David Zweig - Böcker

A searing indictment of the American public health, media, and political establishments decision-making process behind pandemic school closures. An Abundance of Caution is a devastating account of the decision-making process behind one of the worst American policy failures in a century the extended closures of public schools during the pandemic. In fascinating and meticulously reported detail, David Zweig shows how some of the most trusted members of society from Pulitzer Prize winning journalists to eminent health officials repeatedly made fundamental errors in their assessment and presentation of evidence. As a result, for the first time in modern American history, millions of healthy children did not set foot in a classroom for more than a year. Since the spring of 2020, many students in Europe had been learning in person. Even many peers at home in private schools, and public schools in mostly 'red' states and districts were in class full time from fall 2020 onward. Whatever inequities that existed among American children before the pandemic, the selective school closures exacerbated them, disproportionately affecting the underprivileged. Deep mental, physical, and academic harms among them, depression, anxiety, abuse, obesity, plummeting test scores, and rising drop-out rates were endured for no discernible benefit. As Europe had shown very early, after they had sent kids back to class, there was never any evidence that long-term school closures, nor a host of interventions imposed on students when they were in classrooms, would reduce overall cases or deaths in any meaningful way. The story of American schools during the pandemic serves as a prism through which to approach fundamental questions about why and how individuals, bureaucracies, governments, and societies act as they do in times of crisis and uncertainty. Ultimately, this book is not about COVID; it s about a country ill-equipped to act sensibly under duress.

A searing indictment of the American public health, media, and political establishments decision-making process behind pandemic school closures. An Abundance of Caution is a devastating account of the decision-making process behind one of the worst American policy failures in a century the extended closures of public schools during the pandemic. In fascinating and meticulously reported detail, David Zweig shows how some of the most trusted members of society from Pulitzer Prize winning journalists to eminent health officials repeatedly made fundamental errors in their assessment and presentation of evidence. As a result, for the first time in modern American history, healthy children were barred from school. Millions of them did not set foot in a classroom for more than a year. All along, kids throughout Europe had been learning in person since the spring of 2020. Even many peers at home in private schools, and public schools in mostly red states and districts were in class full time from fall 2020 onward. Whatever inequities that existed among American children before the pandemic, the selective school closures exacerbated them, disproportionately affecting the underprivileged. Deep mental, physical, and academic harms among them, depression, anxiety, abuse, obesity, plummeting test scores, and rising drop-out rates were endured for no discernible benefit. As the Europeans had shown very early, after they had sent kids back to class, there was never any evidence that long-term school closures, nor a host of interventions imposed on students when they were in classrooms, would reduce overall cases or deaths in any meaningful way. The story of American schools during the pandemic serves as a prism through which to approach fundamental questions about why and how individuals, bureaucracies, governments, and societies act as they do in times of crisis and uncertainty. Ultimately, this book is not about Covid; it s about a country ill-equipped to act sensibly under duress.

Written by an international team of experts from the US, UK, Hong Kong, China, Korea and Canada, this important and interesting book examines and explores the relationship between the international political and economic system, and China’s economic and political transition. Exploring international relations theory with a China-centric view, the book addresses key and significant questions such as:Has the outside world shaped China’s position within the global polity and economic, and affected the way China deals with the world economy?Have Chinese leaders and foreign policy makers internalized the norms and values of the global economic activity?Who are the key players in China in this process of globalization?Giving vital insights into China’s likely development and international influence in the next decade, China’s Reforms and International Political Economy is an essential and invaluable read.

Written by an international team of experts from the US, UK, Hong Kong, China, Korea and Canada, this important and interesting book examines and explores the relationship between the international political and economic system, and China’s economic and political transition. Exploring international relations theory with a China-centric view, the book addresses key and significant questions such as:Has the outside world shaped China’s position within the global polity and economic, and affected the way China deals with the world economy?Have Chinese leaders and foreign policy makers internalized the norms and values of the global economic activity?Who are the key players in China in this process of globalization?Giving vital insights into China’s likely development and international influence in the next decade, China’s Reforms and International Political Economy is an essential and invaluable read.

China began opening to the outside world in 1978. This process was designed to remain under the state's control. But the relative value of goods and services inside and outside China drove cities, enterprises, local governments, andindividuals with comparative advantage in international transactions to seek global linkages. These contacts, David Zweig asserts, led to the deregulation of China's mercantilist regime. Through extensive field research, Zweig surveys the extraordinary changes in four sectors of China's domestic political economy: the establishment of developmentzones, rural joint ventures, the struggle over foreign aid and higher education. He also addresses the crucial question of whether, on balance, internationalization weakens or strengthens state power.

