EAST ASIAN CAPITALISMS AND GLOBALIZATION
Daniel Buck
Department of Geography and Institute for Chinese Studies
Oxford University
First offered as an ExEAS course at Columbia University Spring 2003
Description

How we understand the globalization of contemporary East Asia depends on how we understand the rapid development of East Asia’s economies and societies in the second half of the 20th century. Designed as a dialogue between existing social science theories and the actual experience of East Asian societies, this course begins with an exploration of the dominant explanations of postwar capitalist development and social change. These explanations, which tend to emphasize either market mechanisms, state control, or cultural determination, are often based upon excessively narrow understandings of capitalism. Attention is given to the theoretical underpinnings of these explanations, and to the East Asian development histories themselves (with emphasis on Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea), so as to reveal the inadequacies of prevailing theories. In the process, the course will develop a deeper theoretical understanding of capitalism as being comprised of multiple local capitalisms which must be understood in the broadest sense, as socially and culturally constituted regimes subject to contradiction and change. Self-generating and expansive, each produces disparate spatio-temporal trajectories of development and globalization. This framework sets the stage for the final section of the course, which will bring each of the development trajectories up to date and situate the ongoing changes in each country more firmly in their regional and international contexts. Some of the themes to be covered include regional integration, migrations, the 1997 economic crisis, and post-crisis trends and tendencies.

Texts

Simon Partner, 1999. Assembled in Japan: Electrical Goods and the Making of the Japanese Consumer. University of California Press.

Anita Chan, Richard Madsen, and Jonathan Unger, 1992. Chen Village Under Mao and Deng (Expanded and Updated Edition). University of California Press.

Reader.

Requirements

-- There are no prerequisites for this course, and it does not assume any prior knowledge of social science theory or East Asia.
-- Concepts will be developed cumulatively – missing courses and readings will make it difficult to keep up.
20% In addition to regular attendance and active participation in class discussions, students will make a posting to the class web site each week discussing that week’s readings.
25% An in-class midterm exam.
25% A short research paper (5-6 pages).
30% An extensive research paper (15-20 pages).

Texts

(all available at the MSU bookstore; course packet will be provided by the instructor)

Daughter of the River, Hong Ying The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston

Chaos and All That, Liu Sola Tracing It Home, Lynn Pan

White Snake and Other Stories, Geling Yan Mulberry and Peach, Hualing Nieh

Hunger, Lan Samantha Chang

Schedule (Assumes Tuesday-Thursday Schedule)

I. INTRODUCTION

Session 1

Distribution of syllabus. Introduction to course themes and requirements. Instructions on how to read the assigned readings, how to analyze them, and how to write the weekly posting.

Session 2

Orientalism. Introduction to historical context.

Reading :

Stuart Hall, 1995. “The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power,” in ed. Stuart Hall, Formations of Modernity. pp. 185-225.

Session 3

Introduction to historical context, continued; initial sketch of Japan’s postwar development.

Reading :

Jeffrey Henderson and Richard P. Appelbaum, 1992. “Situating the State in the East Asian Development Process,” in Richard P. Appelbaum and Jeffrey Henderson, editors, States and Development in the Asian Pacific Rim. Newbury Park: Sage Publications. Pp.1-23.  

II. JAPAN and the NICs ( TAIWAN, SOUTH KOREA, and HONG KONG)

A. State and Market Explanations of Development

Session 4

Descriptions of the developmental state vs. the market in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; market vs. state theories of postwar development.

Reading :

T.J. Pempel, 1998. “ Japan in the 1960s: Conservative Politics and Economic Growth.” Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Chapter 2 (42-80).

Manuel Castells, 1992. “Four Asian Tigers with a Dragon Head: A Comparative Analysis of the State, Economy, and Society in the Asian Pacific Rim,” in Richard P. Appelbaum and Jeffrey Henderson, editors, States and Development in the Asian Pacific Rim. Newbury Park: Sage Publications. Pp. 33-66.

Session 5

Market vs. state theories of postwar development.

Reading :

T.J. Pempel, 1998. “From Chaos to Cohesion: Formation of the Conservative Regime.” Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Chapter 3 (81-110).

