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1 – 10 of over 3000M. Obaidul Hamid and Shuqin Luo
While education policymakers in Asian polities find it difficult to resist the English language which has attained a new status in “late capitalism”, prevailing policy-level…
Abstract
Purpose
While education policymakers in Asian polities find it difficult to resist the English language which has attained a new status in “late capitalism”, prevailing policy-level perceptions also suggest that a ruthless adoption of English may undermine national languages, identities and cultures. Despite the heightened commercialisation of English as a global language this policy dilemma raises some critical questions. For example, how can individual entrepreneurs also acting as “language policy actors” effectively promote for-profit English teaching ventures without being accused of compromising national interests, identities and traditions? This article makes a modest attempt towards addressing these questions by conducting a critical analysis of Li Yang’s English teaching venture called “Crazy English” in China and its underlying discourses.
Design/methodology/approach
From a sample of English teaching resources available on its official website, this paper identifies and discusses four major discourses on the relationship between English and individual entrepreneurship in English on the one hand and Chinese and China’s national values and interests on the other.
Findings
This paper argues that collectively these discourses represent a model of “edu-business” in English language teaching that reconciles the dichotomies between nationalism and post-nationalism, individualism and collectivism and public and private interests in a neoliberal world.
Originality/value
With the onset of globalisation and its impact on all aspects of life including the economy, education and communication, there have been on-going debates on the emerging tensions between the nation-state and the forces of trans/post-nationalism, the latter being underpinned by neo-liberalism. These tensions have also been observed in the fields of English and English language education. While research has examined how macro-level policymakers respond to globalisation through their English language policies, there has been limited work on how individual language policy actors engaged in the commercialisation of English reconcile the apparently irreconcilable forces of nationalism and post-nationalism. The contribution of the present article lies in illustrating a case that seeks to reconcile these forces through discourses and discursive strategies.
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The study aims to examine the geoeconomic significance of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to China’s global geopolitical ends. In this vein, the paper also seeks to…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to examine the geoeconomic significance of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to China’s global geopolitical ends. In this vein, the paper also seeks to explore the interplay between China’s grand geoeconomic strategy and China’s geopolitical ends from a realist perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses the realism theory to explore the interplay between China’s geoeconomic presence in the GCC countries and its geopolitical global ends.
Findings
The study concludes that China under President Xi Jinping has geopolitical ends, and they are the regional and global leadership. To achieve them, President Xi has formulated a grand geoeconomic strategy consisting of four strategies: going out strategy, periphery strategy, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. These strategies will maximize China’s economic power and presence around the world. From a realist perspective, this presence and its evolving consequences such as the balance of dependence will enable China to achieve its geopolitical ends. In this vein, China’s geoeconomic strategy in the GCC countries has largely maximized China’s economic presence in the Gulf. This presence highly serving China’s geopolitical global ends for two reasons: the economic weight of the GCC countries and their strategic location within BRI.
Originality/value
The study can prove the realistic dimension of geoeconomics in the neoliberal era on the application to China’s geoeconomic strategy.
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Shazia Kousar, Abdul Rehman, Mahwish Zafar, Kamran Ali and Nadia Nasir
The purpose of this paper is to discuss positive spillovers of this project, especially for Pakistan because the majority of the literature discusses challenges associated with…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss positive spillovers of this project, especially for Pakistan because the majority of the literature discusses challenges associated with China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Design/methodology/approach
This study reviews the available literature to assess the role of CPEC in the sustainable economic development of Pakistan.
Findings
This study indicates that CPEC is an ambitious development project because it needs a larger restructuring of the economy of Pakistan and it will be productive with the successful blend of policy changes and participation of the business community in Pakistan. This project primarily creates a huge amount of foreign direct investment for Pakistan, at the same time, it will also create greater trade opportunities to China by giving access to a new market for its trading goods.
Originality/value
This study established that CPEC will improve the economic growth and trade, enhance regional connectivity, overcome energy crises, develop infrastructure and establish people-to-people contacts in both the countries, which will further help to improve the tourism sector.
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Laurence Jacobs, Gao Guopei and Paul Herbig
Compares the economic history of china and Europe over the past 2,000 years in an attempt to understand the countries’ present economic positions. Discusses how China’s political…
Abstract
Compares the economic history of china and Europe over the past 2,000 years in an attempt to understand the countries’ present economic positions. Discusses how China’s political and economic system impeded the development of a commodity economy and led to the development of agriculture while Europe’s commodity economy fostered the advancement of science and technology.
