Evolving Thinking and Policies of China's Diplomacy and China-EU Relations

Evolutions and readjustment permeate China’s diplomatic policy in the six decades’ history of PRC, thanks to the tremendous changes happened to both the world and PRC. Enormous opportunities and challenges to China coincide in the present world. China and EU are rising with bigger role to play in the world, though daunting challenges to bilateral relations beckon.     

Trust and inter‐firm relations in developing and transition economies

The role of trust in facilitating economic growth has been highlighted in previous contributions to this journal. In order to take this debate forward, this article argues (1) that more attention needs to be given to the relationship between sanctions and trust, and (2) that it is worth distinguishing between the minimal trust for making markets effective and the extended trust required for deeper kinds of inter‐firm co‐operation to work. The article goes on to ask why minimal trust is lacking and so hard to construct in the republics of the former Soviet Union. It then examines how extended trust grows or can be made to grow in industrial supply chains and clusters in developing countries.     

Traditional and small‐scale culture goods in international trade and employment

The literature in economics has relegated to an unimportant role the traditional and small‐scale industries in the process of development. Instead, manufacturing development is essentially seen as a transformation process from traditional to modern, from rural to urban and from agrarian to industrial. The main stress in development has been laid on industries with scale economies and positive externalities, and on the inducement of modern, capital‐intensive techniques. Small‐scale production has been taken to mean inefficient and backward; large‐scale production has become synonymous with the efficient and modern. Moreover, the consumer is characterized as preferring standardized products, while traditional goods are believed to be inferior and easily replaced by factory goods.     

Praxis and paradigms of local and expatriate workers in ‘Aidland’

This paper discusses practices and paradigms that expatriate and national humanitarian aid workers use to deal with major problems they encounter in their daily work. It views ‘Aidland’ as an arena where different actors encounter, negotiate and shape the outcome of aid. One of the main findings is that there are consistent differences in the way expatriate and national aid actors perceive problems in their field, as well as in the way they respond to these issues. The paper shows that these perceptions often translate into heterogeneous paradigms and practices between expatriate and national staff, particularly around remote control aid, partnerships and donor reporting. These findings are highly relevant in the current context of ‘localisation’, suggesting that the so-called North/South divide continues to exist and more explicit attention should be given in aid research to the heterogeneous strategies of different actors working in the aid sector. The paper is based on analysis of data derived from a multiple-round Delphi expert panel study involving 30 highly experienced humanitarian aid practitioners.     

Misrecognitions and missed opportunities: post‐structuralism and the practice of development

Over the past 20 years post‐structuralist scholars have produced critiques of the field of development. In some circles it is now quite broadly accepted that this approach is futile and that we ought to move into a ‘post‐discourse’ era. By way of counterpoint, this paper argues that such exchanges are based on misrecognitions whose acceptance forecloses possibilities that both critics and their detractors would welcome. The paper is broken into two sections. The first engages problems ascribed to post‐structuralist critiques that seem to have been particularly successful in discouraging further engagement. The second explores three aspects of a single moment of post‐structuralist thought that have been obscured by current debate. Engaging these aspects, while bringing difficulties of its own, may secure conditions necessary for the emergence of the sorts of partnerships often claimed as necessary both by developers and by their post‐structuralist critics.     

International Institutions and Workers’ Rights: Between Labor Standards and Market Flexibility

International financial institutions (IFIs) like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank often have used the leverage afforded them through their loan mechanisms to demand domestic labor market flexibility. At the same time, the International Labour Organization’s call to respect Core Labor Standards (CLS) in the global economy has increasingly gained acceptance since 1998. CLS that sanction freedom of association and collective bargaining have been particularly emphasized by the ILO since these are collective rights that enable the exercise of other rights. While IFIs have generally held to free market principles, new research findings and international pressure has led the IMF and World Bank to be more open to the idea of core labor standards. Implementation has often lagged, but some advances have been made. This includes the World Bank’s commitment to ensure respect for CLS through its private sector lending arm. Yet to be seen is whether these policy shifts will lead to greater respect for labor standards or whether the continuation of market-oriented reforms will further undermine labor’s collective power, creating new challenges for future resistance.     

