Norms, Storytelling and International Institutions in China

Norms, Storytelling and International Institutions in China
Author: Xiaoyu Lu
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2021-02-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030567079

This book is a political ethnography of norm diffusion and storytelling through international institutions in China. It is driven by intellectual puzzles and realpolitik questions: are we converging or diverging on values? Do emerging powers reinforce or reshape the existing international order? Are international institutions socialising emerging powers or being used to promote alternative norms? This book addresses these questions through fieldwork research over three years at the United Nations Development Programme in China, the first international development agency to enter post-reform China in 1979. It provides a crucial case to study the everyday practices of norm diffusion in emerging powers, and highlights the central role of storytelling in translating and contesting normative scripts. The book selects norms in human rights, rule of law and development cooperation to analyse how translators and brokers innovatively use stories to advocate, and how these normative stories move back-and-forth between local-global spaces and orders. "A fascinating ethnography that tells us much about international institutions and China's changing role in the world: of interest both to China specialists and theorists of international relations." —Rana Mitter, Director of the University of Oxford China Centre, University of Oxford, UK “Through pioneering ethnographic research, Xiaoyu Lu’s outstanding book makes a major contribution to our understanding of norm diffusion and the ways in which China is shaping, and is shaped by, international development norms. Lu’s richly textured analysis shows how ‘norm translators’ use case studies, personal stories, and other narratives to negotiate between global and local normative orders, and to facilitate the day-to-day processes of norm diffusion." —Amy King, Associate Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, Australia "An intricate account of the everyday politics in international development institution, that will enrich our understanding of emerging powers and their roles in global development.” —Emma Mawdsley, Director of the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies, University of Cambridge, UK

International Student Activism and the Politics of Higher Education

International Student Activism and the Politics of Higher Education
Author: CindyAnn Rose-Redwood
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2024-03-19
Genre: Education
ISBN: 166693531X

From international tuition hikes and discriminatory immigration policies to racially motivated violence and geopolitical tensions, international students encounter numerous political issues while studying abroad. Yet it is often assumed that international students are politically passive and disengaged rather than actively contributing to the political life of higher education institutions and the host country more generally. The present book challenges this assumption by bringing together the work of scholars from various fields of study to examine international student activism, advocacy, and political engagement in higher education settings. Drawing upon different research approaches, this book showcases scholarship exploring the multifaceted ways in which international students engage with the “political” as well how the policy environments and socio-political atmospheres in both host and home countries shape these experiences. Far from being passive bystanders, international students have exercised their political agency through diverse forms of collective action over the past century, and this edited collection calls for a renewed focus on the political dimensions of the international student experience.

China and World Politics in Transition

China and World Politics in Transition
Author: Fulvio Attinà
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2023-05-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3031273583

This book analyzes China's transformative political power in today's world while simultaneously addressing global issues and the reformation of world institutions. China has become known as the world's first factory and trading power, but more knowledge on China's rise is necessary to understand the world of today and the future. The main question is where China's rise is headed and how this affects the increasingly connected world that faces problems that no state can effectively address on its own. This book analyzes both sides of the coin, that is, the problems of a world scale and the change of the world political order. China is among the major actors for global issues such as mitigating climate warming, controlling weapons of mass destruction, combating economic inequality and underdevelopment, and improving health for all. In the current setting of the new world order, all countries and especially world powers develop a general blueprint for the future, as cultural and material conditions of the present world are very different from the past. Under such conditions, China faces a review of its bilateral and regional strategies, as well as its position and actions in world institutions that have the mission of forming policy responses to issues of a global scale. This book, therefore, provides insight into China's view of world problems and the future world order. It is a must-read for everybody interested in a better understanding of China's role in today's world and the global power shift.

China

China
Author: Gungwu Wang
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 556
Release: 2013
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9814425850

China has achieved significant socio-economic progress and has become a key player on the international stage after several decades of open-door and reform policy. Looking beyond China's transformation, this book focusses on the theme of governance which is widely regarded as the next most critical element to ensure that China's growth remains sustainable.Today, China is confronted with a host of pressing challenges that call for urgent attention. These include the need to rebalance and restructure the economy, the widening income gaps, the poor integration of migrant populations in the urban areas, insufficient public housing and healthcare coverage, the seeming lack of political reforms and the degree of environmental degradation. In the foreign policy arena, China is likewise under pressure to do more to address global concerns while not appearing to be overly aggressive. The next steps that China takes would have a great deal to do with governance, in terms of how it tackles or fails to address the myriad of challenges, both domestic and foreign.China: Development and Governance, with 57 short chapters in total, is based on up-to-date scholarly research written in a readable and concise style. Besides China's domestic developments, it also covers China's external relations with the United States, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Non-specialists, in particular, should find this volume accessible and useful in keeping up with fast-changing developments in East Asia.

African Constructions of China

African Constructions of China
Author: Kwaku Opoku Dankwah
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2023-12-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1003826377

Marking a constructivist turn in Africa-China scholarship, this book explores African constructions of China. Using Ghana and Kenya as case studies, the book outlines the role of diverse state and non-state actors in defining what China represents to the region, and how it compares to Western powers. Resisting Sino- and state-centric analysis of China-Africa relations, this book emphasises the importance of African agency in shaping the discourse. The book demonstrates that the identity construction of a foreign state such as China takes place both at the international level, and at a domestic, intrastate level. Domestic constructions of China in Ghana and Kenya reflect internal tensions about future directions for African political and socio-economic development, and these constructions in turn help to justify government policies towards China. The book concludes by questioning the idea of a straightforward win-win relationship, and suggests that exploitative, hierarchical relations conventionally associated with North-South interactions may continue in South-South relations. This book’s important analysis of the role of domestic non-state actors in shaping African policymaking extends much needed nuance to a sometimes polarised debate. It will be of interest to researchers across the fields of politics, international relations, global development, and African and Chinese Studies.

