Kent Deng – författare

This edited volume presents a set of essays honouring the agricultural, environmental and world economic historian, Eric L. Jones. Drawing insights from contributors spanning the social sciences, it highlights how Jones' approach was ahead of its time, illuminating the benefits of studying economic history from a long-run, comparative perspective.In the spirit of Jones’ path-breaking book The European Miracle, this volume is divided into two parts. The first part takes the intellectual contributions of Eric Jones as its focus, closely considering Jones’ contributions to the development of a non-Eurocentric perspective of world history, our understanding of long-term social processes and Eliasian sociology, and the study of the urban built environment. The second part of the book changes tack, offering a series of detailed studies on historical and contemporary themes. Each essays in this part explicitly draws its influence and inspiration from Jones’ work. These ‘applied’ chapters, written by leading experts, make important and novel contributions to an array of important questions:  the Great Divergence, economic performance in Song China, the rise of Nazi Germany, the evolution of modern China’s economic links with Australia, and the likely effect on international politics of China and Russia’s current growing alliance.This book provides a wide-ranging introduction to the works of Eric Jones, one of the most influential economic historians of the twentieth century, and illustrates not only the ongoing relevance of Jones’ work, but, crucially, how contemporary researchers can learn from his approach to studying long-run change.

This book examines failure in the urbanisation of Northwest China as a result of government industrial policies that have impacted on the economic development of the region. By looking at the under-researched provinces of Gansu, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia, which make up a quarter of China's territory, Zheng and Deng challenge the common story of China's miracle growth and reveal the dark side of the country’s pursuit of modernity. Severe weather conditions, chronic drought, permanent lack of oxygen and unforgiving terrain in the Northwest make farming, manufacture and services difficult simply because people tend not to stay. Yet, China’s current political system forces growth to take place even though basic conditions and prerequisites for market-based growth are missing. This volume analyses 'ghost cities' and social tension in the process of ‘forced urbanisation’ in which huge amount of resources are wasted, the local environment is systematically damaged and ordinary people’s basic rights are brutally violated in the name of higher GDP and greater government glory.