In a book launch event held on 29 May 2020, CityU’s Department of Asian and International Studies (AIS) presented four publications by its faculty members, which may be of interest to scholars and students across politics, development studies, area studies, international relations and other disciplines.
Driving Toward Modernity: Cars and the Lives of the Middle Class in Contemporary China
by Dr Jun ZHANG, Assistant Professor, AIS
ISBN: 9781501738395, 9781501738401 (Print)
Published by Cornell University Press, 2019
In Driving toward Modernity, Zhang ethnographically explores the entanglement between the rise of the automotive regime and emergence of the middle class in South China. Focusing on the Pearl River Delta, one of the nation’s wealthiest regions, Zhang shows how private cars have shaped everyday middle-class sociality, solidarity, and subjectivity, and how the automotive regime has helped make the new middle classes of the PRC. By carefully analysing how physical and social mobility intertwines, Driving toward Modernity paints a nuanced picture of modern Chinese life, comprising the continuity and rupture as well as the structure and agency of China’s great transformation.
The Political Economy of Southeast Asia - Politics and Uneven Development under Hyperglobalisation
by Dr Toby CARROLL, Associate Professor, AIS
Dr Shahar HAMEIRI, Associate Professor, School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland
Dr Lee JONES, Reader in International Politics, School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of London
ISBN: 9783030282547
Published by Palgrave Macmillan, 2020
This all-new fourth edition of The Political Economy of Southeast Asia constitutes a state-of-the-art, comprehensive analysis of the political, economic, social and ecological development of one of the world’s most dynamic regions. With contributions from world-leading experts, the volume is unified by a single theoretical approach: the Murdoch School of political economy, which foregrounds struggles over power and resources and the evolving global context of hyperglobalisation. Themes considered include gender, populism, the transformation of the state, regional governance, aid and the environment.
China’s “Singapore Model” and Authoritarian Learning
by Dr Stephan ORTMANN, Assistant Professor, AIS
Prof Mark R THOMPSON, Professor and Head of Department, AIS
ISBN: 9781138388390
Published by Routledge, 2020
This book explores to what extent China has drawn lessons from Singapore, both in terms of its ruling ideology and through policy-specific learning. In so doing, it provides insights into the opportunities but also the challenges of this long-term learning process, focusing attention to how non-democratic regimes deal with modernisation. The stellar lineup of international contributors, from China, Singapore, Europe, and the US, offers a variety of perspectives on Singapore as a model of “authoritarian modernism” for China.
Governance and Democracy in the Asia-Pacific
by Dr Stephen MCCARTHY, Senior Lecturer in Southeast Asian politics, Griffith University
Prof Mark R THOMPSON, Professor and Head of Department, AIS
ISBN: 9780415720632
Published by Routledge, 2020
This book explores the theoretical and empirical relationship between democracy and governance in the Asia-Pacific region. It includes both theoretical investigations tracing the modern development of the concepts of governance, development and democratisation as well as regional and country-specific observations of major issues, presenting comprehensive country-level studies of China, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Fiji and the Solomon Islands.
