Kei Takata, postdoctoral research fellow at IN-EAST / Chair for Comparative Sociology and Japanese Society was appointed …
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Kei Takata, postdoctoral research fellow at IN-EAST / Chair for Comparative Sociology and Japanese Society was appointed Assistant Professor at the Research Center for International Japanese Studies, Hosei University, Tokyo.
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Prof. Yu Keping is going to visit the IN-EAST from September 30 to October 7, 2018. He will give a talk on Friday, October …
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Prof. Yu Keping is going to visit the IN-EAST from September 30 to October 7, 2018. He will give a talk on Friday, October 5, 14–16 h, Room SG 183
Prof. Yu Keping (Director of the Center for Chinese Government Innovations at Peking University, Director of the Institute of Political Development at Tsinghua University and Director of the China Center for Global Governance and Development (CCGGD)) is a frequent visitor at IN-EAST and Mercator Fellow of the DFG Research Training Group Risk and East Asia. His fields of expertise include political philosophy, comparative politics, globalization, civil society, governance and politics in China. Among his many books are Governance and Rule of Law in China (ed., Brill 2012) and Democracy Is a Good Thing (Brookings 2010).
During his stay he will supervise PhD students, conduct collaborative research, and investigate possibilities for further collaboration.

He will give a talk entitled "Challenges and Priorities for China’s Two Hundred Years’ Goals" on Friday, October 5, 14–16 h, in Room SG 183 (Geibelstr. 41)
Abstract:
There have been so many great changes in Chinese political, economic and social life since President Xi Jinping has become the top leader of China. Everything that changes is referred to as the “New Normal” or the “New Era”. Nevertheless, there are some things unchanged behind the changed, at least, for instance, the fundamental goals for China’s development in the long term. That is to have constructed a Xiaokang Society by 2020, to have made China a modernized country by 2050 and to then realize the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Mr. Xi Jinping refers to them as the “Two Hundred Years’ Goals” and the “Chinese Dream”. However, in order to reach the “Two Hundred Years’ Goals” China faces great challenges, and even risks. The presentation will explain and analyze the main challenges faced by China. Meanwhile, the speaker tries to summarize and evaluate the policy priorities to meet these challenges taken on by the Chinese government. weniger

Social Innovation – concepts and international trends | Wed., Jan. 24, 2018, 16–18 h | Room SG 183, Campus Duisburg
Abstract:

The …
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Social Innovation – concepts and international trends | Wed., Jan. 24, 2018, 16–18 h | Room SG 183, Campus Duisburg
Abstract:

The importance of social innovation in successfully addressing social, economic, political and environmental challenges of the 21st century is recognised not only within the Europe 2020 strategy but also on a global scale. However, despite this growing awareness of the significance of social innovation, there is still no sustained and systematic analysis of social innovation, its theories, characteristics and impacts. As a novel approach to address complex problems in global health, social care, education, energy, and environmental policies, social innovation has been embraced by stakeholders and communities on the local, regional and even national level.

But what are the conditions under which social innovations flourish? Who are the stakeholders and in what capacity do they understand and develop social innovation? How do social innovations diffuse and lead to social change? What are the challenges for a comprehensive innovation policy, which focuses on new participation structures, empowerment and human resources development as basic conditions for social innovation?
In light of increasing importance of social innovation the presentation looks at the theoretical concepts, areas of empirical research and observable trends in the field of social innovation on a global scale. On the basis of the results of the global research project SI-DRIVE it gives an overview of the current situation and the perspectives of social innovation research.


Biography:

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Howaldt, born 1960 is director of Social Research Centre at TU Dortmund University and professor at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences. He is an internationally renowned expert in the field of social innovation. He has consulted German as well as European policy-makers and has also presented his concept of social innovation in all parts of the world. In 2011 he was one of the organizers of the international conference “Challenge Social Innovation” in Vienna.
He is member of the Science Forum Ruhr and of the committee of the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (Canada); Affiliate of SIERC (Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research Centre, Massey University, New Zealand); Co-founder of the European School of Social Innovation; Expert of the German Federal Chancellor’s Dialog for the Future; Scientific Coordinator of the global research project SI-DRIVE, funded within the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission. Since 2016 he is member of the Expert group of the German Rector’s Conference “Innovation und Transfer” and the editorial board of the European Journal of Workplace Innovation. weniger

Contemporary Issues and Problems of the East Asian Model of Capitalism  |  Mon, Jan. 22, 2018, 12–14 h  |  Room …
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Contemporary Issues and Problems of the East Asian Model of Capitalism  |  Mon, Jan. 22, 2018, 12–14 h  |  Room LE 104, Campus Duisburg
Abstract:
The East Asian region and in particularly Japan, Taiwan, Korea and the PRC have developed successfully through a distinct developmental state-led model that is based on investments and export orientation. In the comparative political economy literature, this development model is referred to as “East Asian capitalism” highlighting similarities in the region and differences with Western liberal models of capitalism in the US as well as coordinated varieties in continental Europe. Indeed so far the hyper-globalization thesis that all countries would converge towards one best practice model of (neoliberal) capitalism have been wrong. This does not mean that the East Asian growth model is unchallenged and without problems. On the contrary, declining growth rates, high debt levels, increasing social inequality, environmental degradation, political corruption and weak civil societies are impeding the transformation of East Asia towards a balanced, sustainable and equitable future. Is the path dependency of a previously successful development model impeding progress in the region?

Biography:
Thomas Kalinowski is a professor of Political Science at the Graduate School of International Studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea. He is teaching International Political Economy, Comparative Political Economy, European Integration, International Organizations and Development. After receiving his PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in 2004 he was a lecturer at Humboldt University Berlin, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California in Berkeley and a visiting assistant professor at Brown University. Recent publications include works on the political economy of financial crisis and crisis management, global governance, the global role of East Asia, the diversity of capitalism and the transformation of the East Asian developmental state. You can follow his research at
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas_Kalinowski
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Barefoot lawyers and the search for justice in rural China  |  Wed, Nov. 15, 2017, 16–18 h  |  Room SG 183, Campus …
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Barefoot lawyers and the search for justice in rural China  |  Wed, Nov. 15, 2017, 16–18 h  |  Room SG 183, Campus Duisburg
Based on fieldwork in Shandong province, this talk focusses on a group of peasant or barefoot lawyers that seek to employ the law "as a weapon" and for "giving peasants a voice". It explores their biographical backgrounds, motivations and tactics, and their changing relations with government officials and fellow villagers. It will argue that in order to understand the relation between law and justice in rural China, we need to go beyond the court room and actual court cases. Instead we need to focus on the working of law as a new language of civilisation, as a platform from which to speak truth to power, an ideal of justice against which injustices are being measured, and as a tool for rebalancing relations with authority. weniger

Prof. Thomas Kalinowski is visiting professor of the Research Training Group "Risk and East Asia" (DFG Graduiertenkolleg …
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Prof. Thomas Kalinowski is visiting professor of the Research Training Group "Risk and East Asia" (DFG Graduiertenkolleg 1613) from 15.01.2018 to 15.02.2018.
His office will be located in LE 739.
Thomas Kalinowski studied political science at Philipps Unversität Marburg and Freie Universität Berlin. He received his Ph.D. from Freie Universität Berlin in 2004. Since graduation, he has been a visiting fellow at the East West Center Hawaii, a lecturer at Humboldt University Berlin, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California in Berkeley, and a visiting assistant professor at Brown University. He joined the Ewha GSIS faculty in 2007. He is interested in international political economy and development with a focus on the East Asian region. Recent publication include works on IMF structural adjustment in East Asia after the Asian financial crisis, financial liberalization in Korea, democratization and market oriented reforms in East Asia.
For more information about our guest, please compare his personal website and his CV:

Personal website: http://www.thomas-kalinowski.net/

He can be reached at: tkalinowski@ewha.ac.kr weniger

Brazil Exporting Social Policies: From Local Innovation to a Global Model  |  Mon, Oct. 23, 2017, 15–17 h  |  Room …
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Brazil Exporting Social Policies: From Local Innovation to a Global Model  |  Mon, Oct. 23, 2017, 15–17 h  |  Room SG 183, Geibelstr. 41, Campus Duisburg
Importation of foreign models is part of Brazil’s institution building story, owing to Portuguese colonialism, the presence of European countries, and the dominance of the United States, until the past century. After the transition to democracy and the New Constitution of 1988, the scenario started to change. The country developed important social policy innovations that rose to a national scale when the Workers Party (PT) took office. These innovations started to spread globally, and international organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations began to recommend Brazilian social policies to developing countries. Examples of the “Brazilian way of social policy-making“ that have been transferred to different countries are Participatory Budgeting (PB), the Family Allowance Program (PBF) and the National School Feeding Program (PNAE). How did Brazil move from importing foreign institutions to becoming Southern countries’ reference on social policies?
The main argument of this article is that Brazil, while building itself as a rising power over the last two decades, developed new patterns of policy transfers that have so far been overlooked by the literature. By analyzing the engagement of the country on international diffusion of social policies, it was possible to identify different mechanisms that facilitate transfers. These involve a quest for international legitimacy, the role of “policy ambassadors“, the joint efforts of different national institutions, the reversal of relations with international organizations, the occupation of international positions in institutions, an policy transfer costs.
This article presents the results of research developed with qualitative methods, that gathered data from fieldwork that included 150 interviews, participant observation in more than 10 countries, and a set of official documents.

Osmany Porto de Oliveira is Professor of International Relations at the Federal University of São Paulo. weniger

PHD Candidate Ying Ding wrote an article about the language of the Sibe tribe who are an ethnic minority in China

Labor/Poverty Politics against the Japanese Developmental State: De-Nationalization after 1945, Nationalization by New Actors …
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Labor/Poverty Politics against the Japanese Developmental State: De-Nationalization after 1945, Nationalization by New Actors | Mon., Sept. 18, 2017, 16–18 h | Room LE 736, Campus Duisburg


Abstract

A historical analysis of the Japanese (post)developmental state is offered, with a focus that is largely different from mainstream scholarship on this topic: the focus is on the marginalized, dislocated, and impoverished. Linking this view with notions borrowed from critical state theory, the argument is made that Japanese post-1945 developmentalism became possible by “de-nationalizing” radical social movements fighting for critical labor/poverty issues. This historical analysis is enhanced by field observations of innovative social-movement strategy in one Japanese region, Kanagawa Prefecture, in which “pro-homeless" groups transformed the local sphere of labor/poverty politics for the sake of the homeless and day laborers. The crisis of developmentalism starting in the 1990s brought a major rupture to the status quo of de-nationalization. Concluding we can say that in contemporary Japan, this rupture is spawning the progressive politics of “nationalization” regarding labor/poverty politics. weniger

Cadre Parents and Their Children for Business? The Dual-Track Intergenerational Reproduction of Elites in China: 1978–2010 …
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Cadre Parents and Their Children for Business? The Dual-Track Intergenerational Reproduction of Elites in China: 1978–2010 | Wed, July 26th, 2017, 16–18 h |
Room LE 736 | Campus Duisburg
Abstract:

This article tries to demonstrate and conceptualize a mode of reproduction of elites in a transitional society away from state domination to market oriented. By focusing on China’s market transformation, we aim to explore how parents’ advantaged occupations have influenced the chance of their children’s status attainment in certain elite positions (administrative, technocratic, market), and whether these patterns have shown variation during three periods (1978–1992, 1993–2002, and 2003–2010).
Based on China Social Survey 2011 data, statistical analyses show that although parents’ advantaged position has a persistent effect on children’s status attainment, the reproduction of the state elite and the market elite still follows two separate tracks: the children of cadres do not show systematic advantage in the process of becoming entrepreneurs and managerial elites, and the children of entrepreneurial and managerial elites are unlikely to join cadres.
It also shows that the effects of reproduction model could still be enhanced and dominated by state power in different historical times. Findings further direct our attention to important interplays between the family socioeconomic conditions and the contextual inequality in achieving a deeper understanding of the elites’ trajectory inequality in contemporary

Biography:

Peng LU is an associate professor at Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. degree in sociology at Tsinghua University in 2010, plus a visiting student experience at Yale University from 2007-2008. He worked at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) as a postdoctoral research fellow from 2011 to 2012. He works in the fields of social stratification, business-government relationship, Chinese entrepreneurship, and comparative studies in post-communist and new emerging economies. He serves several vital academic posts, including secretary-in-general of Research Center for Private Entrepreneurs of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and under-secretary-general of Committee of Social Stratification and Social Mobility of Chinese Sociology Association. He is also the managing director of Chinese Private Entrepreneur Survey, a nationwide survey conducted every two years since 1993. weniger

Dr. Peng Lu (Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) will visit our institute from July 23 to August …
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Dr. Peng Lu (Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) will visit our institute from July 23 to August 12, 2017
He earned his Ph.D. degree in Sociology at Tsinghua University in 2010, plus a visiting student experience at Yale University from 2007 to 2008. He worked at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from 2011 to 2012. He works in the fields of social stratification, business-government relationship, Chinese entrepreneurship, and comparative studies in post-communist and new emerging economies. He serves several vital academic posts, including secretary-in-general of Research Center for Private Entrepreneurs of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and under-secretary-general of Committee of Social Stratification and Social Mobility of Chinese Sociology Association. He is also the managing director of Chinese Private Entrepreneur Survey, a nationwide survey conducted every two years since 1993.

