This book critically examines the impact of globalization, changing power dynamics, migration, and evolving rights regimes on regional order, discourse of national governance, state and society relations, and the development of civil society in East Asia. Providing a textured, critical reading of East Asia as an economically, socially, and politically dynamic region, this book also presents the region as one shaped simultaneously by progressive as well as regressive pulls. Attentive to prevailing issues as well as to states’ and civil societies’ responses to them, it focuses on changing societies and politics in East Asia, particularly on shifting notions of citizenship, nationhood, and peoplehood. The contributions feature new and timely conclusions drawn from multidisciplinary fields including law, public policy, sociology, Asian studies, gender, sexuality, and ethnic studies and include direct testimonies from citizens of East and Southeast Asia. Globalization and Civil Society in East Asian Space will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, political science, and Asian studies more broadly.

Globalization, the City and Civil Society in Pacific Asia presents a detailed examination of the underlying issues of urban life in the Far East. Leading authorities on globalization and politics in the region cover key themes of continuity and change: relationships between civil society and the production of urban spaces. Chapters focus on various types of ‘civic spaces’ that provide spaces for life that are autonomous from state and capital ten case studies explore a wide variety of contexts ranging from spaces where lower classes congregated in ancient Chinese cities to cyberspaces of the contemporary internet the history and role of civil society in social and political philosophies of societies in the Pacific Asia region tendencies and issues related to specific types of civic spaces in a given city. Several studies find that great stress has been placed on long-standing community and civic spaces common themes, patterns and issues as well as singularities of each particular context. In this way it can contribute to the broader (mostly Western) literature on society and space the future of cities in Pacific Asia from the perspective of civic space. Can civic spaces be routinely created rather than appropriated through civil society-state-economy struggles? Most research on globalization and civil society has focused on the West, this unique book brings together a tight analysis and a series of ten case studies on Pacific Asian countries. It also theorizes and empirically explores the relationships between civil society and the production of urban spaces.

Academics and policy makers have grown increasingly interested in the ways that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) may encourage better governance, democratic politics, and perhaps ultimately a global civil society. In Civil Life,Globalization and Political Change in Asia, Robert Weller has brought together an international group of experts on the subject, whose chapters address these questions through a series of extensive case studies from East and Southeast Asia including Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Globalization is a defining feature of our times, covering everything from economic and political issues to the spread of American culture. Its status is controversial, however with some viewing it as leading to greater development for all, while others see it as a threat to national cultures and democratic political life. This book shows how simplified such binary views are, and examines how various globalizing forces have affected Asian societies. It discusses the relationship between globalization, identity and democratic developments in Asia both theoretically and empirically, and aims to understand how economic, political and social forces interact and are mutually reinforced in Asian societies.

Theories of citizenship from the West – pre-eminently those by T.H. Marshall – provide only a limited insight into East Asian political history. The Marshallian trajectory – juridical, political and social rights – was not repeated in Asia and the late nineteenth-century debate about liberalism and citizenship among intellectuals in Japan and China was eventually stifled by war, colonialism and authoritarian governments (both nationalist and communist). Subsequent attempts to import western-style democratic values and citizenship were to a large extent failures. Social rights have rarely been systematically incorporated into the political ideology and administrative framework of ruling governments. In reality, the predominant concern of both the state elite and the ordinary citizens was economic development and a modicum of material well-being rather than civil liberties. The developmental state and its politics take precedence in the everyday political process of most East Asian societies. These essays provide a systematic and comparative account of the tensions between rapid economic growth and citizenship, and the ways in which those tensions are played out in civil society.

Who benefits from the interconnected processes often referred to as globalization? Is it a relatively few people, with most others either being harmed or at least not helped? Are the good things that globalization produces, whatever they are, widely shared? What processes lead us in one direction or another? This book examines a key dimension of globalization: its fairness. It investigates the meaning of and role fairness plays when public institutions are faced with the challenges and opportunities of globalization. Here a distinguished group of contributors, including both academics and practitioners, focuses on East and Southeast Asia, but the relevance of the issues discussed extends well beyond these regions. They present a broad-ranging examination of the intersections between fairness, globalization, and public institutions. Contributors: Doug Allen, Walt T. Anderson, Ron Brown, Jim Dator, Jingping Ding, Christopher Grandy, Sohail Inayatullah,Yong-duck Jung, Martin Khor, Yoshiko Kojo, Le Van Anh, Ivana Milojevic, Ryo Oshiba, Edgar A. Porter, Dick Pratt, Fred Riggs, James Rosenau,Yongseok Seo, Chanto Sisowath, Shunichi Takekawa.

One effect of globalization has been urban restructuring in various cities of Asia, increasing migration from Asia to European cities, and the intensification of debates about citizenship. The multi-dimensional constellations of ethnic minorities in Asian and European cities have become increasingly divided, stratified, and segmented. The post-colonial legacy permeates these phenomena. This book examines developments in Asia and Europe on the basis of fieldwork surveys, examining anti-globalization movements and minority group dissent at the local level, and their effects on civil society. Chapters include studies of the homeless in Manila, Thai-Chinese residents in Bangkok, Islam in Bali, and the Bangladesh community in London.