Comparing Network Governance in England and China


Book Description

This book compares network governance practices and public service delivery in England and China. Adopting a political ethnographic approach, it assesses whether networked forms of governance are used in provision of care for the elderly and those with learning disabilities in the two countries. It also examines several concepts from network governance theory - including interdependence and resource exchange, trust and reciprocity, and diplomatic skills - in the context of English and Chinese local state engagement with NGOs providing and managing care. Perhaps surprisingly, the book argues that there are more similarities than differences in network governance practices in England and China. It will appeal to all those interested in network governance theory, public administration and comparative politics.




Public Education Reform and Network Governance


Book Description

This book is located in the field of education governance and sits amidst debates on public school reform in China. It examines how a top-down policy approach has been implemented from central government right down to the district level within the public education system in China. It shows the way networks support negotiation and bargaining at the district level which, in turn, influences the broader education policy of the central government. Using statistical data from education yearbooks, government documents analysis and interviews with main stakeholders in this policy arena, the book incorporates case studies from railway State-Owned Enterprise schools. Analysis of these indicates that the processes of formulating and implementing Chinese education policy can be characterised as a form of network governance, which coordinates actors, decision-making processes and stakeholders’ motivation to comply with collective decisions in Chinese education. Network governance acts as an effective and legitimate way of problem solving that assists policy implementation and education reform in China. By comparing two traditional modes of governance (governance through bureaucracy and the governance through markets), this book shows the network mode of governance in Chinese education is more powerful and significant, especially since the negotiated results among actors in the policy community are favourable.




The Oxford Handbook of Public Management


Book Description

The public sector continues to play a strategic role across the world and in the last thirty years there have been major shifts in approaches to its management. This text identifies the trends in public management and the effects these have had, as well as providing a broad overview to each topic.




Governance Networks in the Public Sector


Book Description

Governance Networks in the Public Sector presents a comprehensive study of governance networks and the management of complexities in network settings. Public, private and non-profit organizations are increasingly faced with complex, wicked problems when making decisions, developing policies or delivering services in the public sector. These activities take place in networks of interdependent actors guided by diverging and sometimes conflicting perceptions and strategies. As a result these networks are dominated by cognitive, strategic and institutional complexities. Dealing with these complexities requires sophisticated forms of coordination: network governance. This book presents the most recent theoretical and empirical insights into governance networks. It provides a conceptual framework and analytical tools to study the complexities involved in handling wicked problems in governance networks in the public sector. The book also discusses strategies and management recommendations for governments, business and third sector organisations operating in and governing networks. Governance Networks in the Public Sector is an essential text for advanced students of public management, public administration, public policy and political science, and for public managers and policymakers.




Public Education Reform and Network Governance


Book Description

This book is located in the field of education governance and sits amidst debates on public school reform in China. It examines how a top-down policy approach has been implemented from central government right down to the district level within the public education system in China. It shows the way networks support negotiation and bargaining at the district level which, in turn, influences the broader education policy of the central government. Using statistical data from education yearbooks, government documents analysis and interviews with main stakeholders in this policy arena, the book incorporates case studies from railway State-Owned Enterprise schools. Analysis of these indicates that the processes of formulating and implementing Chinese education policy can be characterised as a form of network governance, which coordinates actors, decision-making processes and stakeholders’ motivation to comply with collective decisions in Chinese education. Network governance acts as an effective and legitimate way of problem solving that assists policy implementation and education reform in China. By comparing two traditional modes of governance (governance through bureaucracy and the governance through markets), this book shows the network mode of governance in Chinese education is more powerful and significant, especially since the negotiated results among actors in the policy community are favourable.




Greening China’s Urban Governance


Book Description

This volume examines how urban stakeholders in China – particularly city governments and social actors – tackle China’s urban environmental crisis. The volume’s case studies speak to important interdisciplinary themes such as new tools and instruments of urban green governance, climate change and urban carbon consumption, green justice, digital governance, public participation, social media, social movements, and popular protest. It lays out a unique theoretical framework for examining and discussing urban green governance. The case studies are based on extensive fieldwork that examines governance failures, challenges, and innovations from across China, including the largest cities. They show that numerous policies, experiments, and reforms have been put in place in China – mostly on a pragmatic basis, but also as a result of both strategic policy design, civil participation, and protest. The book highlights how China’s urban governments bring together diverse programmatic building blocks and instruments, from China and elsewhere. Written by experts and researchers from different disciplines at leading universities in China and the Nordic countries in Europe, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students who are interested in Chinese politics, especially urban politics, governance issues, and social movements. Both students and teachers will find the theoretical perspectives and case studies useful in their coursework.The unique green governance perspective makes this a work that is empirically and theoretically interesting for those working with urban political and environmental studies and urbanization worldwide.