He will give a guest lecture on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 16–18 h, Room LE 736 at IN-EAST. For more information see
https://imperia.uni-due.de/in-east/news.php?id=366 weniger

Professor Dongya Huang will join the GRK 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia” from 02.07. to 30.08.2017.
Dongya Huang is a …
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Professor Dongya Huang will join the GRK 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia” from 02.07. to 30.08.2017.
Dongya Huang is a professor at the Political Science Department, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou. She received her Ph.D. in political science from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2008, and earned her M.Phil. in history of CCP and B.A. in political science from Renmin University of China respectively in 2000 and 2003. She published a couple of papers in the Journal of Contemporary China, Modern China and other Chinese journals. Her current research interest are: business lobby and state-business relationships in China.

Prof. Huang’s office is located on Duisburg Campus in Building LE, Room LE 733. weniger

Coaching Representation: Congressional training in China's single-party system  |  Wed, July 12th, 2017, 16–18 h  |
Room …
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Coaching Representation: Congressional training in China's single-party system  |  Wed, July 12th, 2017, 16–18 h  |
Room LE 736, Forsthausweg 2, Campus Duisburg
Dr. Zhongyuan Enoch Wang is a lecturer at Leiden University Program of International Studies (Netherlands). From the same university, he holds a PhD in Politics and Great China Studies (2017).
Prior to that, he received his Master's degree in Political Science and International Politics from Fudan University in Shanghai.
Among others, his fields of interests include Comparative Political Institutions, Political Innovations, Comparative Authoritarianism and Transition and Local Politics and Governance. weniger

Professor Fan Ke will join the GRK 1613/2 "Risk and East Asia" from 15.06. - 15.07.2017.
Fan Ke earned his PhD in Anthropology …
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Professor Fan Ke will join the GRK 1613/2 "Risk and East Asia" from 15.06. - 15.07.2017.
Fan Ke earned his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Washington in 2001. He currently serves as a Professor and Doctoral Adviser in Nanjing University’s Department of Sociology and Director of Nanjing University’s Anthropology Institute. Professor Fan’s research interests include identity politics, Muslims in Southern China, and globalization and transnationalism.

Prof. Fan Ke's office is located on the Duisburg campus in building LE room LE 729 weniger

Being Forced to be Herdsmen: The Process of Modernization of Evenki Hunters under the State Power of China  |  Monday, …
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Being Forced to be Herdsmen: The Process of Modernization of Evenki Hunters under the State Power of China  |  Monday, July 10th, 2017, 16–18 h  |
Room LE 736 | Campus Duisburg
This study investigates the relationship between Evenki hunters and the state power of China under the process of modernization from 1950s onward. The fieldwork was conducted in Geden Village, the only hunting tribe within the Evenki Autonomous Banner/County, Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, in northeastern China.

Through a field survey of 62 veteran hunters in Geden Village, the lecture attempts to lead the audience to understand how traditional Evenki hunting culture was engaged with the practice of state capitals during the period of the movements of people’s commune in 1950s, of the transformation to nomadic industry in 1990s, and of the implementation of modernization nowadays. weniger

The detailed schedule for summer 2017 at a glance

Ecosystem Governance in China: Incentives Structures and Adaptive State Capacity  |  Wed, July 5th, 2017, 16–18 h  |
Room …
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Ecosystem Governance in China: Incentives Structures and Adaptive State Capacity  |  Wed, July 5th, 2017, 16–18 h  |
Room LE 736, Forsthausweg, Campus Duisburg
Abstract:

This talk explores an especially thorny problem in China’s environmental governance, namely the poor state of ecosystem management. Partly due to stubborn barriers to cooperation between local governments, ecosystems that traverse administrative jurisdictions are routinely over-exploited and heavily polluted. In recent years, the state has established various trans-jurisdictional governance mechanisms and the talk focuses on one particularly significant development, the emergence of Ecological Function Conservation Areas (EFCAs). The fate of EFCA experimentation hinges on the central government’s willingness and capacity to sufficiently incentivize local governments to comply with measures to improve trans-jurisdictional management of ecosystems.

Biography:

Sarah Eaton is Professor of Chinese Economics and Society, Center for Modern East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen. Prior to arriving at Göttingen, she was an Associate Professor of Chinese Political Economy (2013–2014) at the University of Oxford’s School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo (2012–2013) and a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford (2011–2012). She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto (2011). Her research interests and teaching expertise centre on Chinese political economy, inclusive of its regional and global dimensions.

Her current research is concerned with various aspects of state capitalism in reform era China. She has also researched Chinese localities' efforts to forge new growth models in connection with the central government's recent "green" economic plans. weniger

Alison Lamont and Martin Heinberg, former PhD candidates at DFG Graduiertenkolleg Risk and East Asia, have been awarded for …
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Alison Lamont and Martin Heinberg, former PhD candidates at DFG Graduiertenkolleg Risk and East Asia, have been awarded for their excellent dissertations
We were delighted to announce that Alison Lamont’s PhD thesis won a prize, given on 28th June 2017 at the University’s Dies Academicus event. Alison completed her thesis, entitled The Social Impacts of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, China: Normalising After Catastrophic Disaster, last year with the IN-EAST Graduiertenkolleg 1613 Risk and East Asia, under the supervision of Professor Flemming Christiansen. This prize has been awarded by the Vice-Chancellor in recognition of the outstanding quality of the research and its contribution to Sociology and Chinese Studies.
Alison Lamont is now part-time lecturer for sociology at University of Roehampton, London.

Martin Heinberg received the Best Dissertation Award from the Mercator School of Management for his dissertation entitled Analysis of Chinese Consumer Behaviour: Value Propositions and Perceptions Determining Purchasing Decisions of Foreign and Local Consumer Goods Brands. Martin would like to thank his supervisor Prof. Dr. Markus Taube and the IN-EAST Graduate School 1613 Risk and East Asia for all the support and encouragement he has received over the past years. The prize was awarded on Duisburg-Essen University’s Dies Academicus by Rector Prof. Dr. Ulrich Radtke and Vice-Rector for Teaching and Learning Prof. Dr. Isabell van Ackeren following the recommendation of the MSM Dean Prof. Dr. Peter Anker.
Martin Heinberg is now lecturer for marketing at Leeds University Business School.


Foto: UDE / eventfotograf.in


Foto: UDE / eventfotograf.in weniger

Fredrik Barth and Paradigm Change in Chinese Ethnology | Tuesday. June 27th, 2017, 16 - 18 h | Room SG 183, Geibelstr.41, …
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Fredrik Barth and Paradigm Change in Chinese Ethnology | Tuesday. June 27th, 2017, 16 - 18 h | Room SG 183, Geibelstr.41, Campus Duisburg
Fan Ke earned his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Washington in 2001. He currently serves as a Professor and Doctoral Advisor in Nanjing University’s Department of Sociology and Director of Nanjing University’s Anthropology Institute. Professor Fan’s research interests include identity politics, Muslims in Southern China, and globalization and transnationalism. weniger

The coming of Post-earthbound China | Wed. June 7th, 2017, 16–18 h | Room LE 736, Forsthausweg 2, Campus Duisburg
Professor …
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The coming of Post-earthbound China | Wed. June 7th, 2017, 16–18 h | Room LE 736, Forsthausweg 2, Campus Duisburg
Professor of School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China, getting Ph.D. of Sociology at Peking University in 2000. Main research interests are: China’s Huji system, Rural China, law and society, water resource and society. Published books include: The Huji System (2003), Overstepping Hukou (2004), The Definition of Flowing Property Right (2004), Embedded Adapting Pattern (2006), The Embedded Politics and Change of a Village Economy (2007), Peasantry China (2010), Qualitative Social Research Methods (2011), Institution, Market and Development of Rural China (2013), Disputes and Order in Transitional China (2015), Post-earthbound China (2017). He also published more than hundred papers on Chinese academic journals.

Contact E-mail: luyilong@ruc.edu.cn
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Confucian-Legalist State, and Patterns of Social Change | Wed. May 31st, 2017, 14 - 16 h | Room SG 183, Geibelstraße 41, …
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Confucian-Legalist State, and Patterns of Social Change | Wed. May 31st, 2017, 14 - 16 h | Room SG 183, Geibelstraße 41, Campus Duisburg
Abstract

This talk presents a general theory of social change that I have developed in my recent book entitled "Confucian-Legalist State: A Theory of Chinese History" published by the Oxford University Press. The theory is based on the premise that human nature has political, ideological, territorial and economic aspects, and humans compete for dominance and try to institutionalize the gains along these aspects. The bulk of the theory is to analyze how each of the four aspects of human nature has given rise to distinctive mechanisms and institutions shaping the contours of history. The empirical implications of the theory will be illustrated by the patterns of the world history, particularly the premodern history of China and Europe.

Biography
Dingxin Zhao is Max Palevsky Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago and Qianren Jihuai Professor of Zhejiang University. He is also the director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences of Zhejiang University. His research covers the areas of historical sociology, social movements, nationalism, social change, and economic development. His interests also extend to sociological theory and methodology. Zhao has publications in journals such as American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Sociology, American Behavioral Scientist, Mobilization, Problems of Post-Communism and China Quarterly. He is the author Power of Tiananmen (2001) and the following four books in Chinese: Social and Political Movements (2006), Eastern Zhou Warfare and the Rise of the Confucian-Legalist State (2006), The Limit of Democracy (2012), and State and War: A Comparative Analysis of the Chinese and European Historical Development (2015).

Currently, Zhao is researching student nationalism and US-China relations. He has also started a project on historical sociology, which, based on a comparison with the European experiences, is intended to develop an empirically-grounded theory to explain the changes in state, military, economy and philosophy during China's Axial Age (722-221 BC), the unification of China under the Qin Empire (221-206 BC), and how the developments of this period shaped China's later history. weniger

Twists of Fate: Growth Trajectories of Catholicism and Protestantism in Modern China Compared | Wed. May 17th, 2017, 16 …
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Twists of Fate: Growth Trajectories of Catholicism and Protestantism in Modern China Compared | Wed. May 17th, 2017, 16 - 18h | Room LE 736, Forsthausweg 2, Campus Duisburg
Abstract:
This article compares the growth trajectories of Catholicism and Protestantism in the history of modern China and tackles the puzzle: Why did Catholicism, which maintained a big lead in the number of Chinese converts over Protestantism before 1949, become so lagged behind Protestantism today? The article identifies three crucial differences in the institutional features of the two religions. But it also shows that an argument that only examines institutional features is insufficient to explain the twists of the fate for the two religions. It argues the effect of the institutional features is contingent on the macro-structural conditions shaped largely by state politics. In other words, the growth trajectories of Catholicism and Protestantism changed less because their institutional features have changed significantly, but more because the institutional features played out differently under the political environment before 1949, under the Maoist regime, and under the post-Mao state, resulting in the different growth dynamics of the religions, leading to the eclipse of Catholicism by Protestantism in the post-Mao era.

