This interdisciplinary book by a group of Asian and European scholars provides a deeper understanding of globalization as an historical process with special attention to the regional and national contexts. Globalization, this book demonstrates, has its roots in civilizational dialogues and interchanges.

The rapid postwar economic growth in the Southeast Asia region has led to a transformation of many of the societies there, together with the development of new types of anthropological research in the region. Local societies with originally quite different cultures have been incorporated into multi-ethnic states with their own projects of nation-building based on the creation of "national cultures" using these indigenous elements. At the same time, the expansion of international capitalism has led to increasing flows of money, people, languages and cultures across national boundaries, resulting in new hybrid social structures and cultural forms. This book examines the nature of these processes in contemporary Southeast Asia with detailed case studies drawn from countries across the region, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. At the macro-level these include studies of nation-building and the incorporation of minorities. At the micro-level they range from studies of popular cultural forms, such as music and textiles to the impact of new sects and the world religions on local religious practice. Moving between the global and the local are the various streams of migrants within the region, including labor migrants responding to the changing distribution of economic opportunities and ethnic minorities moving in response to natural disaster.

This volume discusses the current trend of globalization and the main characteristics of world order, focusing specifically on the destiny of the nation state, the threat against human rights, and conflicts between unilateral hegemony of the USA and Europe. It examines the contemporary European experience and compares it with Asian reality with a view to implications for the future development of Asia. It also discusses regional integration as a framework for bringing stable peace, exploring detailed principles and specific forms of a regional community in Asia. Contributors from Europe and Asia critically review previous literature on this topic and suggest new theoretical and empirical grounds of regional community in Asia. The book takes the viewpoint of comparative civilization and experiences of European integration to offer meaningful lessons for the future of nation states and the possibility of building regional communities in Asia.

The increasing globalization of recent decades has had major impacts on both developed and developing nations. In this text, 12 international experts examine these impacts from the perspective of European and Southeast Asian economies. They consider the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows and relocation to low wage and developing countries on wages, employment and social conditions in Europe, and how FDI inflows and relocation from developed countries affect growth, employment and social conditions in Southeast Asia. For economists, social researchers, lecturers and scholars in international economics, international business, and Asian business. c. Book News Inc.

The presence of Asia as a major political, cultural, and economic player is one of the most important parameters for understanding the contemporary world and acting in it. This situation has repercussions for the self-perception and position of Europe not only with respect to current processes of globalization, but also in view of its numerous past encounters with Asia. Asia and Europe are much more interconnected than the still widespread monolithic juxtapositions of the two areas/continents suggest. Focusing on the modern period, Asia and Europe: Agents, Concepts, and Things deals with the multilateral relationships that exist between different regions in Europe and Asia. Mechanisms of colonial hegemony along with the dynamics of modernization have resulted in the emergence of new ideas about society, history, law, religion, economy, the arts etc. across Asia and Europe. The variegated relationships between Asia and Europe span hegemonic forms of imperialism and contestations of nationalism, the circulation of norms, technologies, material objects and artefacts, the reception of concepts and practices as well as resistance against them, (dis-)entangled narratives of history and religion, and personal encounters between the actors involved in these processes. In studying such constellations, this collection of essays focuses on actors, ideas and things involved in these processes. The essays deal with knowledge practices, negotiations of gender relations and legal norms, theoretical contestations in politics, economy, literature, the arts and religion, narratives of history and individual action.

In an age of globalization there is frequent migration across national borders, resulting in a reconsideration of the notion, practice and social institution of national citizenship. Addressing this phenomenon, the book focuses on the exchange between, and responses, of Korea and Germany. In particular, the book deals extensively with citizenship in Korea where the concept of citizenship is young, and thus the study of citizenship is relatively scarce. This book may be the first of its kind, bringing together eminent Korean and German scholars to analyse various aspects of citizenship in Korea. It is hoped that it will contribute to scholarship in the fields of citizenship and migration and to an understanding of the flow of people and ideas between Asia and Europe.

At the end of the 1980s, a tri-polar world comprising the US, EU and Japan emerged. However, the economic turbulence of the early 21st century has destabilized this order, and the rise of other Asian powers has implications for the formation of a new economic configuration.This book discusses the probability of the different tentative global economic power balances to emerge, as well as the different contestants: the EU, China and Japan, among others.Organized into three sections, the first part addresses general and trend-wise developments with relevance to the outcome of the re-polarization process. Subsequently, three chapters focus on developments in China, India and Japan. Finally, special issues such as climate policies, corporate governance, social reforms and cross-border economic alliances are considered in greater detail, in relation to their implications for the outcome of the re-polarization process.