Session 6

The developmental state critique of market explanations; the influence of these two paradigms; introduction to critiques of developmental state ( Moore); section wrap-up.

Reading :

Robert Wade, 1996. “ Japan, the World Bank, and the art of paradigm maintenance: The East Asian Miracle in political perspective,” New Left Review (217), June 1996. pp. 3-36.

B. Culture with a Capital C: Confucian Capitalism  

Session 7

Brief introduction to relevant aspects of Confucianism; cultural arguments for postwar development. Begin critique.

Reading :

“The Great Learning.” From A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, translated and compiled by Wing-tsit Chan. 1963. Princeton University Press: 85-87.

Gary Hamilton and Nicole Biggart, 1988. “Market, Culture, and Authority: A Comparative Analysis of Management and Organization in the Far East.” American Journal of Sociology, Volume 94, Supplement 52-88.

Tu Wei-ming, 1996. “Introduction,” in Tu Wei-ming, editor, Confucian Traditions in East Asian Modernity: Moral Education and Economic Culture in Japan and the Four Mini-Dragons. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Pp. 1-10.

Session 8

Economy as something beyond states and markets: production network economies, social and cultural embeddedness (Polanyi), trust, authority, and labor relations.

Reading :

Susan Greenhalgh, 1994. “de-Orientalizing the Chinese family firm.” American Ethnologist, 21 (4): 746-770.

Christena Turner, 1993. “The Spirit of Productivity: Workplace Discourse on Culture and Economics in Japan,” in Masao Miyoshi and H.D. Harootunian, editors, Japan in the World. Durham: Duke University Press. Pp. 144-159.

Session 9

Discussion of comparative uses of culture in authoritarian state arguments, by scholars (Hamilton and Biggart, Greenhalgh), and by Asian actors. Section wrap-up.

Reading :

Stephen Vlastos, 1998. “Tradition: Past/Present Culture and Modern Japanese History,” in Stephen Vlastos, editor, Mirror of Identity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan. University of California Press. 1-16.

Andrew Gordon, 1998. “The Invention of Japanese-Style Labor Management,” in Stephen Vlastos, editor, Mirror of Identity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan. University of California Press. 19-36.

C. History isn’t over: Ending Development as an Endpoint  

Session 10

Development goes on after “development” is achieved. Ongoing, endogenous change; trends vs. tendencies; internal contradictions. East Asia in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Reading :

Marshall Berman, 1982. All That is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. Penguin Books. Selected pages (~20 pages).

Session 11

East Asia in the late 1980s and 1990s. Discussion comparing historical change in Pempel and Ivy.

Reading :

T.J. Pempel, 1998. Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Selections on regime change (~10 pp.).

Marilyn Ivy, 1993. “Formations of Mass Culture,” in Gordon, Postwar Japan as History, pp. 239-258

D.Socially and culturally Constituted Capitalism s: Producing development

Session 12

This unit will draw on the materials already covered, and Partner’s Assembled in Japan, to move beyond the embeddedness conception of capitalist economies, and toward an understanding of socially and culturally constituted capitalisms. Today: agrarian transitions to capitalism.

Reading :

Simon Partner, 1999. Assembled in Japan: Electrical Goods and the Making of the Japanese Consumer. University of California Press. Prologue, Chapters 1-2 (pp. 1-70).

Session 13

Labor and gender.

Video: The Japan They Don’t Tell Us About (20 minute excerpt)

Reading :

Assembled in Japan , Chapters 3, 4, 5 (pp. 71-152)

Session 14

Consumption; entrepreneurship.

Reading :

Assembled in Japan , Chapters 6, Conclusion (pp. 153-240 )

Session 15

MIDTERM EXAM.

III. CHINA

A. Socialism in China

Session 16

Revolution, some post-liberation history. Introduction to the planned economy.

Reading :

Anita Chan, Richard Madsen, and Jonathan Unger, 1992. Chen Village Under Mao and Deng (Expanded and Updated Edition). University of California Press. Prologue, Chapters 1-2 (pp. 1-73).

Katherine Verdery, 1996. “What Was Socialism , and Why Did It Fall” (selected pages), What Was Socialism and What Comes Next? Princeton: Princeton University Press. Pp. 19-30.