Biography
Yanfei Sun received her PhD in sociology from University of Chicago in 2010. She is currently associate professor of sociology at Zhejiang University. Her research interests include sociology of religion and political sociology. In addition to religious changes in modern China, she also researches on religious movement, global expansion of Christianity, religious toleration, religious nationalism, and ethno-religious violence. weniger

Zeitgenössische Kunst trifft Sozialwissenschaften –
Insook Kim und Benjamin Rabe stellen gemeinsames Projekt in Seoul …
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Zeitgenössische Kunst trifft Sozialwissenschaften –
Insook Kim und Benjamin Rabe stellen gemeinsames Projekt in Seoul aus
Seit dem 26. April 2017 ist im „Savina – Museum für Zeitgenössische Kunst“ in Seoul das Projekt „KIM X RABE The Visual Self – Phase 1 The Visual Face“ im Rahmen der „#Selfie – The people who take pictures by themselves“-Ausstellung zu sehen. Das Projekt besteht aus der grafischen Präsentation der Ergebnisse einer Umfrage unter Japanern und Koreanern zur Bedeutung des Aufnehmens und virtuellen Verbreitens von Selfies (z.B. in Social Networks). Außerdem werden die Umfrageergebnisse mit Fotos und Videointerviews einiger Teilnehmender in Bezug gesetzt und mit dem Fototagebuch des früheren Projektes „Letter to You“ der erfolgreichen koreanischen Künstlerin mit japanischen Wurzeln Insook Kim kontrastiert.

Die Ausstellung, welche noch bis zum 4. August 2017 zu sehen sein wird, trifft auf großes Zuschauerinteresse. Über sie wurde bereits von diversen koreanischen Medien berichtet. Für die Kooperation zwischen Kim und Rabe, Promovend im DFG-Graduiertenkolleg Risk and East Asia des Instituts für Ostasienwissenschaften (IN-EAST), ist dieses Projekt jedoch nur der Startschuss zu weiteren Ausstellungen, die in Japan, Korea und am IN-EAST in Duisburg geplant sind.


(courtesy of SAVINA MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART)

Link zum Ausstellungsort Museum Savina, Seoul:
http://www.savinamuseum.com/eng/exview.action?exdgb=OF&startdt=ing

Links zu Medienberichten von der Ausstellung mit Bildern/Video:
http://m.entertain.naver.com/read?oid=448&aid=0000208978
http://m.news.naver.com/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=103&oid=001&aid=0009217570
http://m.news.naver.com/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=103&oid=015&aid=0003763604
http://www.sedaily.com/NewsView/1OFUU504TU weniger

Transnational Communicative Networks in South Korea’s Democratization Movement …  |  Wed, May 3rd, 2017, 16–18 …
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Transnational Communicative Networks in South Korea’s Democratization Movement …  |  Wed, May 3rd, 2017, 16–18 h  |  Room LE 736, Forsthausweg, Campus Duisburg
Abstract
Transnational Communicative Networks in South Korea’s Democratization Movement in the 1970s and 80s: focusing on the Japan-Korea Solidarity Movement
Transnational network studies in international relations, sociology, and history have grown rapidly since the 1990s. Research often tends to take a top-down (North-South) approach in which developed countries or international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) are assumed to “help” the developing ones. However, this one-way approach cannot fully explain the dynamics of transnational activist networks. This presentation aims to better understand such dynamics by focusing on the ‘communicative interaction’ among transnational actors of the “Japan-Korea Solidarity Movement,” formed by Korean residents in Japan (Zainichi) and progressive Japanese intellectuals, Christians, and activists to support South Korea’s democratization movement in the 1970s and 80s. In addition, this research examines the meaning and political implications of forming transnational networks with struggling others; transnational networks can work reflexively by problematizing the structural relationships among differently situated actors. weniger

Professor Keping Yu will join the GRK 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia” from 17.06.2017 to 23.06.2017.
Prof. Keping Yu from …
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Professor Keping Yu will join the GRK 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia” from 17.06.2017 to 23.06.2017.
Prof. Keping Yu from Beijing University is one of the most famous Chinese political scientist. His recent article "Democracy is a good thing" caused a stir in China and worldwide. He was named one of the 100 most influential global thinkers in 2011 by the renowned Journal of Foreign Policy. Keping Yu is a frequent visitor at the Institute of East Asian Studies and the Faculty of Social Science, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in May 2008. He specializes in comparative politics, globalization and civil society, political philosophy and governance. weniger

Professor Dingxin Zhao will join the GRK 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia” from 09.05. to 10.06.2017.
Professor Zhao’s …
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Professor Dingxin Zhao will join the GRK 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia” from 09.05. to 10.06.2017.
Professor Zhao’s research covers the areas of social movements, nationalism, comparative historical sociology, social change and economic development. His interests also extend to micro-sociology, ecological sociology, sociological theory, and methodology. His past research was on the 1989 Pro-democracy Movement in China and issues related to China's economic development.

Currently, Prof. Zhao is researching student nationalism and US-China relations. He started a project on historical sociology, which based on a comparison with the European experiences, is intended to develop an empirically-grounded theory to explain the changes in state, military, economy and philosophy during China’s Axial Age (722–221 BC), the unification of China under the Qin Empire (221–206 BC), and how the developments of this period shaped China’s later history.

Prof. Zhao's office is located on the Duisburg campus in building LE room LE730 weniger

Professor Yilong Lu will join the GRK 1613/2 "Risk and East Asia" from 21.05.2017 - 10.07.2017
Professor Lu of the School …
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Professor Yilong Lu will join the GRK 1613/2 "Risk and East Asia" from 21.05.2017 - 10.07.2017
Professor Lu of the School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China, obtained his PhD in Sociology at Peking University in 2000. His main research interests are: China’s Huji system, rural China, law and society, water resource and society. Published books include: The Huji System (2003), Overstepping Hukou (2004), The Definition of Flowing Property Right (2004), Embedded Adapting Pattern (2006), The Embedded Politics and Change of a Village Economy (2007),Peasantry China (2010), Qualitative Social Research Methods (2011), Institution, Market and Development of Rural China (2013), Disputes and Order in Transitional China (2015), Post-earthbound China (2017). He has published more than 100 papers in Chinese academic journals.

Contact Email:luyilong@ruc.edu.cn
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5. Duisburg-Frankfurt Workshop | 08.03.2017, 14:00 Uhr - 18:00 Uhr | Frankfurt a.M. | Goethe Universität, Campus …
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5. Duisburg-Frankfurt Workshop | 08.03.2017, 14:00 Uhr - 18:00 Uhr | Frankfurt a.M. | Goethe Universität, Campus Westend | Raum RuW 4.201. | Please register by March 1
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Cross-Cultural Experiments in the Social Sciences, Economics and Management. Date: March 6 and 7, 2017. Venue: University …
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Cross-Cultural Experiments in the Social Sciences, Economics and Management. Date: March 6 and 7, 2017. Venue: University of Duisburg-Essen, Campus Duisburg.
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Congratulations to Anna Shpakovskaya, Doctoral Fellow at the DFG Graduiertenkolleg 1613 Risk and East Asia, who passed her …
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Congratulations to Anna Shpakovskaya, Doctoral Fellow at the DFG Graduiertenkolleg 1613 Risk and East Asia, who passed her thesis defense!
De-administratizing the Chinese Red Cross (2011-2014): Why did it fail? A historical institutional perspective

In this thesis a historical institutional approach is employed to explain why structural disintegration of the Chinese Red Cross from the government administration in 2011-2014 did not succeed. First, elements from three theoretical perspectives such as Institutional Logics approach, Organizational Hybridity and Resource Dependence Theory are merged to build an analytical framework that allows to analyze organizational hybridity of the Chinese Red Cross and operationalize the concept of de-administratization. Then process-tracing method is used to trace down the dynamics between competing logics within the Chinese Red Cross over a wider span of time. Historical process-tracing mainly helps to identify the key underlying mechanism that has been shaping the organizational form and behavior of the Chinese Red Cross. Finally, the outcome of the 2011-2014 reform is examined and explained through the lens of the identified mechanism. It is concluded that the reform of the Chinese Red Cross failed to gain momentum mainly due to conceptual incompatibility.

This thesis brings together voluminous data generated from the author’s firsthand interviews conducted in China, deep insights from the archival materials examined by the author at the International Committee of the Red Cross and International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Geneva, and valuable information from secondary sources in the Chinese and English languages.

The thesis provides a new and fresh perspective in analyzing reform endeavors and reform failure in Chinese organizations taking the CRC as a specific case study. It is also contributive to the future research of the Chinese Red Cross as well as its role in the rapidly growing International Red Cross Movement. weniger

The Effectiveness of the Emission Trading Scheme on Carbon Emissions Reduction. Evidence from China  |  Tue, Feb. 14, …
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The Effectiveness of the Emission Trading Scheme on Carbon Emissions Reduction. Evidence from China  |  Tue, Feb. 14, 2017, 16-18h  |  Room SG 183, Geibelstr. 41, Duisburg
Qian Wang is Professor in Finance at the School of Economics, and a researcher at the China's Public Sector Economy Research Center, of Jilin University, Changchun. She was a Sino-USA Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University (2012) and visiting professor at University of California, San Diego (2005), Free University Amsterdam (2007), and Ritsumeikan University (2009). Qian Wang has published over 50 papers, 3 monographs and 2 textbooks, and received several research grants from the National Social Science Research Fund and the Ministry of Education of China.

As all research forums the talk is open to the general public.
Contact: Shuanping Dai, shuanping.dai@uni-due.de weniger

China's Social Turn and Social Policy Expansion in the New Century: Toward A New Welfare Regime? | Wed, Feb. 8, 2017, 16 …
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China's Social Turn and Social Policy Expansion in the New Century: Toward A New Welfare Regime? | Wed, Feb. 8, 2017, 16 - 18 h | Room SG 183, Geibelstraße 41, Campus Duisburg
Abstract
At the turn of the century, concerning about increasing social risks and social instability in contexts of globalization and marketization has caused the Chinese government to pay more attention to the balance between economic growth and social development. As a result, a ‘social turn’ occurred in China at the every early years of the new century, especially since the year of 2003. The ‘social turn’ has brought about a rapid expansion of social policy in China and the scope of social policy has broadened. In the recent a decade-odd, while many new social programs have been launched (beyond the occupation-based social insurance model), many old programs have expanded their coverage, especially the social insurance programs. With the broadening of the scope of social policy, trends associated with universal coverage are apparent, for instance, coverage of the health insurance was almost universalized. Accordingly, overall social expenditure has increased gradually.
Meanwhile, many new approaches and innovations were suggested to implement social policy. To conclude, China has elevated the importance of social policy in its policy portfolios. Based on the review of the recent social policy expansion and the development of social protection system in China, this presentation will describe the process of the welfare state rebuilding in China, explore its dynamics behind, and discuss the nature and future of the emerging welfare state in China.

About the lecturer
Kinglun Ngok is the Pearl River Scholar Distinguished Professor of Social Policy at School of Government/Centre for Chinese Public Administration Research, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. Prior to joining Sun Yat-sen University in 2004, he taught at Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong where he completed his PhD. His current research interest is social policy, social insurance, and social services. He is the founding director of the Institute for Social Policy at Sun Yat-sen University. His publications have appeared in journals such as Social Policy and Administration, Social Policy and Society, International Review of Administrative Sciences, and Australian Journal of Public Administration. His English books include Social Policy in China: Development and Wellbeing (2008, Policy Press), Welfare Reform in East Asia: Towards Workfare? (2011, Routledge), and China’s Social Policy: Transformation and Challenges (2016, Routledge). He is also the editor-in-chief of Chinese Public Policy Review. weniger

2016 Francesco Kjellberg Award by the International Political Science Association (IPSA), Montreal for the "Outstanding Papers …
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2016 Francesco Kjellberg Award by the International Political Science Association (IPSA), Montreal for the "Outstanding Papers Presented by New Scholars for 2016"
Hanno Jentzsch has received the award for his dissertation-based paper, Tracing the Local Origins of Farmland Policies in Japan – Local-National Policy Transfers and Endogenous Institutional Change. He was a fellow in the GRK 1613, finished his dissertation defense in January 2016 (supervisor Prof. Karen Shire), then moved into a post-doc position at IN-EAST until September 2016, when he joined the German Institute of Japan Studies, Tokyo as a Senior Fellow.