Asia Pacific Education


Book Description

The Asia-Pacific region has rich and unique traditions, cultural diversity and common as well as unique challenges, including obstacles of language and geographical separation. As home to over 60 per cent of the world's population, this region has a diverse range of educational issues, which have not as yet been fully explored. This ground-breaking volume considers current perspectives on educational diversity, challenges and changes occurring across a number of countries in the region and provides a closer look at these complexities. Focus has been given to the influence and impact that these complexities are having on policy and practice in leadership, governance and administration structures. Who has been given the agency? What kinds of power currents are in play? What are the hidden political enablers and disablers in these narratives? The authors of chapters in this series have presented some solid examples of what is currently happening, the discourse that is emerging around it, the effects of these changes and their impact within the region. While some of these narratives are a synthesis of literature and policy, other chapters have focused on findings from empirical studies being conducted in this space. As a timely collection of works from active researchers in Education, the book supports and encourages the importance of on-going educational research within the Asia-Pacific region The findings in this book have been drawn from original and current research which is anticipated as being a valuable academic reference as well as a teaching resource in the field of Education. This volume will be beneficial to students and academics of Education around the world as well as a useful reference to educational academics, researchers, policy-makers and administrators across the Asia-Pacific region.The Asia-Pacific region has rich and unique traditions, cultural diversity and common as well as unique challenges, including obstacles of language and geographical separation. As home to over 60 per cent of the world's population, this region has a diverse range of educational issues, which have not as yet been fully explored. This ground-breaking volume considers current perspectives on educational diversity, challenges and changes occurring across a number of countries in the region and provides a closer look at these complexities. Focus has been given to the influence and impact that these complexities are having on policy and practice in leadership, governance and administration structures. Who has been given the agency? What kinds of power currents are in play? What are the hidden political enablers and disablers in these narratives? The authors of chapters in this series have presented some solid examples of what is currently happening, the discourse that is emerging around it, the effects of these changes and their impact within the region. While some of these narratives are a synthesis of literature and policy, other chapters have focused on findings from empirical studies being conducted in this space. As a timely collection of works from active researchers in Education, the book supports and encourages the importance of on-going educational research within the Asia-Pacific region The findings in this book have been drawn from original and current research which is anticipated as being a valuable academic reference as well as a teaching resource in the field of Education. This volume will be beneficial to students and academics of Education around the world as well as a useful reference to educational academics, researchers, policy-makers and administrators across the Asia-Pacific region.




China's Governmentalities


Book Description

Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) embarked on a programme of ‘reform and openness’ in the late 1970s, Chinese society has undergone a series of dramatic transformations in almost all realms of social, cultural, economic and political life and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has emerged as a global power. China’s post-1978 transition from ‘socialist plan’ to ‘market socialism’ has also been accompanied by significant shifts in how the practice and objects of government are understood and acted upon. China’s Governmentalities outlines the nature of these shifts, and contributes to emerging studies of governmentality in non-western and non-liberal settings, by showing how neoliberal discourses on governance, development, education, the environment, community, religion, and sexual health, have been raised in other contexts. In doing so, it opens discussions of governmentality to ‘other worlds’ and the glocal politics of the present. The book will appeal to scholars from a wide range of disciplines interested in the work of Michel Foucault, neo-liberal strategies of governance, and governmental rationalities in contemporary China.




Comparative Corporate Governance : A Chinese Perspective


Book Description

The analysis is notable for its insistence that, for a corporate governance system to work, the principles and practicalities of that system must be derived from customary cultural norms. Experience shows that imported models, although they may be enshrined in law, lead to economic stagnation unless actual practice is monitored and reformed and the laws change to reflect these necessary adjustments. Thus the model proposed here begins with the Company Law of 1994, and proceeds to show how practical experience is already providing valuable data for the task of improving the law.




Local Governance Innovation in China


Book Description

Despite a centralized formal structure, Chinese politics and policy-making have long been marked by substantial degrees of regional and local variation and experimentation. These trends have, if anything, intensified as China’s reform matures. Though often remarked upon, the politicsof policy formation, diffusion, and implementation at the subnational level have not previously been comprehensively described, let alone satisfactorily explained. Based on extensive fieldwork, this book explores how policies diffuse across China today, the mechanisms through which local governments actually arrive at specific solutions, and the implications for China’s political development and stability in the years ahead. The chapters examine how local-level institutions solve governance challenges, such as rural development, enterprise reform, and social service provision. Focusing on diverse policy areas that include land use, state-owned enterprise reform, and house churches, the contributors all address the same overarching question: how do local policymakers innovate in each issue area to address a governance challenges and how, if at all, do these innovations diffuse into national politics. As a study of local governance in China today, this book will appeal to both students and scholars of Chinese politics, comparative politics, governance and development studies, and also to policy-makers interested in authoritarianism and governance.