Between emergency and routine – securitisation of military security in Iran and Indonesia

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explain the internal conditions of military security in a non-European context. It utilises securitisation as the theoretical perspective and investigates Iranian and Indonesian case studies to explore how the perception of internal threats and vulnerabilities determines the approaches to military security. It begins with a reiteration of securitisation theory assumptions, followed by clarifying the understanding of security in non-Western contexts. The case studies focus on the conditions which facilitate securitisation, including the nature of securitising actors, assumed concepts of security, and securitisation processes and their outcomes. The analysis indicates a necessity for several alterations in securitisation theory to realise its full potential. Civil–military relations in Asian states differ from those in the West, as both Iran and Indonesia show a high degree of military involvement in political affairs. Military security also becomes securitised as a result of internal political rivalries. The perception of threats is a tool in the struggle to extend the capabilities of security agencies or retain influences.     

Reconstructing and Reforming the Financial System in Conflict and ‘Post-Conflict’ Economies

Reconstructing the financial system in countries affected by violent conflict is crucial to successful and broad-based recovery. Particularly important tasks include: currency reform, rebuilding (or creating) central banks, revitalising the banking sector, and strengthening prudential supervision and regulation. Encouragement of private capital into the banking sector must be balanced by protection of the public interest, a task made more difficult by the nature of war-to-peace transition. Bank crises can destabilise economies in recovery from war, and their fiscal burden takes resources away from development and poverty spending – thereby threatening ‘post-conflict’ reconstruction itself.     

Offsetting the Development Costs? Brain drain and the role of training and remittances

Over recent decades global labour markets have emerged and skill shortages in particular sectors have generated an international competition for the best and brightest. The developed world is seen to ‘poach’ this talent from poorer countries, with the resultant ‘brain drain’ undermining their capacity to develop. This paper calls into question the assumption that the emigration of the highly skilled will automatically represent a loss to the country of origin. The paper positions itself between the two extremes of brain drain as constituting a pure loss or a pure gain for sending countries and calls for a more moderate approach to skilled migration and its impact on development. The paper goes beyond the simple brain drain/brain gain dichotomy by looking at the flow of the skilled within specific geographic spaces and the resultant policy dilemmas and options.     

Energy and Enterprise in Liu Hongsheng's Cement and Coal-Briquette Businesses, 1920–1937

The cement and coal-briquette manufacturing enterprises founded by Chinese capitalist Liu Hongsheng (1888–1956) during the 1920s and 1930s illustrate the potential of perspectives from the field of energy history to enrich our understanding of the interface between business and environment in modern China. Through his involvement in coal marketing and distribution during the early twentieth century, Liu Hongsheng promoted and profited from China's nascent transition to an energy regime powered by fossil fuels. With the establishment of his cement and coal-briquette companies, Liu also devised ways to profitably reuse and exploit by-products from his coal businesses as a source of energy for other forms of industrial production. More broadly, this analysis of the ecological linkages among Liu Hongsheng's business ventures situates them in relation to the interlocking systems of technology, infrastructure, energy sources, and institutions that facilitated the initial emergence of fossil-fueled economic growth in China during the interwar period.     

Principal,Agent or Bystander? Governance and Leadership in Chinese and Russian Villages

Abstract

What does ‘local self-governance’ mean in post-communist Russia and China? In order to answer this question, the article focuses on village-level governance in both countries by employing a four-fold typology of village leadership in public affairs. In both countries, the withdrawal of state power from local communities and the introduction of legislative ‘self-government’ has not brought autonomy to the local and community levels. The findings here suggest that the single ‘state agent’ category of village leadership that emerged under the communist regime is shifting to become one of the remaining three types, ‘principal’, ‘local agent’ and ‘bystander’. There was a growing tendency towards a non-autonomous type of ‘bystander’-style leadership in China and the ‘local agent’ type in Russia. This article suggests that the development of these local governance styles should not be attributed to a common transitional process departing from the communist past, but is the outcome of four factors that influence village leaders in two countries: administrative distance between local and village level, village social structure, fiscal arrangements and electoral relationships.     