See also the report on the IPSA website: https://www.ipsa.org/news/news/recipients-2016-francesco-kjellberg-award weniger

The detailed schedule for autumn/winter 2016/17 at a glance.

Internationalization of Higher Education and Research as a Development Strategy in China: Opportunities and Risks.  |  January …
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Internationalization of Higher Education and Research as a Development Strategy in China: Opportunities and Risks.  |  January 25, 16–18 h  |  Venue: SG 183, Geibelstraße 41, Campus Duisburg
The higher education and research field in China, like in many other places, have undergone tremendous internationalization in the two decades. For a long time, China has been the source of the highest number of students who study abroad. It has also recently become one of the most popular destinations for international students. Academic staff and researchers have also become more mobile traversing in and out of China in the past decades. Student and staff mobility is only one facet of the internationalizing higher education field. Academic programmes, in the form of transnational education, are also increasingly mobile, through which academic credential can be acquired by students ‘at home’ (in China in this case) through an international (and ostensibly mobile) institutional provider. In the Chinese national discourse, education/academic mobility and transnational education are framed as a development strategy in the globalized knowledge economy.

Drawing on a series of qualitative research projects conducted the past ten years, this seminar maps out the key trends in the increasingly internationalizing education and research field in China. Framed with the ‘politics of mobility’ concept, it illustrates how mobility is a privilege for some but also burden to the others, and that the impact of mobility is unevenly distributed. As such, the presentation highlights the opportunities and risks of this development strategy.

Maggi Leung is Associate Professor for Human Geography and Planning – Social Urban Transitions at Utrecht University.
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Digital Oral Narrative of Political Activism in Japan
December 21, 12–2 pm | Venue: LE 736, Forsthausweg 2, 47057 …
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Digital Oral Narrative of Political Activism in Japan
December 21, 12–2 pm | Venue: LE 736, Forsthausweg 2, 47057 Duisburg
ABSTRACT In the years since the disasters of March 2011 in Japan, we have seen extensive local activism throughout Tohoku around issues of radiation, and the largest and most spectacular demonstrations in Tokyo since ANPO in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Youth have been at the center of many of these direct actions, including different 'anti-nuke' groups and more recently, 'anti-war’ groups, and especially SEALDs (Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy). While impressive in both scale and coordination, most of what is happening on the ground does not fit our established models of 'social movement’ as well as being a challenge to more established representations of Japanese civil society. Academics and activists are now trying make sense of this rise of 'non-movement' activism and to chart how a politics of survival in Tohoku become a normative politics of the popular in Tokyo. This talk, based on fieldwork and video interviews collected continuously since 2011, is a first attempt to sort out these shifts in terms of their institutional connections, rhetorical focus, performative repertoires and presence on both mass and social media.

David Slater is Professor at Sophia University, Tokyo.
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Housing, Care and Intergenerational Exchange in China
Room SG 183, Building SG, Geibelstr. 41, 47057 Duisburg  |  Wed, …
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Housing, Care and Intergenerational Exchange in China
Room SG 183, Building SG, Geibelstr. 41, 47057 Duisburg  |  Wed, Dec. 14, 2016, 16–18 h
Abstract:
Intergenerational support between parents and children in Chinese cities has been dramatically affected by recent social changes. This paper investigates the changing pattern of intergenerational housing support between retired old parents and their children, and the legacy of public housing in shaping this pattern. By initially establishing an up-to-date picture of intergenerational housing support between retired old parents and their children, it seeks to determine how this support depends on whether parents have previously been allocated public housing and, if so, on whether they have disposed of it or have continued to occupy it. A survey with 1000 retired old people from Tianjin in 2009 is used for the analysis. A support flow model is used to go beyond studying housing support per se, and to study the flow of intergenerational support in both directions and in different forms.

Bingqin Li is Director of the Chinese Social Policy Program, Social Poicy Research Center, University of New South Wales, Australia. weniger

The detailed schedule for autumn/winter 2016/17 at a glance.

Associate Professor Bingqin Li will join the GRK 1613 "Risk and East Asia" from 01. - 16.12.2016. She will be located in …
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Associate Professor Bingqin Li will join the GRK 1613 "Risk and East Asia" from 01. - 16.12.2016. She will be located in LE 717, Campus Duisburg.
Bingqin Li is the director of the Chinese Social Policy Program, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia. Prior to this she was an associate professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. Bingqin Li’s research focus is on social policy and governance. Her current projects include governance of age-friendly community, local government motivation in delivering complex social programs, social inclusion and integration, urban governance, and social spending.
Although she has particular expertise on China, she also works on other Asian countries and on comparative studies of policies between Asia and the West. Her research has been published in academic journals in urban studies and social policy, such as Urban Studies, Environment & Urbanisation, Social Policy & Administration and Public Administration and Development.
Bingqin has also consulted international organisations, such as the World Bank, European Union, the WHO, UNESCAP, IIED, and the DFID. She has also collaborative research relationships with UNRISD, top Chinese universities and think tanks such as DRC and CASS in China.
Publications
• Li, B 2015, 'Social pension unification in an urbanising China: Paths and Constraints', Public Administration and Development, vol. 34, pp. 281-293.
• Li, B, Huikuri, S, Zhang, Y et al 2015, 'Motivating intersectoral collaboration with the Hygienic City Campaign in Jingchang, China', Environment and Urbanization, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 285-302.
• Li, B & Zeng, Z 2015, 'Economic Structure, Social Risks and the Challenges to Social Policy in Macau, China', Asia & The Pacific Policy Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 383-398.
• Li, B 2013, 'Welfare state changes in China since 1949', in Bent Greve (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of the Welfare State, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, USA and Canada, pp. 222-231.
• Gong, S & Li, B 2013, Inequality in China: A case study.
• Shin, H & Li, B 2013, 'Whose games? The costs of being ''Olympic citizens'' in Beijing', Environment and Urbanization, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 559-576.
• Li, B 2013, 'Governing urban climate change adaptation in China', Environment and Urbanization, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 413-427.
• Li, B & Shin, H 2013, 'Intergenerational Housing Support Between Retired Old Parents and their Children in Urban China', Urban Studies, vol. 50, no. 16, pp. 3225-3242.
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Professor Jianxing Yu will join the Research Forum from 1. - 31.12.2016. He will be located in LE 732, Campus Duisburg.
Jianxing …
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Professor Jianxing Yu will join the Research Forum from 1. - 31.12.2016. He will be located in LE 732, Campus Duisburg.
Jianxing Yu is professor of political science and public administration, associate dean of the College of Public Administration, director of the Institute for Civil Society Development and executive director of the Center for Public Policy at Zhejiang University, China.
He was a visiting professor at the university of Duisburg-Essen in 2011, Arizona State University in 2006 and 2008 and University of Edinburgh in 2004. His recent research focus is on state theory, social policy, civil society, and civic organisations in contemporary China. He has published over 100 academic articles in both Chinese and English and over a dozen scholarly books. Some of his major books are "Governing Industrial Associations" (2010), "Chinese Civil Society Growing in Participation" (2008), "Marxian State Theory and its Contemporary Implications" (2007), "Chambers of Commerce and Local Government" (2006), "Globalization: Critical Assessments" (2003), "Critiques of Liberalism and Reconstruction of Liberal Theories" (2000). weniger

"Tightening the Silk Road Belt: Challenges and Opportunities"
November 23, 16–18 h | Venue: SG 183, Geibelstraße 41, …
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"Tightening the Silk Road Belt: Challenges and Opportunities"
November 23, 16–18 h | Venue: SG 183, Geibelstraße 41, Campus Duisburg
In late 2013, an updated model of interaction between China and Eurasian countries was officially proposed by the Chinese leadership. As a part of this new strategic model, the Silk Road Economic Belt was presented to strengthen transcontinental links between the actors on bilateral and multilateral levels. The talk will focus on challenges and opportunities the project creates for prospective participants as well as on its possible implications for economic and political development in Eurasia. The discussion will also address the questions usually overlooked in official discourses: the perception of the Chinese initiative in the involved states, security concerns, and the limits of cooperation.

About the lecturer:
Dr. Maria Danilovich is a specialist on Chinese foreign policy and security issues in Central Asia, affiliated as a senior lecturer and researcher at the Department of International Relations, Belarusian State University (Minsk). During her PhD and ongoing research, she has done extensive field work in different regions of China and the Central Asian states. She is an author of articles, book chapters, and academic courses on Chinese strategies in Central Asia, regional conflicts, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
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"Dependent Development of Mongolia – what alternatives can be proposed?" | November 15, 2016, 16–18 h | Venue: SG 183, …
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"Dependent Development of Mongolia – what alternatives can be proposed?" | November 15, 2016, 16–18 h | Venue: SG 183, Geibelstraße 41, Campus Duisburg

Katarzyna Golik is an alumnus of Faculty of Mongolian and Tibetan Studies, Warsaw University (Master’s degree, 2009) and Banking and Finance, Warsaw College of Economics (Bachelor’s degree, 2010). Awarded scholarships to study in National University of Mongolia (2006–2007), Liaoning Normal University (2011) and Inner Mongolia University (2012). The holder of the 4 individual Grants for Young Scholars of Ministry of Science and Higher Education, contribution to collective 2 grants of the National Centre of Science. An author or co-author of the 28 academic paper on Asian studies and 17 analytical reports on economics. A part-time lecturer at Asian Studies of SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
Fields of interests: political and economic transition in Mongolia and China, minority education and its reform in Northern and Western China, borderland policy in the PRC, Sino-Polish relations.
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Date: 14.11.2016 | Time: 10 am - 6 pm | Venue: Building SG, Room 183, Geibelstraße 41, Duisburg Campus
This workshop …
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Date: 14.11.2016 | Time: 10 am - 6 pm | Venue: Building SG, Room 183, Geibelstraße 41, Duisburg Campus
This workshop is a joint project of the GRK 1613 “Risk and East Asia”, IN-EAST, University of Duisburg-Essen and the Ruhr-University, Bochum. Participants include: Julia Aristova, School of Advanced Studies, IN-EAST, University of Duisburg-Essen; Dr. Alessandra Cappelletti, The American University of Rome, Käthe Hamburger Kolleg, University of Duisburg-Essen; Prof. Flemming Christiansen, IN–EAST, University of Duisburg-Essen; Dr Katarzyna Golik, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warzaw, Central Statistical Office of Poland; Prof. Tao Liu, IN–EAST, University of Duisburg-Essen; Prof. Christine Moll-Murata, Ruhr–University Bochum; Prof. Nasan Bayar, Inner Mongolia University, China.

Participants must register beforehand. Please contact Vinita Samarasinghe at riskandeastasia@uni-due.de.

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Benjamin Rabe won the "Best Paper Award" at the "Third International Conference on Universal Village 2016" in Nagoya, October …
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Benjamin Rabe won the "Best Paper Award" at the "Third International Conference on Universal Village 2016" in Nagoya, October 8, 2016...
... together with Martin Rathmann from the Cluster of Excellence Asia and Europe in a Global Context, University of Heidelberg. Co-chaired by the MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Professor Yajun Fang), the University of Nagoya (Professor Yoshiki Ninomiya), and the Beihang University (Professor Zhang Xiong), the conference talks tried to exemplify the concept of Universal Village as a desired future society that pursues human-nature harmony through the wise application of technologies.
The praised paper and presentation titled Ready for the Robot Revolution – Japan's Attempts to Solve Societal Issues by the Implementation of Advanced Robotics drew attention to the difficulties Japanese actors of the robotics industry and the government encounter while trying to solve challenges caused by the demographic aging of the population by the implementation of robots in various sectors of the society. In addition to the award, Benjamin Rabe and Martin Rathmann's paper will be published in the Journal Frontiers of Computer Science.



