Japan's New Economic Diplomacy: Changing Tactics or Strategy?

Japan's economic diplomacy has evolved significantly since the 1990s in response to the reconfiguration of regional and global power. This article places developments along a conceptual continuum and finds that, slowly but steadily, Japanese policies shift from an emphasis on commercial goals of economic diplomacy to include also a more outspoken element of power play. While tourism promotion may be considered a new part of economic diplomacy, long-time practices of trade and investment promotion, business advocacy, and development cooperation are revamped with a focus on the environmental and energy fields. The negotiation of trade agreements, which for long was highjacked by domestic politics, was given new impetus in 2010, while financial diplomacy—which seemed promising in the early 2000s—stalled. Finally, negative sanctioning is no longer a taboo, particularly in the relationship with North Korea. The appetite of the government and private sector to conform with Western countries remains limited, however, and the ambiguity between the old and the new suggests that we are witnessing a change in Japanese tactics rather than in strategy.     

Werbung und Unternehmensberatung als „:Treuhänder“: expressiver Werte?

This paper discusses the contribution of Parsons’s theory of professions that focuses on the specific modern relationship between value commitment and rationality to the analysis of the field of advertising and (management) consulting occupations, both being considered to be a new type of professions (named economic communicators of culture). However, there are some differences between the classical professions and these new occupational groups. One main difference is the significance of expressivity: advertisers are concerned with expressive functions of consumerism while consultants are implementing values of self-realization and individualism in the work sphere. Therefore, we refer to both, Parsons’s category of expressive culture and to his theory of symbolic media of interchange where he developed the idea that value-commitments are no longer anchored (internalized) in personality structures and institutionalized in occupational roles, but “circulating”. This idea stresses the role of reputation as a source of professional influence and recognition. The connection of these three elements of Parsons’s theory (professions, expressive culture, symbolic media) will contribute to a better understanding of the significance of these new occupational groups, the economic communicators of culture.     

Centre for African renaissance studies,the academy,the state and civil society: Methodological implications of transdisciplinarity and the African perspective

Abstract

The Centre for African Renaissance Studies (CARS) at the University of South Africa was born in a political and social environment in which there is a new groundswell for a rebirth, where there are calls for ownership, accountability, excellence, responsiveness and substantive democracy on new terms. Surrounding the centre are the state, the academy and civil society, each with its limitations as well as possibilities for an institution that is established to foster, nourish and effect change in the context of the African Renaissance. The challenge before CARS is therefore one that involves the creation of new knowledge, analyses and interpretations of social reality on an ongoing basis. In working out its linkages and its strategies for dialogue, engagement and co‐determination around the past, present and future of Africa, with players such as the state, the academy and civil society in general, therefore, the centre needs of necessity to clarify its position, role and vision in the field of knowledge production. It is here that transdisciplinarity signifies a distinct methodology in knowledge generation, development and utilisation. This article argues that the nature of the crisis we face today is definitely no longer that of ‘economics’, ‘politics’ or ‘culture’ per se; neither is it, for that matter, a crisis of the humanities versus the natural sciences; but rather it is one in which there is a peculiar convergence of all these factors and which, together, form an entirety exceeding the sum of its parts.     

From Young Turks to modern Turkey: the story of Hüseyin Aziz Akyürek (Aziz Bey), the last director of the Ottoman General Security Service

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, was one of the early leaders of the Young Turk movement. Nevertheless, when he founded modern Turkey as a nation-state he pushed the veterans of the Young Turks aside, as their pan-Turanian ideology no longer suited the basics of the new state. The leaders of the Young Turks represented the past and their perceptions no longer corresponded with the change of circumstances and the new objects of the nascent state. While Armenian activists assassinated some of the top leaders of the Young Turks as a revenge for the Armenian genocide, second-rank leaders had now to find their way in modern Turkey. Aziz Bey was one of the seniors of the Ottoman security system during the Young Turks period and eventually reached the most senior position of director of the Ottoman General Security Service. When modern Turkey emerged, because of his remarkable talents, he managed to fit in middle-level positions in the new state (province governor, mayor and MP), but never regained elite status.     

