainable development. Featuring interdisciplinary contributions, this book will be of interest to researchers, academics, professionals and policy makers in the field of economic management, public administration, and development studies.
Consensus or Conflict?: China and Globalization in the 21st Century (China and Globalization)
by Huiyao Wang Alistair MichieThis open access book brings together leading international scholars and policy-makers to explore the challenges and dilemmas of globalization and governance in an era increasingly defined by economic crises, widespread populism, retreating internationalism, and a looming cold war between the United States and China. It provides the diversity of views on those widely concerned topics such as global governance, climate change, global health, migration, S&T revolution, financial market, and sustainable development. It is a truly unique book. Never before has such an authoritative group of essayists come together to develop deep new thinking about global governance that is relevant to current shared global challenges. They express deep concerns about the historically unprecedented upheavals in the world. They describe the unparalleled turbulence that mankind is facing in the form of multiple crises, any one of which has the potential to bring civilization to its knees. The most obvious of these is the threat posed by climate change. They spell out why these perils pose a stark choice for the human race. They stress how any path that leads to conflict increases the risk of catastrophe. In this context, the common thread is that a consensus must be reached about the future of our world. They have put forward many ideas and potential new policies, reflecting their vision of what this consensus should be and how it is the only way forward for the human race.
Spatially Explicit Hyperparameter Optimization for Neural Networks
by Minrui ZhengNeural networks as the commonly used machine learning algorithms, such as artificial neural networks (ANNs) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs), have been extensively used in the GIScience domain to explore the nonlinear and complex geographic phenomena. However, there are a few studies that investigate the parameter settings of neural networks in GIScience. Moreover, the model performance of neural networks often depends on the parameter setting for a given dataset. Meanwhile, adjusting the parameter configuration of neural networks will increase the overall running time. Therefore, an automated approach is necessary for addressing these limitations in current studies. This book proposes an automated spatially explicit hyperparameter optimization approach to identify optimal or near-optimal parameter settings for neural networks in the GIScience field. Also, the approach improves the computing performance at both model and computing levels. This book is written for researchers of the GIScience field as well as social science subjects.
Tourist Health, Safety and Wellbeing in the New Normal
by Jeff Wilks Donna Pendergast Peter A. Leggat Damian MorganThe COVID-19 pandemic has changed the face of international and domestic tourism and sharply focused attention on the importance of tourist health, safety and wellbeing like never before. This book offers a unique perspective on the challenges facing the world’s largest service industry to protect and care for customers in a rapidly evolving environment where borders have closed, social distancing rules apply and personal hygiene has become a key focus in everyday life. Yet tourism is a very resilient industry and history shows there is always an immediate surge toward recovery after a crisis has passed. Humans want to travel and see the world. While we appreciate that the pandemic is far from over, already there are reports of pent-up demand for travel as restrictions ease at some destinations and borders begin to open. As we move hopefully toward the recovery phase and people begin to move around for business and pleasure, this book presents the reader with key information and insights in both traditional and emerging areas of tourist health, safety and wellbeing, recognising that the world is now shaped by this pandemic, bringing change, potentially enduring benefits and lasting legacies.
Planning Indian Megacity Regions: Spatial Model, Development Dynamics and Future Advances (Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements)
by S. K. KulshresthaThis book focuses on spatial planning of megacities that are growing in Asia, Africa, and America. These cities are not be seen in isolation from their respective influence regions. They complement each other. Most of the solutions to the problems of such cities are found in their respective regions, and, on the other hand, the regions derive their strength from their respective megacities. There is a need for promoting integrated spatial planning of megacity regions. The five chapters in this book highlight the spatial planning of such regions.
Sino-African Development Cooperation: Studies on the Theories, Strategies, and Policies (Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path)
by Hongwu Liu Jianbo LuoThis book reviews the background and evolving features of Sino-African relations, exploring various stages over the past 50 years. Pursuing an objective and forward-looking approach, it analyzes the development, current issues and future direction of Sino-African relations, as well as their global impact. Despite ideological and policy differences, it also outlines potential avenues of cooperation between China and western countries in promoting development in Africa. Potential means of adapting and improving China’s “going into Africa” policy in the post-crisis era are also discussed, highlighting the importance of enhancing soft power in Africa.
The Emergence of Bangladesh: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
by Habibul Khondker Olav Muurlink Asif Bin AliThe Emergence of Bangladesh analyses and celebrates the first 50 years of Bangladesh as a nation, bringing insights from key scholars in Bangladeshi studies to an international audience, as well as ‘bringing home’ to a domestic audience the work of some of the nation’s greatest intellectual exports, the Bangladeshi scholars who have made a mark in their field of study in academia. The book offers unique coverage of the battlegrounds on which the founding of the new nation was fought, including language, power and religion, and provides unique insight into some of the hot spots that continue to shape the development of the nation: the issues of gender, culture, ethnicity, governance, the economy and the army. Those with an interest in understanding the past or present Bangladesh will find this a trove of frank and readable analysis.
Digital Citizenship in China: Everyday Online Practices of Chinese Young People (Perspectives on Children and Young People #12)
by Jun FuThis book examines how emerging forms of citizenship are shaped by young people in digital spaces as way of making sense of contemporary Chinese society, forming new identities, and negotiating social and political participation. By focusing on Chinese young adults' everyday online practices, the book offers a unique treatment of the topic of young people and the Chinese Internet that navigates between the dominant focus on censorship on the one hand and protest and politicized action on the other. The book brings the focus of research from highly visible or spectacular forms of collectivity, belonging, and identification exhibited in young people's online practices to young people's everyday social and cultural engagement through new media. It brings new insights by understanding the meanings of young people's mundane and everyday online engagement for their citizenship learning, identity performance, and their formation of political subjectivity. Readers will gain insights into citizenship in China, and young people and the Chinese Internet.
The Political Economy of Population Aging: Japan and the United States (Advances in Japanese Business and Economics #30)
by Kimiko Terai Amihai Glazer Naomi MiyazatoThis book integrates the economics of aging and insight based on political economy and explores generational conflict in the context of governmental spending. This problem is general, as the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted: lockdowns protect the elderly, but hurt the young. Policies to address global warming impose taxes on the elderly, but would bring benefits largely in the future. This book addresses intergenerational problems by placing its focus on budget allocation, taxation, and regulation. By using Japanese and US data, the authors conduct statistical analysis of whether regions with aging populations may adopt policies that generate benefits during a short period of time instead of policies that could benefit current young generations for an extended period of time. If the policy preferences of voters depend on their age, and if policy adoption by a government reflects public opinion, the change in demographic composition in a region may affect governmental policies. In an aged society, the elderly are pivotal voters. Budgets may be reallocated from policies favored by younger generations, such as education, to policies the elderly prefer, such as welfare programs. This generates an intergenerational externality problem: voters with short life expectancy do not take into consideration long-term benefits. Moreover, the current tax bases may be replaced by other tax bases that do not harm the elderly. The results reported in the book largely support these hypotheses. Evidence also shows that the gender and racial composition and institutional factors, including the extent of fiscal decentralization, are important in anticipating effects of population aging in other countries.