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Evaluation of Basic Government Service Capability in Chinese Cities (Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path)
by Jun Zhong Zhenggao Wu Xukuan Liu Zhichang Liu Xinxin ZhangThis book reports on the results of a survey of 38 major Chinese cities’ public service performances and provides an overview of the development of basic public services in the larger cities. The quality of urban public services is examined from 9 different perspectives: basic healthcare and public health, housing, public transportation, public security, employment and social security, compulsory education, urban environment, culture and sports, and government services. Moreover, a series of indices are applied to further study the degree of public satisfaction with basic public services in these cities. These indices include the index of GDP leveraging satisfaction with basic public services, the rising index of satisfaction with basic public services in cities, and the development index of satisfaction with the basic public service elements. On the basis of the survey results, this book also identifies the most important social issues among the surveyed public, including food and drinking water safety, information security, housing prices, pensions, and air and environment quality.
Gender in STEM Education in the Arab Gulf Countries
by Martina Dickson Melissa McMinn Dean CairnsThis book explores the critical issues in gender and STEM education in the Arabian Gulf, written within a context of educational systems developing rapidly over recent decades. With the ever-growing need for a highly skilled, gender-inclusive STEM workforce, the issues raised in this book are more topical than ever. It presents chapters from various sectors such as children’s perceptions of science, scientists and their work, adolescent and university years by studying large-scale secondary data variations across countries in the region and finally presenting work relating to gender in STEM education. The book closes with a chapter on factors of success in female leaders’ STEM career journeys. It offers recommendations for both policy and practices in gender equity in the STEM workplace, based on their experiences. This book is written in a highly accessible yet academic manner. It is an essential resource for a wide-ranging audience interested in the complex relationships between gender and STEM.
Cambodia-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Towards a Community with a Shared Future
by Sok Touch Linggui Wang Kin Phea Jianglin Zhao Jiayun GuThis book focuses on the bilateral relationship between China and and Cambodia to present an though and deep cooperation of the two countries involving political, security, economic and cultural areas. It collects wisdom by the researchers and scholars attending the first China-Cambodia Cooperation Forum, which was held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from December 6 to 8, 2019, with the theme of “Cambodia-China toward a Community with a Shared Future: We Grow Together”. It aims to build an overview with balanced perspectives on China-Cambodia relationship.
Global Trends Compendium: An Essential Guide to Socio-Economic and Environmental Change
by Edoardo MonacoThis Compendium was conceived as a “pocket compass”, a practical guide that may help readers to orientate themselves while they explore global affairs and attempt to make sense of the highly interconnected, multidimensional challenges of contemporary human development. The book is intended to be an accessible, concise, yet comprehensive reference for anyone who hopes to better understand today’s world and its dramatic complexity. The aim is to highlight a relevant selection of the demographic, socio-economic, geo-political, and environmental macro-dynamics that define our time, and to explore in a practical way the indicators that can be used to monitor their evolution over time. In general, this project stems from the need to apply “systemic thinking” to the study of the world and to develop a holistic perspective that can bridge the gap that for too long has existed across academic disciplines and their respective focuses. The macro-trends featured in the book shed light, in particular, on the change that has been occurring over time in the vast Global South – a portion of the globe that accounts for over 80% of the world’s total population. The book’s ultimate – although not exclusive – target audience is undoubtedly composed of undergraduate students of subjects such as political science, international affairs, international development, human geography and the like. In addition, the Compendium may benefit professionals in both public and private organisations as well as members of the general public seeking to acquire "global development literacy" in manners that are academically sound, but also accessible and concise.
Different Histories, Shared Futures: Dialogues on Australia-China
by Mobo Gao Justin O’Connor Baohui Xie Jack ButcherThis book delves into the Australia-China relationship, which is currently is at its worst since 1972 when the two countries first established a diplomatic relationship. Australia is seen by the US and its front line ally in fight against Chinese economic coercion and expansionism. Derived from an international symposium organized by the editorial team and held in Adelaide, South Australia in September 2021, these essays are an attempt to offer some understanding and explanations for the deterioration of Sino-Australian ties. It is also an attempt to explore the ways by which the two countries can reach some common ground for the future. Most of all the content is relevant to our future, the future that can avoid a war hot or cold, between a rising power of China and the status quo power of the West. Can we have shared but different futures? These questions will be of interest to scholars of international relations, history, and globalization.
