Social Policy and Development Studies in East Asia – serie

This project offers a comprehensive look at aging policies across East Asia, where a demographic dividend fuelled rapid growth and is now aging into a lower-speed economy. With a comprehensive look at numerous East Asian societies, including China, Japan, Korea, and other regions, the book is rich in comparative insights and strategies into what is effective for policymakers and employers. As the Asian century begins, this book will be an invaluable resource for economists, policymakers and demographers.

This project offers a comprehensive look at aging policies across East Asia, where a demographic dividend fuelled rapid growth and is now aging into a lower-speed economy. With a comprehensive look at numerous East Asian societies, including China, Japan, Korea, and other regions, the book is rich in comparative insights and strategies into what is effective for policymakers and employers. As the Asian century begins, this book will be an invaluable resource for economists, policymakers and demographers.

This book explores the institutional factors in social policymaking and implementation in China. From the performance evaluation system for local cadres to the intergovernmental fiscal system, local policy experimentation, logrolling among government departments, and the “top-level” design, there are a number of factors that make policy in China less than straightforward. The book argues that it is bureaucratic incentive structure lead to a fragmented and stratified welfare system in China. Using a variety of Chinese- and English-language sources, including central and local government documents, budgetary data, household surveys, media databases, etc., this book covers the development of China’s pensions, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and social assistance programs since the 1990s, with a focus on initiatives since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing a deeper understanding of policymaking and implementation in China, this book interests scholars of public administration, political economy, Asian politics, and social development.

This book examines how innovation and sustainability strategies implemented in Suzhou Industrial Park drive and influence the regional long-term economic growth. In the process of implementing export-led growth, industrial parks located in various regions in China have become very vital players, among which Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) has now developed as a leading and model industrial park in China, since its inauguration in 1994 as a result of the governmental collaboration between China and Singapore.   The history of the SIP is the history of China's new economy; as China has moved up the supply chain, Suzhou Industrial Park has now become an industrial park focusing more on high-tech innovation/entrepreneurship and environmental sustainability with an ecological perspective. This book will provide a fascinating window into China's reform and opening for China scholars, economists, and urban geographers.​

This book examines critically how the Chinese government has proactively engaged the nine cities and two special administrative regions in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) in Southern China for deeper collaborations in order to transform the country from the “World Factory” to become a leading world economy in innovation and entrepreneurialism. While most of the existing research related to China’s GBA development offers the economic and technological advancement perspectives, this book focuses on critical reflections upon how the call for megacity development and deeper regional collaborations in the Bay Area will affect people’s livelihoods, social integration and urban governance. The central theme of this book builds around “Cities, Social Cohesion and Governance.” Based upon policy and document analysis, first-hand fieldwork and surveys, and intensive interviews with major stakeholders responsible for pushing the Greater Bay Area development, this book offers not only regional perspectives in analyzing the Greater Bay Area development through comparing and contrasting development experiences within the country’s different bay economies like the Shanghai and Zhejiang Bay Area and Beijing and Bohai Bay Area. The present book also draws comparative and international insights from other well- established bay economies like Tokyo Bay, Florida Bay and New York Bay Areas when analyzing the development in the GBA in China.

This book examines critically how the Chinese government has proactively engaged the nine cities and two special administrative regions in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) in Southern China for deeper collaborations in order to transform the country from the “World Factory” to become a leading world economy in innovation and entrepreneurialism. While most of the existing research related to China’s GBA development offers the economic and technological advancement perspectives, this book focuses on critical reflections upon how the call for megacity development and deeper regional collaborations in the Bay Area will affect people’s livelihoods, social integration and urban governance. The central theme of this book builds around “Cities, Social Cohesion and Governance.” Based upon policy and document analysis, first-hand fieldwork and surveys, and intensive interviews with major stakeholders responsible for pushing the Greater Bay Area development, this book offers not only regional perspectives in analyzing the Greater Bay Area development through comparing and contrasting development experiences within the country’s different bay economies like the Shanghai and Zhejiang Bay Area and Beijing and Bohai Bay Area. The present book also draws comparative and international insights from other well- established bay economies like Tokyo Bay, Florida Bay and New York Bay Areas when analyzing the development in the GBA in China.

This book examines which factors promote or hinder older people's access to social care in different Asian development contexts. It introduces a new theoretical framework which is applied to high-income (Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea) and middle-income (People's Republic of China, Indonesia and Thailand) Asian countries and administrative zones.It takes the reader on a journey from middle-income countries like Indonesia, where access relies heavily on informal care from relatives and the neighbourhood, to high-income countries like South Korea or Singapore. In the latter, older people have access to a wider range of services yet may fail to gain access because of care worker shortages, institutional barriers (e.g. eligibility criteria), or the commercialisation of care.Seven empirical chapters each identify distinct factors promoting or impeding access and discuss what this means for meeting care needs in practice. In the conclusion, these findings identify how situations differ depending on whether a country is “developed” or “developing,” and discuss potential Asia-specific characteristics to accessing social care. Additionally, the strengths and limitations of the new theoretical framework are discussed with reference to existing theories of “access to care”, welfare state development and care regimes. Overall, this book provides a comprehensive and systematic comparison of older people's access to social care in selected East and Southeast Asian countries and zones.

Singapore is the world’s second-fastest ageing society and will become a super- aged society by 2030. This book fills an important research gap by examining Singapore’s efforts to achieve healthy ageing. It draws on both semi-structured interviews and secondary data (e.g. government documents, journal articles, books, reports) to examine hot topics such as financial wellness of older adults, ageing in place, dementia friendly communities and digital connection with older adults in the time of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In the interviews, experts and professionals provide valuable insights into the issue of healthy ageing in Singapore. The book ’s goal is to provide a comprehensive portrait of healthy ageing in Singapore, while also sharing valuable lessons to help other countries achieve healthy ageing.