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This insightful book shows how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from some of the traditionally less dynamic peripheral economies of the old EU namely Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain have responded to the twin challenges of globalisation and industrial restructuring. Through a series of unique case studies the contributing authors discuss how these economies, and in particular the SME sector, can be transformed. The book begins by examining the key drivers of the globally competitive SME sector in the EU, before moving on to explore the relationship between multinational enterprises (MNEs), SMEs and industrial development. The authors investigate important policy implications and provide lessons for SME development and growth. With empirical and theoretical contributions on SMEs in both the manufacturing and the services sectors, this essential book will be invaluable for researchers and policymakers in small business economics and management. Postgraduate students of entrepreneurship, business economics, industrial economics and European studies will appreciate this unique set of insights.
By concentrating on one of the key locations of global manufacturing, this volume offers a contribution to contemporary industry studies. The rates of growth that have characterized the southern Guangdong province in the last three decades are unique, even with respect to the more general and often cited Chinese experience. But what role have governments played in these decades of growth? What are the aims and tools of industrial policies promoted in this core location of contemporary manufacturing? And what are the implications of the Guangdong experience of growth for the international debate on contemporary industry? Referencing the international debate on industrial development, speciali...
This book looks at how NGOs, social organizations, business associations, trade unions, and religious associations interact with the state, and explore how social actors have negotiated the influence of the state at both national and local levels, and examines how a corporatist understanding of state-society relations can be reformulated, as old and new social stakeholders play a greater role in managing contemporary social issues. In turn, the book goes on to chart the differences in how the state behaves locally and centrally, and finally discusses the future direction of the corporatist state.
This book explores how Confucian thought, which was the ideological underpinning of traditional, imperial China, is being developed and refined into a New Confucianism relevant for the twenty-first century. It traces the development of Confucian thought, examines significant new texts, and shows how New Confucianism relates to various spheres of life, how it informs views on key philosophical issues, and how it affects personal conduct. Starting by exploring the philosophical and ideological principles of New Confucianism, the book goes on to explain how New Confucianism is a collective process of continuous creation and recreation, an incessant and evolving discourse. It argues that New Confucianism, unlike its earlier manifestation, is more accommodating of a plurality of ideologies in the world; and that understanding Confucianism and how it is developing is essential for understanding contemporary China.
This book is a study of knowledge production about China and the Chinese civilization and as such it is a critique of the ways in which knowledge about the Chinese civilization is produced. It is not primarily intended as one that sets out to expose biases and prejudices against China, correct errors and misrepresentations of Chinese civilization, and dispute misperceptions and misinterpretations of Chinese materials, although all these issues do occur in the book. The overall objective is to get behind and beneath all these problems in order to uncover the motivations, mental frameworks, attitudes, and reasons for the abovementioned phenomena, which the author terms "Sinologism".
This book sheds light on the social imagination of nature and environment in contemporary China. It demonstrates how the urgent debate on how to create an ecologically sustainable future for the world’s most populous country is shaped by its complex engagement with religious traditions, competing visions of modernity and globalization, and by engagement with minority nationalities who live in areas of outstanding natural beauty on China’s physical and social margins. The book develops a comprehensive understanding of contemporary China that goes beyond the tradition/ modernity dichotomy, and illuminates the diversity of narratives and worldviews that inform contemporary Chinese understandings of and engagements with nature and environment.
The People’s Republic of China is the world’s most populous state and largest consumer of energy, having demonstrated momentous progress on an unprecedented scale. This global power has increasingly shaped international relations as a result of its population size, economic development and political character. Identifying the most significant new issues and problems that have arisen from China’s rapid development, this book examines the evolution of China’s contemporary foreign policy and international relations. In doing so, it underlines the global importance of China’s management of its own politics and economics, and demonstrates how all nation-states have a vested interest in ...
"There is currently a popular view that the world is undergoing profound changes in the fundamental relationships upon which it is organized. In particular, there is widespread talk of a 'globalized' economy, facilitated by and associated with 'new' techno"
Unlike many studies of social attitudes, which are based on large scale quantitative surveys, or which focus on the attitude of elites, this book considers the views of ordinary people, and is based on in-depth, qualitative interviews. This approach results in rich, nuanced data, and is especially helpful for highlighting ambivalent attitudes, where respondents may hold positive and negative views on a particular topic, views which are liable to change. The book examines attitudes on a range of subjects of current importance, including views on nationalism and internationalism, housing preferences, and educational ambitions. Throughout, the book explores how far attitudes are influenced by traditional Chinese values or by the neo-liberal outlook fostered by recent reforms, and concludes that materialism and individualism have increased.
Large-scale privatization did not emerge spontaneously in China in the late 1990s. Rather, the Chinese state led and carefully “planned” ownership transformation with timetables and measurable privatization quotas, not for the purpose of extracting the state from the economy, but in order to strengthen the rule of the Party. While it is widely believed that authoritarian regimes are better suited than democracies to carry out economic reform, this book provides a more nuanced understanding of reform in China, demonstrating that the Chinese state’s capacity to impose unpopular reform is contingent on its control over local state agents and its adaptability to societal demands. Building ...