Annual Report on the Development of China's Special Economic Zones (Current Chinese Economic Report Series)
by Yitao Tao Yiming YuanThis book is an overview of the development status of China's special economic zones in 2020, including the reform pilot zones and some new special zones over the past year. It analyzes the challenges during the transformation faced by special zones, the use of resources and sustainable development, economic and social development, social security, science and technology innovation, financial system reform, and cultural industry. Also it includes a record and review of the development status of the five traditional special economic zones and Shanghai Pudong New Area and Tianjin Binhai New Area over the past year, with emphasis on case studies of different special zones.
Many Possible Worlds: An Interdisciplinary History of the World Economy Since 1800
by Cameron GordonThis book provides a crosscutting interdisciplinary account of how the disintegrated, global subsistence economy circa 1800 has transformed into a global complex delivering unprecedented levels of material production and consumption. Applying major findings from economics, history/historiography, and sociology (as well as from anthropology, psychology, politics, and environmental studies), the analysis tracks the ways in which changes in ‘society’ (including social structures, values, and forces) have changed ‘individuals’ (including conceptions of race, gender, and identity) and vice versa. These changes have simultaneously homogenised and diversified societies and individuals in distinct but sometimes contradictory ways, opening up many possible worlds from an individual and group perspective. Yet, the scale and pace of change has also led to increasing existential challenges. The narrative consists of 30 chapters organized into 10 subsets of 3: one chapter on a relevant core idea; one chapter focused on historical narrative and titled after a representative year; and one chapter on a relevant associated crosscutting theme. Major regional and topical discussions are provided, with special attention paid to business and organisational change and developing world scholarship. Small discussion ‘boxes’ focusing on illustrative cases and details are presented throughout the book. The last chapter contains over-arching conclusions.
Public Policy and Indigenous Futures (Indigenous-Settler Relations in Australia and the World #4)
by Nikki Moodie Sarah MaddisonThis book focuses on Indigenous self-determined and community-owned responses to complex socioeconomic and political challenges in Australia, and explores Indigenous policy development and policy expertise. It critically considers current practices and issues central to policy change and Indigenous futures. The book foregrounds the resurgence that is taking place in Indigenous governing and policy-making, providing case studies of local and community-based policy development and implementation. The chapters highlight new Australian work on what is an international phenomenon.This book brings together senior and early career political scientists and policy scholars, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars working on problems of Indigenous policy and governance.
Care Staff Mobilisation in the Hospital: Fight or Cooperate?
by Ivan SainsaulieuThis book offers a novel examination of the relations, actions, and practices of healthcare workers, analysed in terms of collective mobilisation. Based on successive surveys conducted over a twenty-year period in public and private hospitals, it brings a rich new conceptualisation of both social movements and care work. We’ve all witnessed the collective mobilisation at play in hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic. In such a structured, hierarchical environment, the parallel with social movements highlights the ethical and collective dimensions of care work, as well as the bonds of solidarity and identification with the collective. Yet, healthcare workers are often caught in a dilemma between fighting against underfunding and deteriorating working conditions on the one hand, and cooperating to keep the system standing and provide the best care possible for patients on the other. The author's approach in terms of consensual and conflictual mobilisations brings a fresh theoretical and empirical contribution to the literature on social movements, medical sociology, public health, and the sociology of labour, whilst in-depth case studies bring to light the experiences of healthcare workers and enrich the narrative throughout.