Session 17

Actually lived socialism: urban work units; rural communes; Cultural Revolution and Maoist ideology. 15 minute discussion on critical essays.

Reading :

Chen Village , Chapters 3-4 (pp. 74-140).

Andrew Walder, 1983. “Organized Dependence and Cultures of Authority in Chinese Industry,” Journal of Asian Studies, XLIII(1), November 1983: pp. 51-76.  

B. “Groping for Stones to Cross the River” -- the 1980s

Session 18

The reform era of Deng Xiaoping: decollectivization; gradually growing out of the plan. Reading :

Chen Village . Chapters 5-6 (pp. 141-185).

Barry Naughton, 1995. “Introduction: China’s economic reform in comparative perspective,” in Growing Out of the Plan: Chinese Economic Reform 1978-1993. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 1-25.

Session 19

Overview and critique of marketization and transition theories.

Reading :

Chen Village . Chapters 7-8 (pp. 186-235).

Session 20

Domestic and international sources of growth. Ideological shifts and battles. 15 minute discussion of final research proposals/projects.

Reading :

Chen Village . Chapter 9 (pp. 236-266).

Cheng Li, 1997. “Sunan’s Miracle: Rural Industrial Revolution Changes China’s Landscape,” Rediscovering China: Dynamics and Dilemmas of Reform. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 75-92.

C. Constructing Capitalism -- the 1990s

Session 21

Consensus in the 1990s, underlying tensions.

Reading :

Chen Village . Chapters 10-12 (pp. 267-333).

You-tien Hsing, 1997. “Blood thicker than water: Networks of local Chinese bureaucrats and Taiwanese investors in Southern China,” Environment and Planning A (28), 1996: 2241-2261.

Session 22

Shortage to surplus economy, WTO. 10 minutes: final research proposals/projects.

Reading :

Harriet Evans, “Marketing Femininity: Images of the Modern Chinese Woman” (pp. 217-243); and Timothy B. Weston, “ China’s Labor Woes: Will the Workers Crash the Party?” (pp. 245-270); and Henry Rosemont, Jr., “ China’s New Economic Reforms: Replacing Iron Rice Bowls with Plastic Cups” (pp. 171-191) in Timothy Weston and Lionel Jensen, editors, China Beyond the Headlines. 2000. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.

IV. GLOBALIZING EAST ASIA’s CAPITALISMS

Session 23

Beyond the nation-state: regional integration.

Reading :

Mitchell Bernard and John Ravenhill, 1995. “Beyond Product Cycles and Flying Geese: Regionalization, Hierarchy, and the Industrialization of East Asia,” World Politics 47 no. 2 (January): pp. 171-209.

Session 24

The materiality of globalization and transnationality; Greater China.

Reading :

Aihwa Ong, 1999. “The Pacific Shuttle: Family, Citizenship and Capital Circuits,” in Aihwa Ong, Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality. Duke University Press. Pp. 110-136.

Session 25

Globalization: capitalisms, crises, and cultures.

Reading :

Michael Watts, 1992. “Capitalisms, Crises, and Cultures I: Notes toward a Totality of Fragments,” in Allan Pred and Michael Watts, Reworking Modernity: Capitalisms and Symbolic Discontent. Rutgers University Press. Pp. 1-19.

Session 26

The 1997 Asian Economic Crisis: origins.

Reading :

Gary Hamilton, 1999. “Asian Business Networks in Transition: or, What Alan Greenspan Does Not Know about the Asian Business Crisis,” in T.J. Pempel, editor, The Politics of the Asian Economic Crisis. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Pp. 45-61.

T.J. Pempel, 1999. “Regional Ups, Regional Downs,” in Pempel, The Politics of the Asian Economic Crisis, pp. 62-78.

Session 27

The 1997 Asian Economic Crisis: different paths and effects.

Reading :

Selected press articles on the 1997 Asian Economic Crisis.

Session 28

East Asia Today: The 1997 Asian Economic Crisis and its aftermath; Polanyi redux; breaking out of Keynesianism; Japan’s deepening crisis?

Reading :

Selected press articles on the 1997 Asian Economic Crisis, its aftermath, and Japan’s deepening crisis.