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The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to consider the proposal by Peter Li about developing an inclusive research paradigm bringing together eastern and western research…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to consider the proposal by Peter Li about developing an inclusive research paradigm bringing together eastern and western research approaches; and second, to make a proposal for a division of labor in this endeavor.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature review and consideration of opposing intellectual traditions and their origins.
Findings
If the western approach was to deal with structures and institutions, and the eastern approach was to deal with process, then some progress might be possible toward a valuable fusion. But there may be sociological as well as intellectual reasons why this would be difficult.
Research limitations/implications
As it is a commentary there are no specific limitations except for what can be covered in the space available.
Practical implications
If the proposal can be made to bear fruit the chances of much greater East-West collaboration in research are higher.
Social implications
The reduction of friction and non-cooperation between intellectual traditions.
Originality/value
The “process” suggestion is new in this form.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate a significant course correction in US–China policy. It examines the increasingly broad dissatisfaction with China policy, which has…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate a significant course correction in US–China policy. It examines the increasingly broad dissatisfaction with China policy, which has resulted in an apparent end the era of intensive engagement and led to a hardening of the US approach to China across the policy spectrum, as exemplified by the critique of and incipient efforts to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Design/methodology/approach
The research draws on primary and secondary source material to identify evidence of and examine the rationale behind the shift from the USA’s decades-long “engagement” approach toward an in intensifying strategic competition with China.
Findings
A course correction in US–China policy has been years in the making, and as most now argue is long overdue. The idea that China has emerged as America’s foremost strategic competitor is widely accepted, and indeed deeply ingrained in the thinking of most US foreign affairs professionals. It is also starkly evident in current US declaratory policy and increasingly in its operational policy as well.
Research limitations/implications
The research offers a fresh perspective on the domestic and diplomatic dimensions of China’s rising.
Originality/value
The research builds on the latest scholarship on the growth of China’s geopolitical challenge to the USA to explore the development of China–US tensions and rivalries at all levels from the Bush and Obama eras to the present.
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This study aims to explore the consumption practices of globally-mobile, young consumers from China who experience both upward social mobility and geographically outbound mobility…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the consumption practices of globally-mobile, young consumers from China who experience both upward social mobility and geographically outbound mobility by studying abroad, echoing emerging scholarship of “moving consumption”.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 27 first-generation Chinese international students studying in the USA.
Findings
The informants interpret outbound geographical mobility and upward social mobility in an overlapping manner. For them, cosmopolitan consumption practices are a form of boundary work and identity construction, reflecting their international experience. At the same time, the informants seek affirmation of the meanings and references of their consumption in their remote, native cultural contexts. In this way, they ensure that their tastes align with the popular “West” with which Chinese consumers are already familiar.
Originality/value
This study examines international student mobility that is unique to the younger generation. It considers how such form of mobility shapes the consumption patterns of Chinese youth with substantial purchasing power. Young, affluent international students differ in fundamental ways from other cross-cultural, cross-border travelers such as migrants, globally-mobile professionals, global citizens, nomads, sojourners and tourists. Thus, this study not only sheds light on the under-researched subject of “moving consumption” but also addresses youth cultures in transitional economies by exploring how Chinese youth consume when they are away from home and exposed to global consumerism first-hand.
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Yucheng Zhang and Stephen J. Frenkel
This paper aims to analyse two ways in which Chinese workers attempt to resist unjust treatment: exit through quitting and voice via collective action. This is in the context of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse two ways in which Chinese workers attempt to resist unjust treatment: exit through quitting and voice via collective action. This is in the context of rapid economic growth, rising economic inequality (Lu and Gao, 2011; Qin et al., 2009; Reed, 2012) and escalating industrial conflict (Pringle, 2011).
Design/methodology/approach
A model is developed and hypotheses formulated in the light of qualitative data analysis that included archival data, workplace observation and interviews with employees and managers at a large factory. A mediated chain model was tested based on a survey of 234 semi-skilled and skilled manual workers and 353 service employees employed in the same city in Western China.
Findings
Organisational identification and organisational cynicism were found to mediate the relationship between interactional justice and the two outcomes, intention to quit and collective opposition.
Originality/value
The authors’ interpretation of these relationships challenge previous research by showing that social identification is a more powerful explanation than social exchange in accounting for variations in these two outcomes. Implications are drawn for human resource theory and practice.
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