Myanmar’s Changing Political Landscape: Old and New Struggles
by Makiko Takeda Chosein YamahataMyanmar has faced numerous divisions that hinder its democratization and peacebuilding processes since emerging out of decades of military dictatorship. The coup d’état in 2021 terminated Myanmar’s limited and nascent democratization under the civilian leadership of the National League for Democracy (NLD); not only did the coup regime resurface old struggles, but also created new ones. Against the backdrop of Myanmar’s changing political landscapes from military to quasi-civilian to civilian rule in 2016, and back to military rule in 2021, the book discusses the various forms of interconnected struggles, both old and new. In this process, the contributed chapters come together to highlight the changing dynamics of stakeholders, relations between agents and beneficiaries, and the generated evolutionary processes in Myanmar’s democratization and its reversal. This book brings an even mix of researchers both within and outside of Myanmar to critically discuss how different agents and their interactions, in the form of center-periphery as well as state-non-state relations, continuously shape today’s political landscape. Its interdisciplinary composition also invites readers from various backgrounds to grasp with engaged research that identifies the various challenges and addresses ways in which to facilitate change from local and international perspectives.
Challenges in Fiscal and Monetary Policies in Mongolia (New Frontiers in Regional Science: Asian Perspectives #66)
by Hiroyuki Taguchi Osamu Ito Koki Hirota Takeshi OsadaThis book provides quantitative evidence on the issues in fiscal and monetary policies in Mongolia and presents necessary policy recommendations for policymakers and academic circles. Mongolia belongs to a natural resource-based, transition economy and thus has faced the risk of the so-called resource curse—including the “Dutch Disease” and immaturity in market-based systems, particularly in financial markets. Consequently, reformations of resource allocation and policy governance in fiscal and monetary fields have been required. So far, however, there have been only a very limited number of quantitative studies in the Mongolian economy among the vast literature of Asian studies. This book applies scientific approaches to address fiscal and monetary issues, such as data-oriented and econometric methods (a structural vector auto-regression model, a spatial econometric model, and panel estimation with fixed effects, among others). In this manner, the book enriches empirical evidence in academic literature and also contributes to evidence-based policymaking. All the authors are young leaders of government officials in the Ministry of Finance, Financial Regulatory Commission, and National Statistics Office in Mongolia, who have been trained in academic research methodologies at Saitama University, Japan, on JICA-JDS scholarships. Thus, academic researchers and policymakers will be prominent members of the target audience for this work.
In the Shadow of the Member States: Policy-Making Agency by the ASEAN Secretariat and Dialogue Partners (Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific)
by Lukas Maximilian MüllerThis book provides practice-oriented insights into the agency of two previously underestimated actors in Southeast Asian regionalism: the ASEAN Secretariat and ASEAN’s dialog partners. In doing so, it offers an inside view of the policymaking processes in the ASEAN Political-Security and the ASEAN Economic Community, analyzing the interplay and agency by both actors in agenda setting, formulation, decision-making, implementation, and monitoring. Drawing on a trove of novel data, including never-before analyzed sources and numerous interviews with ASEAN insiders, the book showcases a number of concrete cases of policymaking, including competition and counterterrorism policies. The chapters focusing on the ASEAN Secretariat address aspects related to institutional autonomy, capacity, and reforms within the bureaucracy. In the chapters on ASEAN's dialog partners, the book provides insights into the bilateral management of institutional support programs, as well as the impacts of support on ASEAN's policymaking processes.
South Asian Women and International Relations
by Abhiruchi Ojha Pramod JaiswalThis book presents South Asian women’s voices which have been marginalised in the theory and practice of international relations in the region. It highlights critical issues of importance for women which are often neglected in traditional International Relations (IR). Embracing Feminist epistemology, the book re imagines the theory and practice of IR in South Asia, placing women’s experiences and their diverse voices at the centre. Refusing the temptation to typecast women, the book showcases the varied voices of South Asian women in international relations with contributions from an eclectic set of authors from different nationalities. In doing so, the book expands the ontological and epistemological limits of IR by including caste, conflict, protest perspectives. While some of these are uniquely South Asian, like caste, all of them show how the field of IR in general can become enriched by being more inclusive. This book will be of interest to researchers as it provides a fresh conceptual re-conceptualization of the field of IR from gender as well as global south perspective. The book will also help graduate students seeking to understand the intersection of gender and IR.
