As the regional lingua franca, the Uyghur language long underpinned Uyghur national identity in Xinjiang. However, since the ‘bilingual education’ policy was introduced in 2002, Chinese has been rapidly institutionalised as the sole medium of instruction in the region’s institutes of education. As a result, studies of the bilingual and indeed multi-lingual Uyghur urban youth have emerged as a major new research trend. This book explores the relationship between language, education and identity among the urban Uyghurs of contemporary Xinjiang. It considers ways in which Uyghur urban youth identities began to evolve in response to the state imposition of ‘bilingual education’. Starting by defining the notion of ethnic identity, the book explores the processes involved in the formation and development of personal and group identities, considers why ethnic boundaries are constructed between groups, and questions how ethnic identity is expressed in social, cultural and religious practice. Against this background, contributors adopt a special focus on the relationship between language use, education and ethnic identity development. As a study of ethnicity in China this book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Chinese culture and society, Asian ethnicity, cultural anthropology, sociolinguistics and Asian education.

In recent decades, China has used urbanization as an economic development tool to reconstruct the country's traditional institutions, culture, and society. The downside of these many changes is that they have presented the country's government with a massive challenge: how can it maintain basic stability? China's Urban Future and the Quest for Stability examines the complexities of Chinese cities. Together, the essays in this book explore how the relatively recent onset of urbanization has altered the country, and how that experience is similar to and distinct from developments in other times and places. Each chapter analyzes one facet of China's transformation, focusing on three main themes: urbanization and the rapid growth of Chinese cities; mobility, in both the abstract and the literal sense; and marginalization, evidenced by growing residential segregation in cities and diminishing access to education, health care, and jobs. Underlying these themes is the issue of governance – the systems by which a state attempts to maintain control and achieve its ends, often in ways that differ significantly from what one might expect. An up-to-date, concise, and multidisciplinary collection, China's Urban Future and the Quest for Stability discusses the social, economic, and political forces at work in the urbanization of a modern superpower.

Uyghur Identity and Culture brings together the work of scholars, activists, and native Uyghurs to explore the history and growing challenges that the Uyghur diaspora face across the globe in response to shifting government policies forbidding many forms of cultural expression in their homeland. The collection examines how and why the Uyghur diaspora, dispersed from their homeland to communities across Australia, Central Asia, Europe, Japan, Türkiye, and North America, now has the responsibility to preserve their language and cultural traditions so that these can be shared with future generations. The book critically investigates the government censorship of Uyghur literatures and Western media coverage of the Uyghurs, while centralizing real reflections of those who grew up in the Uyghur homeland. It considers the geographical and psychological pressures that the Uyghur diaspora endure and highlights the resilience and creativity of their relentless battle against cultural erosion. Uyghur Identity and Culture is a key contribution to diaspora literature and calls to attention the urgent need for global action on the ongoing human rights violations against the Uyghur people. It is essential reading for those interested in the history and struggles of the Uyghur diaspora as well as anyone studying sociology, race, migration, culture, and human rights studies.

Drawing on a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives, the case studies compiled in Another Way: Decentralization, Democratization and the Global Politics of Community-Based Schooling offer a comparative look at how global processes of educational decentralization have both helped and hindered the development of community-based schools in local-level settings across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. On the one hand, the book shows how increased decentralization is often perceived as essential to assuring robust levels of democratization, community participation and social justice in education. On the other hand, it is also shown how processes of educational decentralization are often experienced in local communities as a mechanism of increased austerity, privatization and segregation.

In 2000, the “Western Development” plan of the Chinese Mainland attracted attention of educators and policy makers. Around that period, the Chinese government also launched large scale and systemic curriculum reforms in basic education and secondary education in achieving quality education across the vast country. Despite significant progress that has been made in educational investments and attainments in China, issues of quality and regional disparities across China remain, especially in the less developed, western part of China where the significance of ethnic diversity, urban-rural disparity and variations in school development exists. In addition, there have been entrenched problems of teacher and teaching quality, resources inadequacy and ‘left-behind’ children. Written by a group of Chinese and international scholars, the book provides an updated analysis and discussion of educational development and related issues in the less developed part of Western China. These chapters cover broad contextual issues of educational development and reforms, issues of quality and equality in different sectors of education, as well as curriculum implementation, teaching innovations and professional development of teachers.

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is China’s largest province, shares borders with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and Mongolia, and possesses a variety of natural resources, including oil. The tensions between ethnic Muslim Uyghurs and the growing number of Han Chinese in Xinjiang have recently increased, occasionally breaking out into violence. At the same time as being a potential troublespot for China, the province is of increasing strategic significance as China’s gateway to Central Asia whose natural resources are of increasing importance to China. This book focuses in particular on what life is like in Xinjiang for the diverse population that lives there. It offers important insights into the social, economic and political terrains of Xinjiang, concentrating especially on how current trends in Xinjiang are likely to develop in the future. In doing so it provides a broader understanding of the region and its peoples.