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.

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.

Most books that analyse the crucial subject of globalisation only look at it from a western perspective. This is the first detailed study to look at globalisation specifically in the Asia-Pacific region. An impressive collection of leading, interdisciplinary scholars explore various dimensions of globalisation and their relationship to development processes in the region.

The world in the last two decades of the twentieth century fundamentally and radically changed at a speed and on a scale never before witnessed. The challenge posed at the beginning of the third millennium is enormous for governments and people the world over. Globalization, along with globalism, continues its unrelenting and accelerating march as it draws more countries, cities, and people closer into interdependent relationships. Globalization and Networked Societies attempts to tease out some of the salient elements of this process, especially as it has affected urban centers in Pacific Asia over the past twenty years. Globalization and rapid economic growth have transformed the region and its cities on varied spatial scales, bringing new opportunities and challenges for governments, the private sector, and individuals. All countries in Pacific Asia are covered in this work, with special attention given to Hong Kong and to China, a late bloomer in the Asia scene but nevertheless one that has experienced phenomenal growth and accelerated globalization in recent decades. The empirical analyses reveal the outcome, dilemmas, and meanings of globalization in the urban-regional scene.

Globalization, Urbanization, and Civil Society is an interdisciplinary compilation of chapters concerning civil society in the global geopolitical context. The establishment of civil society is essential for urbanism and the global community because it is the sense and essence of development concerning what humankind is, as a collective entity on the globe. This thought-provoking book covers the multidimensional aspects, issues, challenges, and consequences of geopolitics and globalization on civil society, including freedom in the public sphere, alienation, neo-fascism, social cohesion, racial inequality, political narcissism, political-economic exceptionalism, Islamic radicalism, social justice, and resistance. The author brings a fresh and essentially non-Western critical perspective to bear on the fundamental challenges faced by civil society as a result of the globalization of corporate capitalism in the Digital Age, as well as providing a rich perspective on colonialism. This book will appeal to scholars and graduate students of geopolitics and globalization, global development, sociology, international relations, cultural studies, psychology, and philosophy, as well as practitioners and policymakers who are interested in interdisciplinary approaches in the field of global studies.

This edited volume brings together a number of well-known scholars and activists from various parts of the world to present critical perspectives on recent and long term trends in the economic, socio-cultural and political life of the people of Asia and examines the policies and constraints faced by the nation-states of the region. It contributes to and enriches the current debates on globalization, the prospects for democracy, and sustainable human development. The book offers an incisive assessment of the role of civil society in creating a democratic political culture in Asia.