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At October 27, 2016, Anna Shpakovskaya has been awarded a certificate of recognition for her contribution to cultural exchange …
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At October 27, 2016, Anna Shpakovskaya has been awarded a certificate of recognition for her contribution to cultural exchange between Okinawa and Germany
The award was given by the governor of Okinawa prefecture Takeshi Onaga. It acknowledged Anna’s active participation in promoting cultural exchange between Okinawa and Germany. Since joining the Okinawan Community in Germany in 2010, Anna has been actively involved in organization of various cultural events, such as Ryukyu Festival in Düsseldorf, Okinawan traditional music concerts and Okinawan traditional art workshops in Frankfurt, Cologne, Bonn and Dortmund.
The ceremony was a part of the 6th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival that took place in Okinawan capital city Naha from October 25 to 30, 2016. Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival takes place every five years to promote Okinawan soft power both in Japan and abroad.
One of the main objectives of the Okinawan Community in Deutschland is to establish a platform for cultural exchange between Okinawa and Germany. It pays a specific attention to providing exchange opportunities to talented young people in the two countries.



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An Unofficial Discourse of Ethnicity in Inner Mongolia, China. Date: 09.11.2016. Time: 16:00 h. Venue: Building SG, Room …
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An Unofficial Discourse of Ethnicity in Inner Mongolia, China. Date: 09.11.2016. Time: 16:00 h. Venue: Building SG, Room 183, Geibelstraße 41, Campus Duisburg
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Two IN-EAST scholars participated in the 15th German-Korean Forum, this time held in the beautiful ancient Shilla-capital …
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Two IN-EAST scholars participated in the 15th German-Korean Forum, this time held in the beautiful ancient Shilla-capital of Gyeongju, South Korea, on October 12 to 14, 2016.
Prof. Werner Pascha took part in the main Forum, which prepared recommendations to the two governments on issues related to politics, the economy and culture. Diana Schüler, doctoral student in the DFG-Graduate Training School on "Risk and East Asia", took part in the so-called Junior Forum. She was chosen to present the conclusions of the Junior Forum to the main Forum together with Korean student; while the latter delivered her speech in German, Diana Schüler spoke in Korean.


Diana Schüler delivered her speech in Korean

As for the Forum´s findings, in terms of North-South Korean relations, despite the extremely serious recent actions in the North, the Forum recommended not to close dialogue channels entirely. On the economy, one focus was on the digital economy "Industrie 4.0", with one concern being that both countries should focus more on the consumer-related platforms that are dominated by American and to some extent by Chinese suppliers.One highlight with respect to culture were projects to identify and chart major historical places in North Korea.


The 15th German-Korean Forum took place in the beautiful ancient Shilla-capital of Gyeongju

More details can be found at http://www.dekrforum.de

Image Source: http://www.dekrforum.de with permission. weniger

Political Economy of Making an Authoritarian Constitution: The Case of China. Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2016. Time: 2 …
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Political Economy of Making an Authoritarian Constitution: The Case of China. Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2016. Time: 2 - 4 pm. Venue: Room SG 183.
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The detailed schedule for autumn/winter 2016/2017 at a glance.

Professor Chenggang Xu will join the GRK 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia” from 15. - 30.10.2016.
In 2009 Professor Xu …
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Professor Chenggang Xu will join the GRK 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia” from 15. - 30.10.2016.
In 2009 Professor Xu (PhD in economics, Harvard, 1991) was appointed Professor of Economics at University of Hong Kong and serves as Associate Director at Institute for China and Global Development, University of Hong Kong. He has been invited to provide policy advises by the Chinese State Council, Peoples Bank of China, the CASS, the UNDP, the EBRD, and the UK HM Treasury. He has served as consultants for the World Bank and the IMF.

Professor Xu is also Editorial Board member and Academic committee member at several academic journals, including China Economic Quarterly, China Economic Review and China Journal of Finance.

Recent Publications

• Chenggang Xu (2015). “Political and Economic Institutions of China and Their Influences.” Cato Journal. 2015.

• Guo, Di, Kun Jiang, and Chenggang Xu (2015), “Institution and Managerial Task Allocation: Evidence from Chinese Entrepreneurs” Journal of Human Capital. 2015.

• Kim, Byung-Yeon, Jin Wang, and Chenggang Xu (2014), “Development of private sector determines reform and economic development: firm level evidence from all transition economies“, China Journal of Economics, 2014, Vol. 1, No.3: 57-83.

• Guo, Di, Kun Jiang, Byung -Yeon Kim, and Chenggang Xu (2014), “Political Economy of Private Firms in China,” Journal of Comparative Economics, Volume 42, Issue 2, May 2014, Pages 286–303

• Chenggang Xu, “Institutional Foundations of China’s Structural Problems,” in Masahiko Aoki and Jinglian Wu (eds.), The Chinese Economy: A New Transition, International Economic Association World Congress. Palgrave Macmilla. 2012.

• Chenggang Xu, “The Fundamental Institutions of China’s Reforms and Development,” The Journal of Economic Literature, 2011, 49:4, 1076–1151.

During his visit he will be in room LE 717.
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The Research Exchange Forum took place on the 6th of October. It's main function was to help integrate scholars, new to the …
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The Research Exchange Forum took place on the 6th of October. It's main function was to help integrate scholars, new to the University of Duisburg-Essen, into the research community.
This semester we welcomed a new DFG funded doctoral fellow, Jiajia Ma, and 5 visiting scholars (Wang Chao, Central China Normal University; Tianyu Jiang, Renmin University of China; Junhua Meng, Nankai University; Prof. Sun Bo, Harbin University of Commerce; Dr Alessandra Cappelletti, The American University of Rome) to IN-EAST. In order to integrate them into our research environment the Research Training Group 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia” organized a research exchange forum on the 6th October 2016.
After an introduction to the structure of IN-EAST by Prof. Flemming Christiansen (speaker of the Research Training Group) and Helmut Demes (managing director IN-EAST), the scholars presented their research. Their ideas were commented on by the audience that comprised of PhD students from a variety of chairs. It is hoped that our visitors find these comments useful and are able to apply them to their work and that new collaborations have been forged between researchers with similar interests.
An informal lunch was hosted at Lindenwirtin, a traditional German restaurant in Duisburg. Later in the afternoon the visitors were taken on a tour of Zeche Zollverein in Essen, introducing them to the culture of the Ruhr Gebiet.
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Professor Nasan Bayar will join the GRK 1613/2 "Risk and East Asia" from 1.- 26.11. 2016.
Nashun Bayier (Nasan Bayar) …
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Professor Nasan Bayar will join the GRK 1613/2 "Risk and East Asia" from 1.- 26.11. 2016.
Nashun Bayier (Nasan Bayar) is Professor in the Department of Ethnology, School of Ethnology and Sociology, Inner Mongolia University, China. He received his PhD degree in Mongolian literature from Inner Mongolia University in 1999. Prof. Bayar has been working on research fields of social and cultural changes, ethnic identity, historical memory, development, and environmental protection in contemporary Inner Mongolia, China.He has conducted fieldwork in Northern China, Mongolia, and Russia (Buriatia), and published articles in Mongolian, Chinese, and English. on the themes of social change, development, environment, historical memory, and ethnic identity of Mongols in China. He is also author of the book "Mongolian Narrative Patterns and Their Cultural Meanings".

During his stay he will be in room LE 732. weniger

Organized by Prof. Karen Shire, Kei Takata Ph.D. (both IN-EAST), Prof. Shigeto Sonoda and Misook Lee Ph.D. (University of …
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Organized by Prof. Karen Shire, Kei Takata Ph.D. (both IN-EAST), Prof. Shigeto Sonoda and Misook Lee Ph.D. (University of Tokyo).
The event is part of DFG research group 1613 Risk and East Asia program with partnership of Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies at the University of Tokyo.

For a full report, please visit: https://www.uni-due.de/in-east/risk_and_east_asia/sept_seminar_2016_japan.php

The seminar entitled “Research Design and Practice in Global Japanese Studies” co-organised by Prof. Karen Shire/Kei Takata Ph.D. from University of Duisburg-Essen and Prof. Shigeto Sonoda/Misook Lee Ph.D. from University of Tokyo will accommodate twelve Ph.D. students from Germany, U.K. and Japan as well as guest scholars specialized in the fields of student participants (e.g. migration, social movements, innovation, International Relations in East Asia, etc.).

Invited scientist includes, Prof. Florian Coulmas (UDE), Prof. Axel Klein (UDE), Prof. Daishiro Nomiya (Chuo University), Prof. Reiko Ogawa (Kyushu University) and others.

Through the presentation of their dissertation research proposal, Ph.D. fellows will gain useful knowledge and invaluable resources to conduct field work in Japan and Asia.

Participants will also visit research institutions and organizations that would be beneficial for their future research; Leading scholars and specialists at the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, National Diet Library, the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry will introduce us their facility and researches.



Well-known entrance gate “Akamon (the red gate)” of University of Tokyo, Hongo Campus. weniger

Organized by Prof. Flemming Christiansen, Prof. Tao Liu (both IN-EAST), and Prof. Yu Xianyang of Renmin University of China …
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Organized by Prof. Flemming Christiansen, Prof. Tao Liu (both IN-EAST), and Prof. Yu Xianyang of Renmin University of China (RUC), Beijing
For a full report, please visit: https://www.uni-due.de/in-east/risk_and_east_asia/sept_seminar_2016_china.php

Prof. Tak-Wing Ngo (Macau University) will deliver the keynote speech on “Scalar Restructuring of the Chinese State”.

During the first two days doctoral fellows of the GRK 1613 “Risk and East Asia”, UDE (Ningjing Ge, Yu Zou, Connor Malloy), Renmin UCS and Leeds University, UK will present their research projects. Prof. Ke Fan, Prof. Zengke He and Prof. Ping Qin along with Prof. Christiansen, Prof. Liu and Prof. Taube will comment on the research projects of the doctoral fellows.

As part of the seminar all participants will visit the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of China (CCDI) to gain insight into how the anti-corruption campaign works in the social and political practices in the People’s Republic.

Download link program:
https://www.uni-due.de/imperia/md/content/in-east/grk/sept_sem_beijing_2016_en-version.pdf weniger

Anna Shpakovskaya presented her paper at the International Red Cross Conference at Flinders University, Australia (Sept. …
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Anna Shpakovskaya presented her paper at the International Red Cross Conference at Flinders University, Australia (Sept. 9–11, 2016)
In her paper entitled “De-administratizing the Chinese Red Cross (2011–2014): a ‘tiger head and snake tail’ reform?” Anna offers an alternative explanation to why the ‘tigerish’ attempt to de-administratize the Chinese Red Cross in 2011–2014 did not gain momentum. Anna mainly argues that the reform attempt to de-administratize the Chinese Red Cross failed due to a fundamental divergence between how the CRC has been conceived by the China’s top leaders and how it was conceptualized in the reform proposal of 2011.

The conference acknowledges the growing number of historians and researchers working in the rapidly expanding area of the history of the international Red Cross Movement. With its origins in the mid-nineteenth century, this global humanitarian organisation includes the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) originally formed in Geneva in 1863, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) created in 1919, as well as the 189 (at last count) national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.

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In July 2016, we had the pleasure of welcoming Professor Zhou. We interviewed him following his visit to Duisburg. He speaks …
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In July 2016, we had the pleasure of welcoming Professor Zhou. We interviewed him following his visit to Duisburg. He speaks about his impression of Germany and his stay at the IN-EAST.
Professor Zhou shares similar research interests in local government behaviours in China with his fellow researchers at our institute.