Political Reform Reconsidered: The Trajectory of a Transformed Japanese State
by Satoshi MachidoriThis Open Access book provides a comprehensive analysis of political reforms in Japan since the 1990s, emphasizing the role of ideas in shaping their goals and outcomes. For more than fifteen years following the collapse of Japan’s economic bubble, politicians, business people and academics tackled a range of institutional reforms. The sweeping changes they enacted—covering almost all facets of the public sphere, including elections, public administration, courts and the central bank—fundamentally altered Japanese political processes and policies. Taken together, they arguably represent the final touches of Japan’s political modernization, which had been unfolding since the mid-19th century. Throughout the reform process, advocates were inspired by a combination of liberal and modernist ideas. This book examines those guiding concepts and illustrates the often messy process of applying them to real-world institutions. While most reforms began from common goals, they ultimately produced different—and frequently unexpected—institutional outcomes, which continue to shape Japanese politics. By focusing on the relationship between the ideas and processes that shaped Japan’s reforms, this book presents a broad vision of institutional change in comparative politics.
Green Recovery with Resilience and High Quality Development: CCICED Annual Policy Report 2021
by CCICEDThis open access book is based on the research outputs of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) in 2021. It covers major topics of Chinese and international attention regarding green development, such as climate, biodiversity, ocean, BRI, urbanization, sustainable production and consumption, technology, finance, value chain, and related topics. It also reviews the progress of China‘s environmental and development policies and the impacts from CCICED. This is a highly informative and carefully presented book, providing insight for policy makers in environmental issues.
Modern Japan’s Place in World History: From Meiji to Reiwa
by Masayuki Yamauchi Yuichi HosoyaThis Open Access book includes chapters on the key turning points in modern Japanese history from the Meiji Restoration to Japan-China diplomatic normalization in the 1970s and beyond. The topics covered include the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, the First and Second World Wars, the Manchurian Crisis, the US Occupation, postwar Japan-China relations, and postwar decolonization. Readers will learn how new research by Japanese historians has led to the revision of conventional views on the turbulent history of Japan, once the enemy of the United States in the war in the Asia-Pacific and now the US’s closest ally in the region. Historical research on the modern history of Japan has been constantly updated. From the Meiji Restoration to the present day, Japan has experienced the effects of modernization and globalization. Recent historical inquiries in Japan tend to focus on the merging of modern history with global history. During the past 150 years, Japan has never been separated from events in international affairs. Scholars and general readers will appreciate the new factual details and philosophical perspectives that this volume provides drawing on the work of fourteen authors who are recognized leaders in their fields. Yuichi Hosoya is Professor of International Politics at Keio University. Masayuki Yamauchi is Specially Appointed Professor at the Musashino University Institute for Global Affairs and Professor Emeritus, the University of Tokyo.
Social Fairness in a Post-Pandemic World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
by Hikari Ishido Jiro Mizushima Masaya Kobayashi Xiaofang ZhangThis book brings a much-needed re-examination of the concepts of social fairness and justice in light of the COVID-19 crisis. Through careful analysis of issues as diverse as the allocation of vaccines through the global system COVAX, women and gender, migrants and refugees, the environment, and social justice, the authors bring novel perspectives on openness, freedom, and well-being. This ambitious collection combines political, economic, historical, philosophical, and cultural analyses to examine whether it is possible to envision a “fair society” after the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Islamism and the Quest for Hegemony in Indonesia (Contestations in Contemporary Southeast Asia)
by Luqman Nul HakimThis book examines the failure of Islamic politics in becoming a hegemonic force in Indonesia and the far-reaching consequences for current practices of democracy and of Islam itself. In contrast to the thesis of compatibility between Islam and democracy following the dominant discourse of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and neoliberal democracy, this study situates Islamic politics in broader social settings by examining its nature and trajectories throughout Indonesia’s modern political history. The book thus investigates how the practices of Islamic politics, or Islamism, have shaped and been transformed through political contestations and the formation of coalitions of multiple forces in constructing Indonesia’s socio-political landscape.Using the concept of hegemony from poststructuralist discourse theory, the analytical framework applied in this book goes beyond liberal epistemologies of Islamism that prescribe the separation of religion from politics and treat Islamism as an object of intervention. Instead, the book is premised on the contention that Indonesia is a political construction, in which Islam has become one of the major discourses that have defined and transformed Indonesia’s nation-state throughout history. In this view, it is argued that the nature and dynamics of Islamism are not driven primarily by different interpretations of religious doctrines, cultural norms or by the imperative of institutions. Rather, the struggles of different Islamist projects in their quest for hegemony are contingent on the outcomes of socio-political changes and contestations that involve multiple political forces, both within and beyond the Islamists, in specific historical conjunctures.
