Due to unforeseen circumstances this event will be postponed by one week. The new time is 8th of September 3pm Oslo time. All welcome!
International time: 21:00 Beijing, 15:00 Oslo, 09:00 (AM) Washington DC.
Isabella Weber will present her new book “How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate”. The book is inspired by the question of how history has played out so differently in the Russian and East German socialist contexts compared with the Chinese. ‘Shock therapy’ refers to the reform package including instant price liberalization, followed by privatization and trade liberalization. Weber’s book traces repeated attempts at such price liberalization in China, as well as its debate among Chinese reform economists. The alternative route of gradualist experimentation was thus not inevitable in China, and Weber explains the context behind this political result.
Scott Rozelle will present his recent book “Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China’s Rise“, co-written with Natalie Hell. In this book, the authors highlight ‘the middle-income trap’, and how China’s rapid economic growth puts the country in danger of experiencing stagnation and decline due to especially one important factor: an underlying human capital crisis. Lack of education in rural China, as well as not being able to take full advantage of new resources delegated to education in recent years, are understood in the context of the invisible problems of basic health issues and insufficient nutrition for rural children. Rozelle will explain how his research in the countryside in China highlights that nutrition, health, and education play crucial roles in the current stage of Chinese economic development.
Scott Rozelle
Professor in international agricultural policy and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. His research explores agricultural policy in China, the emergence and evolution of markets and other economic institutions in the transition process, as well as the economics of poverty and inequality. His book, “Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China’s Rise” (2020), co-written with Natalie Hell, highlights the role of rural education, health and nutrition in the larger picture of Chinas economic policies.
Isabella Weber
Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her work in political economy focuses on China, global trade and the history of economics. In her new book,“How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate” (2021), she uncovers the fierce reform debate that shaped China’s path, offering a new perspective on the origins of China’s distinctive economic model.
Wendy Leutert
Assistant Professor at Indiana University. Her research focuses on the reform and global expansion of China’s state-owned enterprises, leadership of Chinese state-owned companies, the politics of Chinese economic reform, and corporate governance. She will chair this seminar.
Heidi Østbø Haugen
The seminar series is hosted by Heidi Østbø Haugen, professor of China Studies at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages. She heads the ERC-funded project Brokering China’s Extraversion: An Ethnographic Analysis of Transnational Arbitration (Brokex).
Other events in the Brokex Autumn 2021 Seminar Series
Inequality in Contemporary China
Date and time: 6 October 2021. 21:00 (Beijing), 15:00 (Oslo), 09:00 (EST). Sign-up.
Reza Hasmath: Ethnicity and Inequality in China
Manfred Elfstrom: Workers and Change in China: Resistance, Repression, Responsiveness
Discussant: Jingyu Mao
China has Arrived as a Geopolitical Superpower
Date and time: 3 November 2021. 22:00 (Beijing), 15:00 (Oslo), 10:00 (EST). Sign-up.
Shaun Breslin: China Risen? Studying Chinese Global Power
Elizabeth Economy: The World According to China
Discussant: Amy Qin
Chinese Roads of Communication: Narratives of Connectivity
Date and time: 1 December 2021. 22:00 (Beijing), 15:00 (Oslo), 09:00 (EST). Sign-up.
Gary Sigley: China´s Route Heritage: Mobility Narratives, Modernity and the Ancient Tea Horse Road
Eyck Freymann: One Belt One Road: Chinese Power Meets the World
Discussant: Özge Söylemez
Organiser
The seminar is organised by Siv H. Oftedal, researcher at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, as part of the project Brokering China’s Extraversion: An Ethnographic Analysis of Transnational Arbitration (Brokex). The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 802070) and the Research Council of Norway (project ID 275002).
