Introductory description

This module introduces students to some of the most crucial and rapidly-changing areas of policy-making in East Asian states, including trade, finance and aid. This module seeks to enable students to critique the various forms of regional cooperation that have emerged in these policy areas, and to make meaningful comparisons of the policy conduct across a range of Northeast and Southeast Asian states. These policy areas are analysed in relation to broader debates about the rise and possible decline of the Asian developmental state and the incursion of a more neoliberal-inclined approaches to policy-making in the region. The module will explore a wide range of country case studies, providing students with a comprehensive overview of the promises and challenges for East Asian development.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

1. Introduction
2. Trade regionalism
3. Global value chains
4. The informal economy
5. Financial regionalism
6. Reading week
7. Aid
8. Environmental regionalism
9. Welfare
10. Politics of tourism

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• (1) to develop students’ ability to independently analyse the development strategies and public policy dilemmas of individual countries, to compare them and to draw out generalisations which could have significance for other states;
• (2) to enable students to link theoretical and empirical analysis of political and economic materials;
• (3) to develop research skills, particularly strategies for searching for materials and interpreting data;
• (4) to develop students’ ability to make presentations on complicated subjects.

Indicative reading list

Peter Ferdinand. Governance in Pacific Asia (Continuum, 2012).

Christopher Dent. East Asian Regionalism (Routledge, 2016).

Young-Chan Kim. Chinese Global Production Networks in ASEAN (Springer, 2016).

Mitchell Bernard andJohn Ravenhill. "Beyond product cycles and flying geese: Regionalization, hierarchy, and the industrialization," World Politics 47(2), 1995, pp. 171-209.

Dae-oup Chang. "Informalising labour in Asia's global factory," Journal of Contemporary Asia 39(2), pp. 161-179.

William W. Grimes. Currency and Contest in East Asia: The Great Power Politics of Financial Regionalism (Cornell University Press, 2009).

Joel Rathus. Japan, China and Networked Regionalism in East Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

Barbara Stallings. Promoting Development: The Political Economy of East Asian Foreign Aid (Springer Singapore, 2017).

Lorraine Elliott. "Environmental regionalism: Moving in from the policy margins," The Pacific Review 30(6), pp. 952-965.

Peter Abrahamson. "East Asian welfare regime: Obsolete ideal-type or diversified reality," Journal of Asian Public Policy 10(1), 90-103.

Linda K. Richter. "Tourism politics and political science: A case of not so benign neglect," Annals of Tourism Research 10(3), 313-335.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Research element

Students will develop research skills, particularly strategies for searching for materials and interpreting data.

Interdisciplinary

This is an interdisciplinary module that is at the intersection of the disciplines of politics, economics, international relations, development studies and East Asian studies.

International

The module introduces students to a wide range of source materials produced in East Asia, including source materials that are primarily aimed at an East Asian audience.

Subject specific skills

(1) the acquisition of advanced empirical knowledge of various debates concerning public policy making in East Asia; (2) the ability to develop rigorous and coherent arguments; (3) the achievement of a critically informed understanding of key areas of regional public policy making in Asia and the challenges facing developmental states in the region; and (4) the ability to effectively present, communicate and debate sophisticated arguments about the nature of public policy in East Asia.

Transferable skills

(1) the ability to independently analyse the development strategies and public policy dilemmas of individual countries, to compare them and to draw out generalisations which could have significance for other states; (2) the ability to link theoretical and empirical analysis of political and economic material; (3) research skills, particularly strategies for searching for material and interpreting data; (4) the ability to make presentations.