Search

ABSTRACT ¡°East Asian Modernities and Local Media and Cultural Studies¡± The paper examined how East Asian media and cultural studies have approached the uneven and yet intricately connected historical formation of multiple modernities at cultural, socio-economic and political levels. The paper explored how East Asian media and cultural studies have framed their methodological and theoretical concerns in the context of rapid state-led socio-political transformation, de-traditionalization, and globalization. The first section looked back over the trajectories of the formative process of East Asian Media and Cultural Studies. In it the study inspected how East Asian MCS identify the formation of East Asian modernities in terms of the formation of cultural identities mediated by the media industries in the era of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the previous research on cultural taste supports class determinism. However, rapid cultural flow following globalization makes it possible for consumers of different classes to access various cultural products, which declares the failure of class determinism in cultural taste. The paper proposes the regional shift and the classificatory shift in taste research. It also examines the effect of globalization on cultural taste through "horizontal" and "vertical" omnivorousness in East Asian societies. The study finds that: (1) social class fails to predict cultural omnivorousness; (2) individuals with higher level of globalization have a wider range of cultural taste; (3) the process of globalization on national level encourages people to appreciate various cultural products. The discussion on the effect of globalization on cultural omnivorousness in East Asia helps to better understand patterns of cultural taste in a globalized context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pointing out some limitations of current media studies scholarship on globalization in terms of its inadequacies in understanding the forms and practices of cultural globalization at the intra-regional level, this paper undertakes to construct a theoretical framework through which to examine the global-local nexus within East Asian regional context. By taking up the case of Korean Wave, an increasing popularity of Korean media and popular culture in East Asia and beyond, it discusses both theoretical and policy implications of this Korean-version of hegemonic, expansionistic media regionalization in hampering cultural diversity in the region. Ultimately, the main goal of this paper is to take a critical yet context-specific look at the juncture where politics, economy, history, culture, and the media come together in fashioning the conditions, processes, and outcomes of cultural globalization in East Asia. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is there a single East Asian welfare state model? How did economic policies, globalization, democratization, and economic crisis affect the welfare regimes of the East Asian societies? Such factors have been examined within the context of western advanced societies. Also, the studies on the East Asian cases tend to remain in the 20th century. This paper sought to expand the welfare state debates using a comparative dataset of the representative East Asian societies (Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Philippines) since the late 1980s to 2005. During this period, these societies experienced post-industrialization, globalization, and democratization with different degree, pace, and tracks. Unlike the western societies, they experienced such changes in a short time-span. Thus, the eight East Asian societies present unique opportunities to examine the recent debates on welfare state programs not only for the region, but welfare regimes in general. With a comparative analysis of the trends of various factors, the paper concluded that the East Asian welfare regimes diverged into two types. Also, it argued that such divergence can be explained by the institutional legacy based on the developmental state programs (or, production regimes) and the degree of democratization. Also, economic globalization and economic crisis in late 1990s did not directly affect long-term trends of social welfare. They influenced the current welfare regimes only in conjunction with the level of democratization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a knowledge-based economy of the globalizing economic order, the role of regions is very significant in order to create and to disperse knowledge. Particularly, geographical clusters of firms in a single sub-national region may contribute to transmitting certain kinds of knowledge between and among firms. In addition, markets prefer to favour specialized firms with a coherent body of knowledge when knowledge creation and the use of new knowledge become increasingly important for maintaining and improving a firm's competitiveness. Therefore, regional policy makers may not interfere directly with markets and firms when the process of globalization pushes national economies into a world of learning and innovation. The reason is that the institutional framework for market exchange favours knowledge exchange in a globalizing economic system. This paper argues how East Asian science cities such as Tsukuba Science City in Japan, Daedeok Innopolis in South Korea, Hsinchu Science based Industrial Park in Taiwan, and Zhongguancun Science Park in China have been developed in order to create technology innovation as well to contribute to national and regional economic growth. Moreover, it also focuses on their competitiveness and the further development strategy that aims to become global science cities. Finally, it also discusses whether their competitiveness as innovative clusters is based on global or local levels [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on the roles of the steel and shipbuilding industries in Korea's rapid economic ascent to a leading role in the global economy. We will address three specific questions. First, how did the Korean government foster the development of leading firms that became leaders in their global industries? Second, how did the Korean firms survive the competition with Japanese firms in these industries? We focus on the main strategies for the success of the Korean steel and shipbuilding industries in terms of organization, international cooperation, and the adoption of various new technologies. Third, what are the implications of the emergence of Chinese competitors and China's rapid economic ascent for the Korean steel and shipbuilding industries? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports results from a network analysis of global airline passenger flows and international commodity trade data in order to test propositions related to the effect of globalization on the relationship between the world-system of cities and the interstate world-system. Recent discussions of a world city hierarchy relate that structure to the wider global international division of labor and world-economy. Many scholars suggest that the broader parameters of the world-system structures the urban hierarchy embedded within it, but recently others argue that the urban hierarchy is decoupling from the world-system. Our analyzes show that there has been some modest convergence in the distribution of power in the world city system. Moreover, they suggest that the mechanism for this divergence/convergence is has been the upward mobility of cities located in the semi-periphery and the East Asian region. We close by considering the implication of these findings for a larger understanding of the relationship between globalization, the structure of the world city system and its isomorphism with the world-system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant variation exists in the levels of national pride that East Asian nations report, yet this variation has yet to be addressed in the sociological literature. While previous literature on national identity and pride, in particular, is relatively thin, past research suggests that support for the government and religiosity increase national pride, while globalization and international influence decrease it. I test these hypotheses in eight East Asian countries by conducting individual-level logistic regression analysis using data from the 2004 wave of the AsiaBarometer survey. Younger respondents and the better educated are less likely to report high national pride, while income is insignificant. Support for the government and high religiosity increase national pride, but no significant relationship is found between national pride and globalization/international influence. However, highly significant differences between nations suggest important areas for future research. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]