大国战争之后:权力生产方式的历史演变

文章遵循历史脉络,从国际政治经济学的视角定义权力及其生产方式,将战争理解为权力博弈的一种手段,并考察随着权力及其生产方式的变化,大国获取权力和财富的渠道更为多元,战争的“投入—产出”比下降。文章认为,当政治权力意味着引领构建传统和非传统安全共同体,经济权力意味着领导全球经济治理和解决发展问题,多边制度体系及其信誉与融资成为新的权力生产方式,战争就不再作为大国博弈的必要选项,多边制度框架下的博弈成为大国战争之外的新主题。遵循制度逻辑、维护制度信誉是大国获得发展融资和治理融资,进而保持权力可持续生产的理性更优选项。     

Soziotechnischer Wandel als graduelle Transformation

Processes of socio-technical change that are triggered by new technological opportunities do not occur as radical fractures over short periods of time, which then quickly lead to new periods of technological, institutional and organizational continuity. What appears to be radical socio-technical change is in fact the result of longer search and restructuring processes that are influenced by a number of related technological and socio-economic changes. Once these changes accumulate they lead to substantial adjustments within the technological, institutional and (inter-)organizational foundations of society, the economy or other sectors. How can an analysis of processes of both radical and gradual change be introduced? What modes are involved in their occurrence, which patterns do they follow and what variations do they assume? Against the background of technology-driven change within economic sectors, this paper develops a concept of gradual socio-technical transformation. This concept can be used to analyze and structure multi-phased, often erratic and non-linear processes of socio-technical change that only over time evolve into substantial sectoral adjustments.     

The Customary Oath in the Gold Coast

The new course in the Gold Coast should not conceal the complicatedstructure underlying the European system. This article illustratessome of the details of local custom. It is by a clerk from Nxima,with 28 years service in the Administration, and forms partof a longer study on Law and government.     

Surviving Financial Crises: The Chinese Overseas in Malaysia and Singapore

This article analyses key elements of the Thaksin government's public sector reform program since 2001 in the context both of a longer history of public sector reform in Thailand, and of Thaksin's style of political rule. Carefully chosen instruments of new public management reform such as budgeting for results and performance management have been accompanied by an agenda of wholesale restructuring of the bureaucracy. However, these instruments do not include many familiar items of the public management reform agenda. The reforms are best viewed as part of a politicisation strategy aimed at asserting political control at the centre. Managerial reforms are being deployed to reshape the bureaucracy into an instrument of the Thaksin government's political program. In the process, the traditional power of the bureaucracy is being challenged and undermined. The long-term impact of the bureaucratic modernisation program on administrative performance is less certain.     

The Global Capitalism School Tested in Asia: Transnational Capitalist Class vs Taking the State Seriously

Globalisation continues to stir debate. One burgeoning theoretical perspective is the “global capitalism school” (GCS), anchored around the writings of William Robinson. The GCS argues that globalisation marks a new epoch as nationally-based elites are no longer the central locus of power in world order with the rise of a “transnational capitalist class” (TCC). Jeb Sprague’s edited volume, Globalization and Transnational Capitalism in Asia and Oceania, is the first book-length study testing key tenets of the GCS in the Asia-Pacific, and therefore fills a crucial gap. In this review article, it is argued that this book does not overcome what I believe are some key theoretical and empirical problems in the GCS, from not taking the state seriously to a dearth of corporate ownership data to demonstrate the existence of a TCC. To argue this, the article draws upon chapters in the book itself that are critical of the GCS, as well as from empirical research on corporate ownership and nationality. Nevertheless, it is concluded that this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the GCS, as well as the broader theoretical implications and empirical impacts of globalisation in the Asia-Pacific region.     

Southern African governments,multilateral development banks,non-state actors,and sustainable infrastructure: Managing changing relationships

There is a need for the countries of Southern Africa to invest in building infrastructure, for which purpose they can be expected to utilise the services of multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDB-funded infrastructure projects often become arenas for debate over the roles and responsibilities of different actors in the development process. This article discusses the fact that there is no longer a clear consensus on the relative responsibilities of governments, MDBs and non-state actors in regard to infrastructure projects, and analyses how these new tensions in the relations between these three actors could complicate efforts to develop the infrastructure so urgently needed in Southern Africa.     