What is your impression of Germany and your stay in Duisburg?

Although I came to Germany a few times before to attend conferences and workshops, this is the first time that I spent an extended period of time here and got to know her much better. I am impressed by the variety of local cultures and histories across Germany, beautiful sceneries, and well-functioning institutions such as the railroad, public transportation and German beer!

I enjoyed staying in Duisburg. It is quiet, simple, and convenient, and has easy access to forest and nature. It gives me great opportunity to walk around and get to know local environment.

I am most impressed with the IN-EAST. I have met and chatted with several faculty colleagues and graduate students, and have learned a lot from these conversations. I find my colleagues here academically engaging, intellectually interesting, easy to have a conversation, and with broad knowledge about both area studies and discipline-based academic activities, perhaps characteristic of IN-EAST as an interdisciplinary field of research. I am also impressed with many students that I have interacted. Compared with those students I am familiar with (mostly sociology Ph.D. students who study China), whose work is more driven by academic literature, students here work on exciting research topics drawn from their close observations about what is going on in China and they conduct well-grounded fieldwork or plan to do so. In comparison to students who study China in my field in the U.S., I thought students here are more close to the ground and engage in close observations and in-depth fieldwork (or plan to do so).

What is your major field in Sociology and Asian Studies?

My field of research is in the sociology of organizations, social stratification, and comparative sociology, with a special focus on Chinese society. My main research focus in recent years examines the institutional logics of governance in China, Chinese organizations and management, and state-society interactions in this context. I have completed a book manuscript in Chinese that summarized this line of research in the past decade.

What kind of research projects are you currently working on? What might be future fields of your research?

I have two ongoing research projects. The first one is a systematic study of personnel flows in the Chinese bureaucracy in order understand intraorganizational structure and personnel management in the Chinese governments. The second one is a study of the historical origins of the Chinese bureaucracy, focusing on historical practice of personnel recruitment, mobility, and knowledge structure of Chinese bureaucrats. My ultimate interest, though, is to use the historical/comparative lens to better understand the institutional foundations of the Chinese bureaucracy in contemporary China.

As for my future research, I hope to explore the ideological/cultural aspects of Chinese organizations/bureaucracies.

During my stay in IN-EAST, I have been reading Max Weber and related work on German history. Historically, China and Germany/Europe embarked on distinct paths of state building and nation building. My stay in Germany this time leaves me deep impressions and appreciation about the importance of religion in what Germany has become. I am hoping that my future work can take a close look at the Chinese case in a similar light.

More Information
http://www.stanford.edu/~xgzhou/
https://www.uni-due.de/in-east/news.php?id=153 weniger

Gracia Liu-Farrer and James Farrer are staying at the DFG Research Training Group 1613. Please join us for their talks on …
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Gracia Liu-Farrer and James Farrer are staying at the DFG Research Training Group 1613. Please join us for their talks on August 23, 2016 in SG 183.
Research Forum of the DFG Research Training Group 1613 "Risk and East Asia"
Tuesday, August 23 2016
SG 183, Geibelstrasse

10:00 – 12:00
"New Developments in Migration in East and Southeast Asia"
Professor Gracia Liu-Farrer
Sociology, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies
Waseda University, Tokyo

Professor Liu-Farrer is a leading scholar of migration studies, and is currently co-editing the Routledge Handbook of Asian Migrations (with Brenda Yeoh). Her research interests in addition to international migration include social stratification and inequality, globalization and international education. Her recent publications include: 2016: Migration as Class-based Consumption: The Emigration of the Rich in Contemporary China,” China Quarterly and 2011: Labor Migration from China to Japan: International Students, Transnational Migrants, Routledge Press.

Lunch Break – please join us at the Lindenwirtin

14:00 – 16:00
Methods Forum
"Doing Ethnography in East Asian Urban Settings"
Professor James Farrer
Sociology, Graduate Program in Global Studies
Sophia University, Tokyo

Professor Farrer is an ethnographer and leading scholar of urban life in Shanghai and Tokyo. His research interests include global cuisines, night life, migration and urban sexual cultures. Recent publications include: (with Andrew Field) 2015: Shanghai Nightscapes: A Nocturnal Biography of a Global City, Univ. of Chicago Press; (edited) 2015: Globalization and Asian Cuisines: Transnational Networks and Contact Zones, Palgrave Press. weniger

The detailed schedule for spring/summer 2016 at a glance.

Buying back face - Martin Heinbergs Paper wurde auf der AIB Konferenz in New Orleans mit dem Alan M. Rugman Young Scholar …
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Buying back face - Martin Heinbergs Paper wurde auf der AIB Konferenz in New Orleans mit dem Alan M. Rugman Young Scholar Award ausgezeichnet. Hier gibt er einen Einblick:
Kann Konsum ein Weg sein, um einen Gesichtsverlust zu überwinden und sich sein soziales Umfeld zurückzukaufen? Martin Heinberg hat in Tianjin (China) das Konsumverhalten untersucht und wurde für seine Forschung mit den Alan M. Rugman Young Scholar Award gewürdigt.


Bildbeschreibung, von links nach rechts: Prof. Dr. Olli Kuivalainen (Vorsitzender des Kommittees des Alan M. Rugman Young Scholar Awards), Helen Rugman (Witwe von Alan Rugman), und Martin Heinberg.

Worum geht es bei dem ausgezeichneten Paper?
Das Paper handelt von Verhaltenversänderungen von Konsumenten nach Gesichtsverlust. Gesicht ist eine Art von Sozialem Kapital. Gesichtsverlust tritt in diversen Situationen ein, z.B. wenn inkompetentes Verhalten aufgedeckt wird. Martin Heinberg hat insbesondere Situationen des Teilens untersucht. Gesichtsverlust tritt dann ein, wenn Teilen eine allgemein akzeptierte sozialen Ethik oder ein moralischer Standard in einer Gesellschaft ist und dieser akzeptierte Standard von Mitglieder der Gemeinschaft verletzt wird.

Das Interessante sind die gemessenen Folgen des Gesichtsverlusts. So haben die Experimente gezeigt, dass Gesichtsverlust sowohl zu einem Absenken der Risikobereitschaft führt, als auch zu einer höheren Zahlungsbereitschaft für Statusprodukte, insbesondere für Statusprodukte von globalen Marken. Das spannende an dem Paper ist, dass sich das eine durch das andere erklären lässt: Durch den Gesichtsverlust empfinden die Konsumenten, dass sie weniger Zugriff auf Ihr soziales Sicherungsnetz haben. Dieses führt dann dazu, dass sie risikoaverser werden (da die Risiken nicht mehr vom Sicherungsnetz abgefedert werden könnten). Um diesen Zustand zu überwinden, kaufen sie Statusprodukte, da sie versuchen, sich den Zugang zu Ihrer "In-Group" gewissermaßen zurückzukaufen.

Die Experimente für das Paper wurden im Labor für Verhaltensökonomik der Nankai Universität in Tianjin (China) während dreier Aufenthalte durchgeführt. Herr Heinberg möchte insbesondere der Graduiertenschule "Risk and East Asia" danken, die die Experimente und seine Aufenthalte finanziell unterstützt hat, sowie seinem Promotionsbetreuer Prof. Taube, der ihm bei den Experimenten mit seinem Rat zur Seite stand.

Über den Alan M. Rugman Young Scholar Award
Der Preis wird einmal pro Jahr von der Academy of International Business (AIB) verliehen. Der Preis (füher: Haynes Prize for Most Promising Scholar) ist der Nachwuchspreis der AIB, er geht an den Teilnehmer der AIB Konferenz unter 40 Jahren mit dem besten Konferenzpaper und ist mit 1000 USD dotiert. Die Konferenz fand dieses Jahr mit über 1000 Konferenzteilnehmern vom 27.-30. Juni 2016 in New Orleans statt.

Titel des Conference Papers:
"Behavioral Consequences of Actual and Recalled Face Loss".

Wir gratulieren!

Weiterführende Informationen
Webseite der Academy of International Business (AIB): https://aib.msu.edu/aboutaib.asp).
Informationen Alan Rugman: http://henley.ac.uk/news/news-item/in-memoriam-professor-alan-rugman/). weniger

Everything about field research – by Dr Kathrin Thomas, Center of Comparative Social Surveys at City University London. …
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Everything about field research – by Dr Kathrin Thomas, Center of Comparative Social Surveys at City University London. Date: July 11–14, 2016, 8 am –1 pm. Venue: LB 239
The GRK 1613/2 "Risk and East Asia" will host a 4-day workshop in empirical methods for the members of the research school. Up-and-coming researchers will be given hands-on training enabling them to read, understand, apply and interpret findings from their field research. They will learn qualitative and quantitative interviewing techniques which will enable them to produce research of the highest standards. Finally SPSS will be introduced as a tool for analyzing their data. weniger

Promoting a „robot barrier free society“? Political, societal and ethical aspects of the „Robot Revolution Initiative“ …
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Promoting a „robot barrier free society“? Political, societal and ethical aspects of the „Robot Revolution Initiative“ of the Abe Cabinet. Date: July 13, 2016, 16h. Venue: Room LE 736
According to the recent “Robot Revolution Realization”-initiative of the Abe Cabinet, Japan is expected to lead the implementation of service robots into everyday life, especially in the field of elderly care, and become “world’s most advanced robot showcase“ as a “robot barrier free society”. Due to an allegedly “natural” relation-ship to material objects – including robots – a high acceptance of robots as technical tools for elderly people in Japan is expected. While this has still to be proven, it has been concluded, that more discussions on what kind of robot technology tools are desired by future users (caregivers, elderly people, physicians, disabled persons etc.), which prices they are willing to pay and which societal change could occur due to their implementation are needed.

After an overview of the governmental “Robot Revolution Initiative”, the paper will then introduce critical views on recent social robotics’ promotion with a special focus on the quest for a “roboethics” movement in Japan. What initiatives have been taken so far to implement ethical concerns as well as user interests into the development of service robot technology (best practice examples)? How are risks of the further implementation of service robot technology into everyday life assessed? Is it possible to overcome the “retrospective engineering approach” only to learn from mistakes of the past and instead take a “proactive approach to treat socio-ethical problems of robotics” (Honda 2013) as a responsible innovation-process?
By discussing these questions and other aspects of the interdependence of scientific-technological and societal change in Japan, the paper also aims at initiating a debate on the methodological approach of Science and Technology Studies for Japanese Studies scholarship.
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Talk on "Territorial Urbanization and the Party-state in China: Economy, Politics and Exigencies of the Mao Era". Date: Wednesday, …
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Talk on "Territorial Urbanization and the Party-state in China: Economy, Politics and Exigencies of the Mao Era". Date: Wednesday, July 6, 2016, 4 p.m. Venue: IN-EAST, Room LE 736
Carolyn Cartier
Territorial Urbanization and the Party-state in China: Economy, Politics and Exigencies of the Mao Era

This seminar introduces territorial urbanization in China through the historical conditions and research design problems of the Chinese administrative divisions and urbanization in relation to comparative territorial thought. The Chinese Party-state maintains powers to establish new cities and enlarge and merge existing ones, and even eliminate others whereas the literature on urbanization in China often subsumes party-state territorialization practices under internationally recognizable epistemologies such as urban and regional planning and simplifies and contains their urban-economic transformations to fixed spaces in zone development. This seminar pursues the territorial reproduction of state power through three cases: the Shanghai Pudong New Area, where a territorial merger doubled its size and central policy imagines the future of China’s international financial center; a ‘political economy of rank’ in Suzhou, a prefecture-level city in the Yangzi River delta, where Party officials adjust the administrative divisions in relation to official appointments and ‘rank boosting’; and in Changzhou, a prefectural city that faces limits to growth in relation to strong surrounding counties and the exigencies of the Mao-era territorial ‘cut’ in the 1950s.