Contemporary Economic Issues in Asian Countries: Proceeding of CEIAC 2022, Volume 1
by An Thinh Nguyen Thu Thuy Pham Joon Song Yen-Ling Lin Manh Cuong DongThis book makes general considerations regarding global changes and contemporary economic issues in Asian countries in real terms. It offers a collection of original conference papers from the annual international conferences on “Contemporary economic issues in Asian countries” (CEIAC Conference) commenced in 2022 in collaboration with CIFOR-ICRAF, Sungkyunkwan University (Korea), and Tamkang University (Taiwan). The theme of the CEIAC Conference 2022 deals with broad aspects of the contemporary economic issues in Asian countries. It covers topics such as economics and business (economic theory, national and international income distribution, macroeconomic policies, sectors of economy, productivity developments, financial market, business governance, bank financing, etc.), green economy and sustainable development (developing process, development policy, public policy, sustainable growth, green growth, etc.), and international trade and investment (international trade theory, free trade agreements, tariffs, intellectual property, international law, etc.). The book would interest a wide array of professors, researchers, lecturers, students in fields of economics, consultants, and decision makers interested in the issues related to economic issues in Asia.
Ageing in China: What does it mean for the Job Market?
by Xin Deng Kym Fraser Jie ShenThis book provides a comprehensive examination of the effect of ageing population in China on labour market. The delay in releasing 2020 census data in China once again drew world’s attention to the ageing population in China: the births have fallen to their lowest level since the 1960s. The relaxation of one-child child policy seems to have little impact to reverse the declining birth rate starting in the 2010s. Rising longevity have made China - the most populous country in the world- fast becoming an ageing society. Within a few decades, it will become the country with the largest ageing population in the world. This book adopts a multi-disciplinary approach to explore the effects of ageing population on labour market at three levels: Macro, organizational and individual levels. Population ageing in China is of interest to researchers, practitioners and policy makers across the world. Population ageing has profound effects on various parts of the society, and this book will focus on the labour market, aiming at producing a comprehensive picture of how population ageing affecting the composition of workforce and the way people work from the perspective of individuals, organization and society as a whole. This book examines China’s population ageing through the lens of economics, management and sociology, in order to produce a comprehensive understanding of this issue. This book includes cutting-edge research and most up-to-date statistics for arguably China’s most important social change for the next few decades. This book encases high quality research on China’s ageing population and is expected to the reliable source of information for future research and policy development. This book presents a collection of chapters examining the impact of population ageing at three levels in order to provide a holistic view of this matter and allow readers to choose the topic that meet their interests.
Digital China: Big Data and Government Managerial Decision
by Qing JiangThis book is the first practical case study on the application of big data in China's government management scenarios, which is important for comprehensively presenting the achievements of China's e-government and digital construction as well as deeply understanding the implementation of big data strategy in China.The author of this book is one of the earliest practitioners engaged in the study of big data applications, and has personally experienced the development, major events, application cases, and industry changes of big data in China. Cases in this book are all actual projects carried out. The author of this book explains the development history of big data she has personally experienced, presenting in an easy-to-understand way the basic concept and characteristics of big data and practical interpretation, which provides important reference for the practical work of government and enterprise managers. The application ideas of big data in management innovation are proposed, and scenarios are described and discussed in terms of accelerating research on sharing big data in government affairs, breaking barriers, realizing data flow information sharing, creating one-stop services, improving the corresponding policy system for sharing big data in government affairs, building public information platform for e-government, and strengthening network and information infrastructure.Especially for the government personnel in departments, this book will give them a better understanding of the charm and value of big data, intuitively understand the utilization and analysis of big data, carry out effective government management and make correct decisions, so as to improve the data literacy of organizations and individuals, form scientific support for their own government's decision-making and management, thus promote the continued construction of digital government, digital China, and digital economy era based on the application of big data.