The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language

The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language
Author: Sin-Wai Chan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1085
Release: 2016-04-14
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 131738248X

The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language is an invaluable resource for language learners and linguists of Chinese worldwide, those interested readers of Chinese literature and cultures, and scholars in Chinese studies. Featuring the research on the changing landscape of the Chinese language by a number of eminent academics in the field, this volume will meet the academic, linguistic and pedagogical needs of anyone interested in the Chinese language: from Sinologists to Chinese linguists, as well as teachers and learners of Chinese as a second language. The encyclopedia explores a range of topics: from research on oracle bone and bronze inscriptions, to Chinese language acquisition, to the language of the mass media. This reference offers a guide to shifts over time in thinking about the Chinese language as well as providing an overview of contemporary themes, debates and research interests. The editors and contributors are assisted by an editorial board comprised of the best and most experienced sinologists world-wide. The reference includes an introduction, written by the editor, which places the assembled texts in their historical and intellectual context. The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital research resource.

The Routledge International Handbook of Morality, Cognition, and Emotion in China

The Routledge International Handbook of Morality, Cognition, and Emotion in China
Author: Ryan Nichols
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2022-05-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000576434

This ground-breaking handbook provides multi-disciplinary insight into Chinese morality, cognition and emotion by collecting in one place a comprehensive collection of essays focused on Chinese morality by world-leading experts from more than a dozen different academic fields of study. Through fifteen substantive chapters, readers are offered a holistic look into the ways morality could be interpreted in China, and a broad range of theoretical perspectives, including ecological, anthropological and cultural neuroscience. Offering a syncretic, multi-disciplinary overview that moves beyond the usual western-oriented perspective of China as a monolithic culture, research questions addressed in this book focus on morality as represented at the level of the individual, rather than at the group or institutional levels. Research questions explored herein include: What are the major contours of distinctively Chinese morality? What was the role of the ancient ecology, climate, and pathogen load in producing Chinese moral attitudes and emotions? Are ingredients of the good life in China different than ingredients of the good life elsewhere? How are children in China morally educated? How do findings from cultural neuroscience help us understand differences in the treatment of family members, or the treatment of strangers, in China and elsewhere? How do the protests in Hong Kong participate in, or stand apart from, the ongoing ethics of protest in historical China? The clear structure and accessible writing offer a rigorous assessment of the ways in which morality can be interpreted, shedding light on differences between China and Western cultures. The book also provides a timely window into Chinese forms of morality, and the pivotal role these play in social organization, family relationships, systems of government, emotion and cognition. Representing fields of study ranging from philosophy, linguistics, archaeology, history, and religion, to social psychology, neuroscience, clinical psychology, developmental psychology, and behavioral ecology, this is an essential text for students, academics, and others with wide interest in Chinese culture.

Rising Star

Rising Star
Author: Bates Gill
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2010-10-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0815704542

China's diplomatic strategy has changed dramatically since the mid-1990s, creating both challenges and opportunities for other world powers. Through a combination of pragmatic security policies, growing economic clout, and increasingly deft diplomacy, China has established productive and increasingly solid relationships throughout Asia and around the globe. Yet U.S. policymakers are still trying to comprehend these critical changes. Rising Star provides a coherent framework for understanding China's new security diplomacy and guiding America's China policy. Bates Gill has completely updated his original analysis, focusing on Chinese policy in three areas: regional security mechanisms, nonproliferation and arms control, and questions of sovereignty and intervention. Looking to the future, he offers specific recommendations for a balanced and realistic approach that emphasizes what China and the United States have in common, rather than what divides them. The main arguments and recommendations of the original book continue to hold true and, in many respects, are more compelling now than ever before given China's continued ascendancy.

The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy

The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy
Author: Thierry Balzacq
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 801
Release: 2021
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0198840292

A clearly articulated, well-defined, and relatively stable grand strategy is supposed to allow the ship of state to steer a steady course through the roiling seas of global politics. However, the obstacles to formulating and implementing grand strategy are, by all accounts, imposing. The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy addresses the conceptual and historical foundations, production, evolution, and future of grand strategy from a wide range of standpoints. The seven constituent sections present and critically examine the history of grand strategy, including beyond the West; six distinct theoretical approaches to the subject; the sources of grand strategy, ranging from geography and technology to domestic politics to individual psychology and culture; the instruments of grand strategy's implementation, from military to economic to covert action; political actors', including non-state actors', grand strategic choices; the debatable merits of grand strategy, relative to alternatives; and the future of grand strategy, in light of challenges ranging from political polarization to technological change to aging populations. The result is a field-defining, interdisciplinary, and comparative text that will be a key resource for years to come.

Telling the EU’s Story by Others

Telling the EU’s Story by Others
Author: Yifan Yang
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2019-09-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1498593429

China is one of the first few non-EU member states to be covered by the Jean Monnet Programme. By studying its implementation in China through interviews with EU officials, Chinese professors, and college students who were and are involved in the program, Telling the EU’s Story by Others: The Jean Monnet Programme and European Union Public Diplomacy enables a better understanding of why and how it works in the Chinese context. Furthermore, this book on the role of the Jean Monnet Programme in EU public diplomacy adds first-hand empirical material to the existing literature on public diplomacy implementation through educational programmes.