CV
Carolyn Cartier (BA, MA, PhD, University of California, Berkeley) is Professor of Human Geography and China Studies at the University of Technology Sydney. She is chief investigator of ‘The Geography of Power in China: Urban Expansion and Administrative Empire’, a collaboration with the Center for Research on the Administrative Divisions in China. Her research program focuses on urban and regional change from perspectives on spatial transformation behind the spectacle of rapid growth in China, spanning subjects from territorial governance to the politics of culture and urban aesthetics and the production/consumption transition in the contemporary city. She has sat on and chaired the the U.S. Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Fellowship Final Selection Committee, and has been an editor of Urban Geography and associate editor of Eurasian Geography and Economics. She is a past Fulbright Fellow in Hong Kong and is currently an associate member of the Centre for China in the World at the Australian National University.

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Der "June Workshop” ist ein Highlight im Kalender des DFG Graduiertenkollegs 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia”. In diesem …
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Der "June Workshop” ist ein Highlight im Kalender des DFG Graduiertenkollegs 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia”. In diesem Jahr fand die Veranstaltung am 21.-23. Juni 2016 statt:
Mit welchen neuen Hoffnungen und Risiken ist eine Unternehmensgründung in Südkorea verbunden? Was darf man sich unter Japans zweiter Roboterrevolution vorstellen? Wie wird Personal in der ambulanten Pflege in Shanghai wahrgenommen – als Unterstützung oder als Eindringling? Der wissenschaftliche Nachwuchs am IN-EAST analysiert aktuelle Entwicklungen der Gesellschaften und Ökonomien Ostasiens – ein Interesse das die Promovenden mit ihren Kollegen des White Rose East Asia Centre der Universitäten Leeds und Sheffield (UK) teilen. Am 21.-23. Juni 2016 sind sie sich auf dem June Workshop im Rahmen des DFG Graduiertenkollegs Risk and East Asia zusammengekommen. Hier präsentierten sie ihre Forschungsarbeiten und erhielten Feedback, um weitere Ideen zu entwickeln und Forschungsarbeiten weiter voranzubringen.

Begleitet wurde die Veranstaltung von einem internationalen Gremium renommierter Ostasienexperten, die konstruktives Feedback zu den individuellen Forschungsprojekten gaben. In diesem Jahr kamen Wissenschaftler aus Sydney, Venedig, Hong Kong und Aarhus nach Duisburg:
Carolyn Cartier, Professor of Human Geography and China Studies University of Technology, Sydney (Australia)
Patrick Heinrich, Professor of Japanese Studies, Universita Ca’ Foscari, Venice (Italy)
Joshua Mok Ka-ho, Vice President and Chair Professor of Comparative Policy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong (China)
Stig Thøgersen, Professor of Chinese Studies, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University (Denmark)



Nachwuchswissenschaftler der University of Leeds und der Universität Duisburg-Essen präsentieren ihre Forschungsarbeiten und erhalten Feedback von ihren Mitstreitern



Wissenschaftler aus Australien, Asien und Europa begleiten die Ausbildung der Ostasienexperten: Prof. Patrick Heinrich (Universita Ca’ Foscari, Italien), Prof. Joshua Mok Ka-ho (Lingnan University, China) und Prof. Flemming Christiansen (IN-EAST)



Direkter Austausch zu den individuellen Forschungsarbeiten: Prof. Stig Thøgersen (Aarhus University, Dänemark) und Dominique Miguel Borm (IN-EAST)



Weiterführende Informationen und Programm:
https://www.uni-due.de/in-east/risk_and_east_asia/june_workshop_2016.php weniger

Talk on “Recent developments in Chinese policies on forest ownership and management”. Date: Mon, June 13, 2016, 13h. …
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Talk on “Recent developments in Chinese policies on forest ownership and management”. Date: Mon, June 13, 2016, 13h. Venue: IN-EAST, Room LE 736, Campus Duisburg.
JunZuo Zhang, China-UK Collaboration on International Forest Investment and Trade Programme (InFIT), is going to give a talk at the Graduiertenkolleg Risk and East Asia.

Abstract
China’s forestry policy has changed radically in the period since the Reform and Opening in 1978, and it has been very successful in achieving results in terms of stabilizing and expanding forests, while controlling logging, and securing the livelihoods of local people. The talk will address the main elements of state policies and local practices of forest ownership, the interaction between Chinese forestry and foreign and international forestry programs, and Chinese forestry as an example for third world countries. weniger

Japan’s Immigration Politics, 1966-2016
Date: Wed., June 8, 2016, 2.15 pm
Venue: IN-EAST, Room …
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Japan’s Immigration Politics, 1966-2016
Date: Wed., June 8, 2016, 2.15 pm
Venue: IN-EAST, Room LE 736, Campus Duisburg
It is often assumed that Japan’s immigration policy is the result of its predominant ethno-nationalism that explains a restrictive immigration policy and a preference for ethnic return migration. However, this is not more than a kind of negative Nihonjinron. An empirical analysis of the interrelationship between Japan’s new immigration movements, its immigration debates and its policy reforms shows a much more complex reality. In fact, Japan’s immigration policy is marked by institutional fragmentation, ideational diversity and its embeddedness in the East Asian migration region. In this presentation, I will discuss Japan’s immigration policy and new immigration movements from the South Korean trainee proposal in 1966 to the current reform propositions in 2016. This half-century is marked by four waves of immigration debate and the emergence of Japan as a new immigration country in the late 1980s. weniger

Congratulations to Kai Duttle, Doctoral Fellow at the DFG Graduiertenkolleg 1613 Risk and East Asia, who passed his thesis …
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Congratulations to Kai Duttle, Doctoral Fellow at the DFG Graduiertenkolleg 1613 Risk and East Asia, who passed his thesis defense on May 24, 2016!
Title: A Behavioral Finance Perspective on Momentum – Comparative Experimental Studies in Germany and Japan

This doctoral thesis presents five individual contributions covering a set of behavioral biases of investors on the stock market. It is not surprising that people differ in how strong their behavior deviates from rational, utility-maximizing decision making; that is, in the intensity of the behavioral biases they demonstrate. A large set of research articles in economics investigate these differences in order to find systematic patterns. Two explanatory factors which recently grew in popularity are predominantly discussed in the course of this doctoral thesis. These factors are (i) cultural/social background and (ii) cognitive abilities of decision makers.

Being one of the most consistent and well-studied market anomalies in finance, so-called stock price momentum is the unifying theme of all chapters. The majority of literature suggests a number of different biases in investor behavior as the main drivers of momentum. Moreover, there are significant international differences in returns from momentum-based investment strategies. While returns are robust and high in Western financial markets, they are very low or even nonexistent in East Asia.

This doctoral thesis explores in how far the two factors, culture and cognitive skills, are potentially involved in the formation of price momentum in financial markets to begin with, and whether they can explain existent international momentum differences. weniger

Prof. Patrick Heinrich, Ca' Foscari University, Venice, will be joining the GRK 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia” from 02.06. …
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Prof. Patrick Heinrich, Ca' Foscari University, Venice, will be joining the GRK 1613/2 “Risk and East Asia” from 02.06. – 24.06.2016.
His visit coincides with the research training groups annual June Workshop which will be held from the 21.06. – 23.06.2016. During his visit, he will advise both first year students on how to improve their dissertation proposals and second year students, returning from the field, with their data analysis. Prof. Heinrich is no stranger to IN-EAST having obtained his PhD in Japanese studies here in 2002. After completing his habilitation in 2005 he stayed on in Duisburg, lecturing here until 2008.
From 2008 – 2010 Patrick Heinrich was a visiting professor at the University of Ryukyus in Japan where after he moved to Dokkyo University, Japan (2010 – 2014). Currently he is an associate professor at the Department for Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice.
His research interests are concentrated on language and identity, sociolinguistics and endangered languages. Some of his most recent books are: Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages (with Shinsho Miyara and Michinori Shimoji; Mouton de Gruyter 2015), Language Crisis in the Ryukyus (with Mark Anderson, Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2014); Language Life in Japan (with Christian Galan; Routledge 2011).

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The developmental state and inequality: the case of tax policy in modern Japan
Date: Wed., May 18, 2016, 4.15 pm
Venue: …
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The developmental state and inequality: the case of tax policy in modern Japan
Date: Wed., May 18, 2016, 4.15 pm
Venue: IN-EAST, Room LE 736, Campus Duisburg
How to strike a balance between economic growth and equality is one of the major challenges that developing countries face in industrialisation and urbanisation. Taxation can be a powerful tool in the hands of governments seeking to redistribute income or support a particular sector of the economy. Therefore, through the study of tax history it is possible to understand how the balance of power among different social groups has evolved in a given country over time. Scholars have examined the case of Japan with a focus on key turning points, such as the Meiji Restoration or World War II. It is in a long period perspective, however, that continuity and change in policy making better stand out. The talk will address the issue of shifting priorities in tax policy from the 1870s to the 1940s, so as to highlight the process of redefinition of public finance through the modern period, and explain the origins of some features of the postwar fiscal system. weniger

Construction of the Image of Africa for the Chinese public
Date: Wed, May 11, 2016, 4.15 pm
Venue: IN-EAST, Room LE …
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Construction of the Image of Africa for the Chinese public
Date: Wed, May 11, 2016, 4.15 pm
Venue: IN-EAST, Room LE 736, Campus Duisburg
The increased research on the multi-dimensional aspects of Sino-Africa relationship includes literature on mutual image building. While it offers valuable insights to the different images both sides build of each other, little is seen on the general public’s impression of Africa in China, and how the impression is formed. This presentation first examines representative Chinese mainstream newspapers for the dominant image of Africa that have been built for the Chinese readers. It then explores the activities of Chinese and African cultural exchanges ‘Cultures in Focus’ under the mechanism of FOCAC with a view of finding out if the activities are reciprocal. An examination of the presence of African literature in selected Chinese bookstores as well as interviews with involved agents are also conducted. The presentation concludes that although the Chinese government has invested greatly in the Sino-African relationship, commercialised newspapers, bookstores, and cultural centres have their own priorities. Consequently, a gap exists between the kind of image the government would like to construct of Africa for the international community and the image by commercial newspapers, commercialised bookstores, cultural centres for the domestic public. weniger

Congratulations to Mei Yu doctoral fellow at the DFG training group 1613 Risk and East Asia, who passed her thesis defense …
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Congratulations to Mei Yu doctoral fellow at the DFG training group 1613 Risk and East Asia, who passed her thesis defense on April 05, 2016!
The dissertation on “’Constructing a New Socialist Countryside’ in Contemporary China: Strategic Groups and Institutional Change” will be available at the library soon.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership’s recent approach to narrowing the widening urban-rural gap is set forth in the comprehensive development policy for rural China: “Constructing a New Socialist Countryside” (shehui zhuyi xinnongcun jianshe, CNSC). This policy was a core part of the 11th Five-Year Plan in 2006. Like all other central rural development programs, CNSC is ultimately implemented by county and township governments. Arising from the idea of the “developmental state”, this dissertation delineates how the state is involved in the political economy of institutional change at local levels. Further elaborating on Oi’s notion of “local state corporatism”, and Heberer and Schubert’s “strategic group” approach that provide a set of concepts for analysis, this study applies and contributes to these theoretical and analytical frameworks by examining the roles of local officials, coal mine owners and villagers, as well as the agency problems and relationship between the local state and businesses.

Employing a qualitative inquiry strategy and using in-depth interviews, field observations and extensive archival research of the comparative case studies in Fugu County, this dissertation examines how the local state used managerial strategies - “Local State Entrepreneurial-Developmentalism” - to change the ownership structure from private dominated to mixed ownership in order to reinstate gradually the state ownership of the private enterprises and to expand the tax base to promote the county-wide economy. Consequently, the institutional change in ownership structure reduced the total information and transaction costs, and the bargaining power of private capital, on the one hand, and on the other hand, it reinforced the state-business symbiotic relationship and intensified agency problems.