Sports Cars,Sleaze and Gamma Rays: Rhineland-Palatinate Elects its First Red-Green Government

The 2011 election in Rhineland-Palatinate was a political earthquake: Following a string of political scandals, the SPD lost almost ten percentage points of their support, while the CDU could hardly improve on their disastrous 2006 result. The FDP is no longer represented in the state parliament. The Greens more than tripled their last result, allowing them to enter a coalition with the SPD for the first time.

Analyses at the municipal level show that the party improved most in their urban strongholds while still showing a (relatively) weak performance in rural areas. This will make it difficult to sustain the momentum of their victory. Moreover, the SPD is battered and bruised and needs to select a new leader, but veteran minister president Kurt Beck shows no inclination to step down. This does not bode well for a coalition that needs to organise the state's fiscal consolidation and structural transformation.     

Introduction: Neo-liberal Development Policy in Asia beyond the Post-Washington Consensus

Abstract

This paper introduces a special issue on contemporary neo-liberal development policy in Asia. The paper contextualises the current state of neo-liberal development policy as having moved beyond two earlier phases: one that intended to limit the state and unleash market forces and, subsequently, one that was oriented towards remaking the state in an idealised liberal market image. While building off its forebears, contemporary neo-liberal development policy – what we describe as “market building” – displays a new array of foci and modalities that not only continue to target the state as a site of reform (though often in novel ways) but which also regularly work around the state to directly cultivate private sector activity. Moreover, a product of its times, market building incorporates an increased emphasis upon risk and risk management, with risk to programme implementation and capital now central concerns within the neo-liberal agenda. However, just as with earlier phases of neo-liberalism, the market-building agenda is both subjected to and produces particular patterns of politics. As the papers in this special issue show, perhaps nowhere is this reality more interesting than in Asia, where new and emboldened patterns of accumulation are evident and, where too, nation-states are no longer as materially dependent on organisations such as the World Bank as before.     

“People the North”: Nation‐building in 1960s Australia

The People the North Committee, founded in Townsville in 1962, was true to its name. It wanted to treble the population of northern Australia in a decade. Putting people before profits, the committee insisted that Australians had a moral obligation to prolifically populate their northern lands. Neither the ambition nor the rationale was new. In fact, the People the North Committee was the last gasp of a grand demographic aspiration that went back more than a hundred years. Thereafter, through to the present day, proposals for northern development have prioritised economic over demographic gains: profits before people. This article examines the ambitions and advocacy of the People the North Committee, setting them in the longer historical trajectory of the aspiration to people the north. In doing so, it offers a window onto a neglected facet of the nation‐building project in Australia.     

Von der Organisation Krankenhaus zum Behandlungsnetzwerk?

The following paper is based on ethnographic studies in German hospitals and focuses on medical actions and decision-making. As the investigation was conducted as a panel, it is possible to perceive of how the organizational changes have affected the medical work in hospitals. In the first part of the study, from 2000 to 2002, field research took place in four different types of departments in several hospitals. In the second part of the study, in the year 2004, the general ward and the department of abdominal surgery were revisited. In the time period between the two field-research phases the hospitals in Germany were experiencing an extensive process of organizational change. On the one hand, the introduction of the new “Diagnose Related Groups” (DRG) brought a new cost accounting structure. The base for calculating the cost is now no longer length of hospital stays, but a billing system related to diagnosis. On the other hand, connected to the ongoing privatization of hospitals, concepts of modern management (computer based “controlling”, “outsourcing” and centralization of important functions) are beginning to enter into hospital life. These processes are significantly changing the context of medical work and also the way in which medical decisions are processed.     

The determinants of voluntary judicial resignation in Australia,Canada, and New Zealand

This article compares supreme and high court judicial turnover with respect to voluntary exits and retirements in three Westminster parliamentary democracies, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, for the period 1970–2012. The findings of an event history model indicate that judges who author large numbers of opinions in a given year are likely to stay longer, while those who dissent from their colleagues frequently are more likely to exit early. It was also found that judges are more likely to resign if the party that appointed them was expected to lose government.     

