The presence of Asia as a major political, cultural, and economic player is one of the most important parameters for understanding the contemporary world and acting in it. This situation has repercussions for the self-perception and position of Europe not only with respect to current processes of globalization, but also in view of its numerous past encounters with Asia. Asia and Europe are much more interconnected than the still widespread monolithic juxtapositions of the two areas/continents suggest. Focusing on the modern period, Asia and Europe: Agents, Concepts, and Things deals with the multilateral relationships that exist between different regions in Europe and Asia. Mechanisms of colonial hegemony along with the dynamics of modernization have resulted in the emergence of new ideas about society, history, law, religion, economy, the arts etc. across Asia and Europe. The variegated relationships between Asia and Europe span hegemonic forms of imperialism and contestations of nationalism, the circulation of norms, technologies, material objects and artefacts, the reception of concepts and practices as well as resistance against them, (dis-)entangled narratives of history and religion, and personal encounters between the actors involved in these processes. In studying such constellations, this collection of essays focuses on actors, ideas and things involved in these processes. The essays deal with knowledge practices, negotiations of gender relations and legal norms, theoretical contestations in politics, economy, literature, the arts and religion, narratives of history and individual action.

Traditionally, relations between Europe and Asia have been studied in a hegemonic perspective, with Europe as the dominant political and economic centre. This book focuses on cultural exchange between different European and Asian civilizations, with the r

The rapid postwar economic growth in the Southeast Asia region has led to a transformation of many of the societies there, together with the development of new types of anthropological research in the region. Local societies with originally quite different cultures have been incorporated into multi-ethnic states with their own projects of nation-building based on the creation of "national cultures" using these indigenous elements. At the same time, the expansion of international capitalism has led to increasing flows of money, people, languages and cultures across national boundaries, resulting in new hybrid social structures and cultural forms. This book examines the nature of these processes in contemporary Southeast Asia with detailed case studies drawn from countries across the region, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. At the macro-level these include studies of nation-building and the incorporation of minorities. At the micro-level they range from studies of popular cultural forms, such as music and textiles to the impact of new sects and the world religions on local religious practice. Moving between the global and the local are the various streams of migrants within the region, including labor migrants responding to the changing distribution of economic opportunities and ethnic minorities moving in response to natural disaster.

Observing the dramatic shift in world politics since the end of the Cold War, Peter J. Katzenstein argues that regions have become critical to contemporary world politics. This view is in stark contrast to those who focus on the purportedly stubborn persistence of the nation-state or the inevitable march of globalization. In detailed studies of technology and foreign investment, domestic and international security, and cultural diplomacy and popular culture, Katzenstein examines the changing regional dynamics of Europe and Asia, which are linked to the United States through Germany and Japan. Regions, Katzenstein contends, are interacting closely with an American imperium that combines territorial and non-territorial powers. Katzenstein argues that globalization and internationalization create open or porous regions. Regions may provide solutions to the contradictions between states and markets, security and insecurity, nationalism and cosmopolitanism. Embedded in the American imperium, regions are now central to world politics.

What are the challenges that small countries face concerning innovation and what are the effects of globalization on their innovation systems? In this very interesting, rich and timely book, Edquist and Hommen compare ten different small national innovation systems from the Asia Pacific and Northern Europe that are rather advanced in their development. The answers that the authors give are convincing and relate not only to the unique characteristics of each national system that shapes innovative activity, but also to some commonalities that exist across these countries. Franco Malerba, Bocconi University, Italy This major book presents case studies of ten small country national systems of innovation (NSIs) in Europe and Asia, namely, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden and Taiwan. These cases have been carefully selected as examples of success within the context of globalization and as new economies where competition is increasingly based on innovation. To facilitate comparative analysis the ten studies follow a common structure, informed by an activities-based approach to describing and analysing NSIs, which addresses the critical issues of globalization and the consequences of innovation for economic performance. The final chapter compares fast growth and slow growth countries, concentrating on issues of innovation policy. The results illustrate the usefulness of an activities-based approach to studying NSIs, point to distinctive national roles within an increasingly differentiated international division of labour and address the key themes of selectivity and coordination in innovation policy. This valuable book presents one of the most significant, comprehensive and comparative country studies of NSIs in the last decade. It will have great import and should be widely read by every serious student and scholar of innovation studies.

New regionalism and globalization have been prominent themes in academic and political debates since the beginning of the 1990s. Despite the considerable amount of scholarly attention that the new regionalism has received in recent years, its full empirical and theoretical potential has yet to be fully investigated. This illuminating study provides an overview of new avenues in theorizing regionalism and proposes a consolidated framework for analysis and comparison. Offering a comparative historical perspective of European and Southeast Asian regionalism, it presents new and imaginative insights into the theory and practice of regionalism and the links between regional developments, globalization and international order.

This interdisciplinary book by a group of Asian and European scholars provides a deeper understanding of globalization as an historical process with special attention to the regional and national contexts. Globalization, this book demonstrates, has its roots in civilizational dialogues and interchanges.