Furthermore, using the “strategic group” approach in the analysis, this study investigates how the county and town cadres established strategic cooperation to co-opt local coal mine owners/entrepreneurs into “constructing a new socialist countryside”. It argues that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was used by the local officials as a political label to justify their efforts to establish new redistributive institutions. Formal and informal institutions closely interacted in the process of CNSC implementation, in other words, in the formation of strategic groups and in the process of extracting matching funds, redistribution and conflict mediation through pairing schemes. These empirical patterns of local entrepreneurial-developmental state and strategic groups contribute to clarifying how agencies structure within China as a developmental state.
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Rebels in Power: Chaos and Order in China's Cultural Revolution
Date: Wed, April 27, 2016, 4.15 pm
Venue: IN-EAST, …
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Rebels in Power: Chaos and Order in China's Cultural Revolution
Date: Wed, April 27, 2016, 4.15 pm
Venue: IN-EAST, Room LE 736, Campus Duisburg
On Wednesday the 27th of April Prof. Dr Felix Wemheuer will hold a lecture on chaos and order in China's cultural revolution. Since April 2004 Prof. Wemheuer leads the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of Cologne in the field of modern Chinese studies. His research focuses on the social history of China in the 20th century as well as present day social and political changes, in which rural China, class, gender and ethnic minorities play a central role. In 2006, he received his PhD from the University of Vienna for his thesis on rural memories of the famine in Henan Province. weniger

Title - "Policies Designed to Fail: Health-Caregiver Migration to Japan and Germany"
Date, Place and Time - on 20^th …
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Title - "Policies Designed to Fail: Health-Caregiver Migration to Japan and Germany"
Date, Place and Time - on 20^th April in LE 736 at 4.15 pm
On Wednesday the 20th of April Prof. Dr Gabriele Vogt professor for Japanese Politics and society at the Institute for Asian and African Studies at the University of Hamburg and liaison officer at the German National Academic Foundation will hold a lecture on the topic of health-caregiver migration to Japan and Germany.

Abstract

Japan and Germany face labor shortages in the health-care sector. Via bilateral treaties with selected partner countries, both nations fairly recently have jumped onto the bandwagon of recruiting health-caregivers on a global labor market. Yet, the migration schemes implemented in both countries are unattractive to potential migrants and their employers alike, and the numbers of applicants are extremely low. By studying the national and supranational levels of policy-making in Japan and Germany, this talk explores the reasons for the emergence of what will be coined 'policies designed to fail'.
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Congratulations to Hanno Jentzsch, doctoral fellow at the DFG training group 1613 Risk and East Asia, who passed his defense …
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Congratulations to Hanno Jentzsch, doctoral fellow at the DFG training group 1613 Risk and East Asia, who passed his defense on March 10, 2016!
The thesis on "The “Local” in Processes of Endogenous Institutional Change – Informal Village Institutions in Japan’s Changing Agricultural Support and Protection Regime" will be available at the library soon.

Since Japan joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994, its notoriously extensive agricultural support and protection regime has been reformulated. Compared to the postwar era, agricultural support and protection has become more ambiguous and less comprehensive, oscillating between cautious liberalization and retaining old as well as introducing new interventionist elements.

While the common narrative emphasizes stability over change, this dissertation analyzes the trajectory of the Japanese agricultural support and protection regime as a process of gradual endogenous institutional change that is shaped beyond the realm of agricultural policy-making: at the interface between an increasingly ambiguous regulatory framework and local informal “village institutions”. This approach speaks to several gaps in the existing literature: first, there are no comprehensive accounts of the recent trajectory of the Japanese agricultural support and protection regime as a process of institutional change; second, concerning the vivid theoretical debate on endogenous institutional change in advanced political economies, this dissertation calls into attention the “local” as a level of analysis that often remains neglected. By focusing on the “local” as a juxtaposition of heterogeneous institutional spheres, I argue for a more dynamic perspective on seemingly “traditional” informal institutions as adaptive resources in processes of institutional change. weniger

PhD students at the IN-EAST GRK 1613 will start their new "Theory Reading Group" on 30th March 2016.
This voluntary student …
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PhD students at the IN-EAST GRK 1613 will start their new "Theory Reading Group" on 30th March 2016.
This voluntary student group will allow participants to explore different social science theories once a month in a friendly, peer-led environment. Each month's theory for discussion is democratically chosen by the students from the pool of topics they have nominated. The first session will look at "Foucault's analytics of power." weniger

Our annual field research retreat will take place at the Sino-German Center for Research Promotion, providing mid-term support …
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Our annual field research retreat will take place at the Sino-German Center for Research Promotion, providing mid-term support to PhD students conducting field research in East Asia.
Their respective PhD advisors, plus two postdoctoral researchers, will be present at the retreat to give immediate feedback on their fieldwork reports, to advise them on the continuation of their projects and to develop techniques to handle and analyze the collected data. This support will enable the students to improve their research designs, which will ultimately lead to higher quality research. weniger

Ying Ding joins us in March as a DAAD funded doctoral student.
She gained her Bachelor’s degree in advertising from …
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Ying Ding joins us in March as a DAAD funded doctoral student.
She gained her Bachelor’s degree in advertising from the Shanghai International Studies University, China in 2011. After which she joined King’s College, London as an MA student. Her master’s thesis investigated the interaction between media and cultural patterns using a case study of the Sibe people of China. Ying is herself from the Sibe culture and is interested in studying ethnic minority cultures in East Asia. Her PhD project will compare the Sibe people of China to the Ainu people of Northern Japan in order to explore the interrelations between media representations and cultural phenomenon in different societies.
Ying enjoys learning different languages, reading books, traveling and doing sports in addition to her research.
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Title: "Transforming familialism: care regimes in East and Southeast Asian countries since the 2000s.“
Place and time: …
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Title: "Transforming familialism: care regimes in East and Southeast Asian countries since the 2000s.“
Place and time: LE 736 at 12.15
On Wednesday Prof. Emiko Ochiai, University of Kyoto and present holder of the prestigious Blaise Pascal Chair at the EHESS in Paris, will give a Guest Lecture in the Research Forum of the Graduate School Risk and East Asia, to which I would like to invite all of you.

The talk will take place in LE 736 at 12.15. The title is: "Transforming familialism: care regimes in East and Southeast Asian countries since the 2000s.“

Emiko Ochiai is a leading family sociologist and migration scholar in East Asia. She directed the Global Center of Excellence on the Reconstruction of the Intimate and Public Spheres in 21st Century Asia at the University of Kyoto and edits a book series on the topic for Brill Verlag.

Emiko Ochiai’s research is very unique in that she works closely with scholars in China, Korea and a number of South East Asian countries to engage in comparisons of East Asian societies. The topic of her lecture will be of interest to those of you working on family, social policy, migration and demographic change (both fertility and aging).
http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/research/forefronts/archives/ochiai.html

Despite the end of the semester, I hope many of you will find time to attend this special lecture.

She is available to meet with doctoral students and advanced Master students about their research in the afternoon. Kindly send me a mail by Tuesday morning if you would like to meet with Professor Ochiai about your research.
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Lassi Laine joins us this month as a DAAD-funded doctoral student.
He gained his Bachelor's degree in Political Science …
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Lassi Laine joins us this month as a DAAD-funded doctoral student.
He gained his Bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Tampere, Finland in 2012. His undergraduate studies included a year as an exchange student at the National Taiwan Normal University. Afterwards he joined the Chinese Studies MA program at the University of Würzburg, Germany, spending also a semester at Peking University. His Master's thesis investigated the aspirations and identity of migrants with college education in Beijing. The PhD project builds on this research, focusing on the ways middle class values in China are being changed by individualization and varieties of individual reflexivity. This process is examined especially from the point of view of young urban Chinese who belong to the so-called lower middle class or lower middle stratum of educated but relatively low-income people. weniger

Prof. Jean-Francois Huchet (Sorbonne Paris Cité) will talk about "Reforming China's Economy System: a painful and dangerous …
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Prof. Jean-Francois Huchet (Sorbonne Paris Cité) will talk about "Reforming China's Economy System: a painful and dangerous path towards a new mode of growth".
The talk will take place in building LE, room 736, on the Duisburg campus at 12 noon.

Prof. Huchet currently works in Paris at the INALCO-Langues'O, Sorbonne Paris Cité, School of China Studies. weniger

The DFG Graduiertenkolleg 1613 Risk and East Asia invites you to a Research Forum guest lecture
Dominik Mierzejewski
Professor, …
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The DFG Graduiertenkolleg 1613 Risk and East Asia invites you to a Research Forum guest lecture
Dominik Mierzejewski
Professor, Dept. of East Asia Studies, University of Lodz
"One Belt, One Road" proposal: China's new development model and regional cooperation with Europe

Date: Mon, January 18, 2016, 10–12 am

Venue: Building SG, Room SG 183 (different from the usual schedule)

Abstract
“One Belt, One Road” proposal became an important issue of today’s discussions. In September 2013, during his speech at Kazakhstan Nazarbayev University, President Xi Jinping proposed establishing a Silk Road Economic Belt. Thus, by reviving the Silk Road diplomacy from China to Europe, a new light was brought upon China’s activities in Central Europe. The paper discusses the major Chinese aims to build closer relations with Europe via the “Europe-Asia Bridge.” Needless to say, the problem is multidimensional and quite complex. The main point discussed within the paper is about changing the structure of China’s economy and the quick growth in Western China. By building the proper connections with Europe via the Eurasia continent, the central government can assure the future of an export-led economy and by this means secure the economic growth of China. From this perspective the paper discusses the new concepts of China’s economic development: economic regions e.g. Yangzi River Economic Belt. The second discussed point refers to the competitions between local governments within the Silk Road Economic Belt, namely between Chengdu and Chongqing. This problem is visible when it comes to the Chongqing-Duisburg and Chengdu-Lodz railways. In this context the paper touches the cross-regional cooperation and paradiplomacy new dynamics. weniger

The DFG Graduiertenkolleg 1613 Risk and East Asia invites you to a Research Forum guest lecture
Jingrong Tong
Lecturer, …
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The DFG Graduiertenkolleg 1613 Risk and East Asia invites you to a Research Forum guest lecture
Jingrong Tong
Lecturer, Dept. of Media and Communication, University of Leicester
Media and discourses in China: the case of 'discourse of journalism'

Date: Wed, January 13, 2016, 12–2 pm
Venue: Building LE, Room LE 736
Abstract

There is a close relationship and mutual influence between discourse and power (Foucault 1989; Fairclough 1992). As a result, social actors and entities strive to impact and even control the formation of discourses. Despite the ideological and media control by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), there have always been dissonant discourses coexisting in Chinese society. The prevalence of new media in China does not necessarily help forge discourses that are favourable to the less privileged. But meanwhile although the State has the upper hand, they still are unable to ultimately prevent disagreeing discourses from emerging. Prominent among these conflicting discourses are those of environment, politics and journalism. What underlie them are the struggles of power relations and the conflicts among social actors and entities such as the state, governments, officials, commercial corporations, Capitalists, activists, ordinary citizens and the media. The media not only contribute to generating and mediating these discourses but also themselves are the object that is defined by discourses. In this talk, I will particularly discuss how the discourse of journalism has changed in China since the turning of the new century and what competing discourses of journalism exist in Chinese society. Journalism produces discourses that define social reality and meanwhile other social actors and entities struggle to shape the discourse of journalism with the intention of controlling the discourses of social reality constructed in the media. This talk therefore focuses on examining the discourses of the media rather than the discourses in the media. It asks when journalism itself becomes the object that is defined by discourses, how do social actors especially the government, journalism and media organisations compete to construct a favourable discourse for them to consolidate their power? The discussion contributes to our understanding of the relationship between the media, discourses and power weniger

The DFG Research Training Group 1613 Risk and East Asia invites you to a Research Forum workshop by Heidi Gottfried.


The …
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The DFG Research Training Group 1613 Risk and East Asia invites you to a Research Forum workshop by Heidi Gottfried.


The DFG Graduiertenkolleg 1613 Risk and East Asia invites you to a Research Forum workshop by Heidi Gottfried (Associate Professor in Sociology, Wayne State University, Michigan, USA)

Date: Wed., December 9, 2015, 12–2 pm
Venue: Building LE, Room LE 736 weniger