China began opening to the outside world in 1978. This process was designed to remain under the state's control. But the relative value of goods and services inside and outside China drove cities, enterprises, local governments, andindividuals with comparative advantage in international transactions to seek global linkages. These contacts, David Zweig asserts, led to the deregulation of China's mercantilist regime. Through extensive field research, Zweig surveys the extraordinary changes in four sectors of China's domestic political economy: the establishment of developmentzones, rural joint ventures, the struggle over foreign aid and higher education. He also addresses the crucial question of whether, on balance, internationalization weakens or strengthens state power.

Within a framework of analysis and background by the four editors, this book presents a view from the grassroots of the 1989 student and mass movement in China and its tragic consequences. Here are the core eyewitness and participant accounts expressed through wall posters, students speeches, movement declarations, handbills, and other documents. In their introductions to the material, the editors address the political economy of the democracy movement, the evolving concept of democracy during the movement, the movement's contribution to China becoming a civil society, and the changing view of the Chinese Communist Party by students, intellectuals, workers and others, as the crisis unfolded.

Within a framework of analysis and background by the four editors, this book presents a view from the grassroots of the 1989 student and mass movement in China and its tragic consequences. Here are the core eyewitness and participant accounts expressed through wall posters, students speeches, movement declarations, handbills, and other documents. In their introductions to the material, the editors address the political economy of the democracy movement, the evolving concept of democracy during the movement, the movement's contribution to China becoming a civil society, and the changing view of the Chinese Communist Party by students, intellectuals, workers and others, as the crisis unfolded.

First Published in 1996. Beginning in 1979, the government of the People's Republic of China, hoping to catch up with Western science and technology, decided for the first time since 1949 to send large numbers of students and scholars to the West to study. Suddenly China found itself in the same situation as many developing countries: sending their best and brightest to the United States triggered a brain drain, and with it the threat that the strategy of sending people abroad to catch up might backfire. But will these people return? In order to investigate the authors carried out 273 interviews with Chinese students, scholars, and other former residents of the People's Republic of China who are currently residing in the United States. The interviews had a wide geographical distribution within the United States, taking place in Boston, New York, Buffalo, Albuquerque, and several centers in California, including Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco.

The remarkable performance of the Chinese economy in the last three decades has placed China at the centre of the world stage. In 1993, China became a net importer of energy, although it was not until the early 2000s that the world began to pay more attention to China’s energy needs and its potential impact on the world. With China’s energy search occurring within a hegemonic global structure dominated by the United States, the US watches with interest as China enhances its ties with energy-rich states. The book examines this triangular relationship and questions whether the US and China are in competition regarding access to the energy of a third state, within the context of a potential power transition. It includes case studies on China's energy relationship with countries such as Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Iran, Sudan and Venezuela and aims to understand the way a rising power interacts with the existing leading power and the possible outcome of this competition. The analytical framework employed helps the reader to understand not only the nature and pattern of triangles among US, China and the Resource Rich States under ‘resource diplomacy’, but also the salient features of US-China competition around the world.Making an impressive contribution to the literature in fields such as US-China relations, international relations, Chinese foreign policy and global energy geopolitics, this book will appeal to students and scholars of these subjects.

The remarkable performance of the Chinese economy in the last three decades has placed China at the centre of the world stage. In 1993, China became a net importer of energy, although it was not until the early 2000s that the world began to pay more attention to China’s energy needs and its potential impact on the world. With China’s energy search occurring within a hegemonic global structure dominated by the United States, the US watches with interest as China enhances its ties with energy-rich states.The book examines this triangular relationship and questions whether the US and China are in competition regarding access to the energy of a third state, within the context of a potential power transition. It includes case studies on China's energy relationship with countries such as Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Iran, Sudan and Venezuela and aims to understand the way a rising power interacts with the existing leading power and the possible outcome of this competition. The analytical framework employed helps the reader to understand not only the nature and pattern of triangles among US, China and the Resource Rich States under ‘resource diplomacy’, but also the salient features of US-China competition around the world.Making an impressive contribution to the literature in fields such as US-China relations, international relations, Chinese foreign policy and global energy geopolitics, this book will appeal to students and scholars of these subjects.

A comprehensive analysts of China's rural reforms, this book links local experiences to national policy, showing the dynamic tension in the reform process among state policy, local cadre power and self-interest, and the peasants' search for economic growth. Key topics covered include: the responsibility system, privatization and changing property rights, industrialization, social conflict, cadre corruption, urban-rural relations, conflict over land, rural urbanization, and the impact of globalization. The introduction skillfully integrates the themes that run throughout this work and the concluding chapter focuses on current and future problems in rural China.

A comprehensive analysts of China's rural reforms, this book links local experiences to national policy, showing the dynamic tension in the reform process among state policy, local cadre power and self-interest, and the peasants' search for economic growth. Key topics covered include: the responsibility system, privatization and changing property rights, industrialization, social conflict, cadre corruption, urban-rural relations, conflict over land, rural urbanization, and the impact of globalization. The introduction skillfully integrates the themes that run throughout this work and the concluding chapter focuses on current and future problems in rural China.