Research: Risk and East Asia
The strongest motivation for individuals to build social organizations lies in the dangers as well as the opportunities posed by risks. The generation of new insights becomes possible by understanding the constitution of social organizations and comparing these with other economic and social systems. These are the concerns of the research focus on “Risk and East Asia at the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen.
Which risks are driving the constitution of social organizations? Threats posed by natural disasters are an obvious example. But triggers can also be found in contemporary economic, social and political developments. Thus, a calculation of risk underlies the strategic decisions of the Chinese government, for example, between the market and the state, and between democratic and authoritative leadership. Furthermore, problems lie behind issues of social security in all East Asian countries. And risks constitute an important component of international relations – both within the East Asian region (for example, reactions to the North Korean threat) as well as between East Asia and Europe. Which preconditions are necessary in order to curb the common global threat posed by climate change? How can corporations prepare for risks involved with entries into foreign markets? Finally, the cultural dimensions should not be neglected since life course risks and chances are experienced subjectively. Power and interests play a role in the awareness, repression and treatment of risks (here the reference is the “risk management).
In the last few years the Institute of East Asian Studies has carried out numerous research projects including six granted by the German Research Foundation (DFG) on change and the stability of institutions in East Asia. The processes of globalization, the forging of increasingly stronger economic and political ties, as well as country-specific factors, have created a substantial pressure for change in Japan and the Peoples Republic of China. Liberalization and weakening of institutions have been forecast by many authors writing about this part of the world; at the same time the East Asia countries are considered to be highly stability-oriented. During the projects carried out by the joint research initiative, these developments were analyzed from the vantage points of various academic disciplines but always on the basis of shared concepts from the field of institutional theory. The analysis covered various arenas of activity, e. g. markets and regions, and dealt with various topics, e. g. regional democratization processes, construction industry lobbying, property rights in township village enterprises, and labour market structure. One of the insights emerging from the research collaboration is that the dramatic changes now taking place cannot be fully explained by the current trends toward liberalization and a breakdown of institutions. Institutional transformation is a multifaceted phenomenon. Existing institutions have been supplanted or transformed, creating a stable network which guarantees stability in Japan and China while leaving room for adaptation.
The new research projects on “Risk and East Asia give further definition to this main subject area. In this context the Institute will be making use of the collaboration within EastAsiaNet, an organization composed of leading European institutes devoted to contemporary East Asia studies.
The expertise possessed by IN-EAST is also in high demand by well recognized scientific journals. This is attested to by the following special issues edited in recent years by scholars working at IN-EAST:
- European Journal of East Asian Studies, Special Issue 1 (2006), “Nation-Building in East and South East Asian Studies, edited by Thomas Heberer/Claudia Derichs,
- International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Special Issue 175,176 (2005), “Changing Language Regimes in Globalizing Environments: Japan and Europe, edited by Patrick Heinrich/Florian Coulmas,
- Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft, Special Issue 3 (2006), “Herausforderung Ostasien, edited by Werner Pascha.