The End of Rationality and Selfishness: A Story on the Asymmetry, Uncertainty and the Evolution of Cooperation
by Rui-Wu WangThis book reviews the antinomy of rationality and selfishness raised from egoism, though rationality and selfishness are understood as basic evolutionary dynamics of humans and other organisms in both classical economics and evolutionary biology. Based on the research and a comparison with human’s social cooperative behavior, the author presents his belief that the social cooperative system, in its essence, cooperation and conflict are of uncertain stochasticity resulting from their intrinsic asymmetric interaction between cooperative partners. The book then discusses limitations of Newton’s methodology of monism in both biology and social science. The understanding of the asymmetric and uncertain characteristics found in cooperation system needs perspective of quantum physics of pluralism. At the end of the book, the author undertakes a review of consistency of Newtonian and monism philosophy and the links between quantum physics and pluralism philosophy.
Axes of Sustainable Development and Growth in India: Essays in Honour of Professor Jyoti K. Parikh (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Piyush Tiwari Kirit ParikhThis book is written by prominent academics and practitioners, exploring problems and opportunities of growth in different aspects of sustainable development. The overarching themes running throughout the book are energy access, policy, climate change, human development and resource allocation in the context of India. The book will benefit policymakers and researchers with its inclusion of new evidence and solutions to meet developmental challenges.
EdgeAI for Algorithmic Government
by Rajan Gupta Sanjana Das Saibal Kumar PalThe book provides various EdgeAI concepts related to its architecture, key performance indicators, and enabling technologies after introducing algorithmic government, large-scale decision-making, and computing issues in the cloud and fog. With advancements in technology, artificial intelligence has permeated our personal lives and the fields of economy, socio-culture, and politics. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into decision-making for public services is changing how governments operate worldwide. This book discusses how algorithms help the government in various ways, including virtual assistants for busy civil servants, automated public services, and algorithmic decision-making processes. In such cases, the implementation of algorithms will occur on a massive scale and possibly affect the lives of entire communities. The cloud-centric architecture of artificial intelligence brings out challenges of latency, overhead communication, and significant privacy risks. Due to the sheer volume of data generated by IoT devices, the data analysis must be performed at the forefront of the network. This introduces the need for edge computing in algorithmic government. EdgeAI, the confluence of edge computing and AI, is the primary focus of this book. It also discusses how one can incorporate these concepts in algorithmic government through conceptual framework and decision points. Finally, the research work emphasizes some design challenges in edge computing from applications viewpoint. This book will be helpful for data engineers, data scientists, cloud engineers, data management experts, public policymakers, administrators, research scholars and academicians.
Fission and Fusion of Allies: The ROK Nuclear Quest and U.S.–France Competition and Cooperation
by Lyong Choi Jooyoung LeeThis book traces the development of U.S-led global nuclear non-proliferation diplomacy during the three decades since the Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” in 1953. The U.S. non-proliferation efforts had diverse obstacles. It had to prevent nuclear states’ export of nuclear technology while dissuading non-nuclear states from developing nuclear weapons. In addition, building non-proliferation regime was not always its top foreign policy priority. To understand the complex process of non-proliferation, the book examines the relations among three different actors in the nuclear field: a global non-proliferation regime builder (U.S.), a potential nuclear proliferator (France) and a would-be nuclear state (Republic of Korea). In tracing how they developed nuclear strategies, conflicting and compromising with one another, the book pays special attention to how the transforming Cold War structure in the 1970s not only affected foreign policies of the involved countries but also complicated their relationship. The exploration ultimately highlights the multidimensional nature of international discussion on nuclear non-proliferation as the ROK’s nuclear development attempts, U.S. non-proliferation efforts, and the U.S.-France nuclear technology cooperation in the 1970s were all deeply connected.