Hirohito Redux-- Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix

ABSTRACT

The American Anthropological Association's Code of Ethics does not sufficiently acknowledge the challenges posed for anthropologists who “study up” and “across” rather than “down” the partly imagined power hierarchy within which the researcher and her host members position themselves. The Code proves inadequate for the ethical dilemmas that emerged from the four projects presented in this volume on the worlds of urban feminists and right-wing conservatives, activists and policy-makers of a local community revitalization project, an indigenous minority in the process of reclaiming its present, and corporate soccer functionaries. Several features distinguish these articles from previous work on the subject of ethics in anthropology: It is no longer necessarily nor exclusively the ethnographer who does the writing. The contested claims to ethnographic authority, access, and representation are closely related to the importance of the production and circulation of texts. The will to be loyal to one's consultants does not in all projects appear as the most ethical manner to pursue fieldwork. The power relations that anthropologists engage mirror the fluidity and flexibility of power relations among their research subjects that appear exacerbated in study-up projects. As anthropology's focus has become increasingly urban, cosmopolitan, and Western, conventional understandings of ethnographic authority, access, and power relations are contested and problematized in new, more complex ways.     

东南亚地区形势:2008年

在刚刚过去的2007年,东南亚各国经济保持较高速度的增长;展望2008年,虽然有一些困难和不稳定因素,但是,总的而言,仍然是一个好年头.美国经济衰退给世界经济带来许多不确定因素,也给东南亚经济蒙上一层阴影.然而,时过境迁,美国经济虽然是影响东南亚经济的一个重要因素,但已经不是唯一的因素,美国一打喷嚏,东南亚就感冒的年代已经一去不复返了.东南亚政治在2008年基本能够保持稳定,马来西亚顺利举行大选;泰国前总理他信回国,新总理沙玛一再强调是他信的代言人,新政府执行了一条没有他信的他信政策.东盟通过了<东盟宪章>,它标志着这个地区性国际组织进入一个新的时代.东盟与各个大国的关系也比较顺利,日本在东南亚又有一些新的动作,福田首相继承其父亲老福田的路线,加强了东南亚外交.     

Corporate South Africa and biodiversity in a green economy

Abstract

Environmental protection and conservation efforts pose a major challenge the world over, more so for newly industrialising countries that need to strike the precise balance between environmental preservation and future economic development. An arduous challenge for business and the government is the reconciliation of economic growth, development and natural resources conservation. Biodiversity conservation is no longer the preserve of national organisations or state bodies. Companies as users of biodiversity and contributors to its degradation and loss should be a part of the solution as well. The general business world has since entered a new era in terms of its role in aiding and disabling the move towards sustainable development. This is partly attributed to an evolution in policy making from treating the corporation as a problem to perceiving it as a vehicle for economic development and, in this context, integral to the concept of an African renaissance. It is against this backdrop that the article takes stock of the manner with which the corporate sector is conserving and preserving biodiversity as well as methods and modes that are used to do this. It also highlights some of the theories that have been posited to do this which in turn can assist in mapping future engagement. This article aims to present a case for further including the private sector in conserving and preserving biodiversity as a sub stream of environmental issues facing the world today.     

东亚和解的障碍与超越——历史之外的因素

冷战的结束使世界形势发生了根本性的变化。但东北亚仍然是世界上一个特殊的区域。二十年前甚至更长时间困扰这一地区的一些重大问题诸如国家统一、防止核扩散、民族和解、意识形态对等几乎没有取得进展,目前也没有明确的解决办法。东亚和解已成为跨世纪的难题。历史问题给东亚国家带来了困扰,但中韩日之间的历史问题不会像各自所期待的那样解决。今天东亚和解的障碍不仅仅是因为历史,东亚和解的内涵也将与以往不同。从长远来看,地区主义应该是东亚国家和解的起点。东亚的未来,必然是许多不同利益与倾向相互让步的结果。     

Between ambitions and financial constraints: The reform of the German armed forces

After the end of the Cold War and unification, Germany's role in the international system underwent a fundamental change. The so-called Berlin Republic developed a new strategic culture, relaxed its stance on the use of force and put its interests forth in a more self-confident way. These developments mark an essential change and renunciation of many norms and principles, which dominated German security policy until the end of the Cold War. Hence, the question arises if the concept of Germany as a ‘civilian power’ is still valid. The adaptation to the new security environment and the development of new ambitions is reflected in a far-reaching reform of the German armed forces. As an instrument of German foreign policy, the foremost task of the Bundeswehr is no longer territorial defence, but international conflict prevention and crisis management. Bundeswehr reform, however, is not matched by sufficient financial means, and so remains imperfect and problematic.