‘Pedagogical’ and Ethnographic Fictions and Meta-narratives of Development: 1 World Manga

This article focuses on the development-themed Manga series entitled 1 World Manga, a World Bank/Viz Media project that follows the adventures of a young orphan boy, who ‘discovers that the only way to become a true warrior is to understand the challenges facing the poor and disadvantaged people he befriends along the way’. I argue that the series generates a pedagogical meta-narrative of ‘development’ that engages behavioural and situational, rather than ontogenetic and structural causes of inequality and disenfranchisement impede the characters' human development. I then discuss how ‘pedagogical’ fictions of development produce normative discourses of development that are centred around explicit, recognisable, fixed sets of circumstances, actors, and outcomes, and how they differ from ‘ethnographic’ fictions of development that emerge when development projects and interventions become sites of cultural production.     

Process and practice: groupness,ethnicity, and habitus in Carpathian Rus’

This article synthesizes Wimmer's and Brubaker's processual approach to analyzing ethnic groups with Jenkins and Bentley's practice-based theories of ethnicity to explain the role played by socio-emotional experiences and practical concerns in Carpatho-Rusyns, both mobilizing as an ethnic group as well as resisting such mobilization. Data were gathered from interviews and participant observation during the eight months of fieldwork in 10 different villages, towns, and cities in the Pre?ov region of Slovakia and the Zakarpattia oblast of Ukraine. Carpatho-Rusyns live in an area where borders have changed frequently and where religions, states, and political movements have encouraged the inhabitants’ assimilation to a new or larger group. Rusyns tend to describe ethnicity as instrumentalist theorists do, that is, something largely produced as a result of struggles over territory, resources, and political power. Nevertheless, they evince a profound emotional connection to their language, land, and spirituality. This emotional connection manifests itself among “ethnopolitical entrepreneurs” as well as among the general population, but only motivates explicit political organization among the former.     

Joining it up? Health and Wellbeing Boards in English Local Governance: Evidence from Clinical Commissioning Groups and Shadow Health and Wellbeing Boards

Statutory responsibility for health care and social care has long been separated between National Health Service (NHS) bodies and local government authorities. Repeated policy attempts to promote service integration through collaboration between such authorities have achieved little. The latest of such policy interventions are the Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) established by the 2012 Health and Social Care Act (HSCA) alongside a range of other organisational innovations, including Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). These organisations await full legal and operational status but have begun to develop structures and processes. HWBs are intended to lead the integrated assessment of local needs to inform both NHS health and local authority social care commissioners. We undertook detailed qualitative case studies in eight CCGs during 2011–2012 and here report observational and interview data related to CCGs’ perspectives and observations of early HWB developments. We found that developing HWBs vary greatly in their structure and approach, but we also identified a number of significant issues that are familiar from earlier research into health and social care integration. These include heavy dependence on voluntary agreements to align the strategic plans of the many different new statutory bodies; a significant role for mundane organisational processes in determining the extent of effective co-operation; and problems arising from factors such as size and the arrangements of local boundaries.     

Does the Restrictiveness of State Tax and Expenditure Limitations Affect State Revenues and Expenditures?

This paper examines the impact of tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) on state governments. We examine how TELs are represented in empirical modeling. We compare and contrast an index of state-level TEL restrictiveness to a simple dummy variable approach. We use a panel of data for the 50 U.S. states to capture changes in state TELs and a generalized method of moments (GMM) dynamic panel estimator. We find that results vary across the two methods of capturing the presence of TELs, suggesting that simple dummy variables are not sufficient to capture the heterogeneity of TELs across states and over time.