A study of the contribution of the Press to the democratization process in Taiwan. Combining ideas from political science, communication theory and Chinese studies, the author challenges conventional wisdom on the subject.
This book systematically and comprehensively studies on alternative media in Taiwan, using a historical approach and primary data and first hand collected materials to examine how political openness and social movement in the 1980s through the 1990s in Taiwan enabled the rapid growth and wide development of Taiwan’s alternative media, what impact the alternative media in Taiwan had on its socio-political transformation, and what implications Taiwan’s case of alternative media has for other societies, especially for other Asian societies. This book would be a good reading for intellectuals, media professionals, government analysts, and the general public as well, who are interested in this topic.
With its increasing wealth, a growing and better-educated urban population, and one of the world's largest trade surpluses, Taiwan has shed its identity as an impoverished, war-torn nation and joined the ranks of developed countries. Yet, despite the attention focused on the country's profound transformation, surprisingly little information exists
De-Westernizing Media Studies brings together leading media critics from around the world to address central questions in the study of the media. How do the media connect to power in society? Who and what influence the media? How is globalization changing both society and the media?
Building the Fourth Estate reveals the crucial part played by the Mexican media in the country's remarkable recent political transformation. Based on an in-depth examination of Mexico's print and broadcast media over the last twenty-five years, Chappell Lawson traces the role of the media in that country's move toward democracy, demonstrating the reciprocal relationship between changes in the press and changes in the political system. In addition to illuminating the nature of political change in Mexico, Lawson's findings have broad implications for understanding the role of the mass media in democratization around the world. -- from back cover.
This book shows that Taiwan, unlike other countries, avoided serious economic disruption and social conflict, and arrived at its goal of multi-party competition with little blood shed. Nonetheless, this survey reveals that for those who imagine democracy to be the panacea for every social, economic and political ill, Taiwan's continuing struggles against corruption, isolation and division offer a cautionary lesson. This book is an ideal, one-stop resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of political science, particuarly those interested in the international politics of China, and the Asia-Pacific.
This study examines the law of intellectual property in China from imperial times to the present. It draws on history, politics, economics, sociology, and the arts, and on interviews with officials, business people, lawyers, and perpetrators and victims of 'piracy'. The author asks why the Chinese, with their early bounty of scientific and artistic creations, are only now devising legal protection for such endeavors and why such protection is more rhetoric than reality on the Chinese mainland. In the process, he sheds light on the complex relation between law and political culture in China. The book goes on to examine recent efforts in the People's Republic of China to develop intellectual property law, and uses this example to highlight the broader problems with China's program of law reform.
Carefully contextualizing the ethnography by taking scale and time seriously, the book shows why fieldwork is both necessary and insufficient if the aim is to make sense of the contemporary world. It is a significant contribution to the renewal of anthropological theory and methodology. Highly recommended! -Thomas Hylland Eriksen, University of Oslo, Norway With an eye for various scales, biographies of people and things, and processes as they take place, this book provides insights into how, to whom, and when things change, how it feels like - and also how some things stay the same. -Samuli Schielke, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (Berlin) This important book, drawing on ethnographic research from across the globe, addresses both the 'why' and the 'how' of studying societal change, inviting the reader to reflect on the potential - and the limits - of qualitative methods. - Jonathan Rigg, University of Bristol, UK This open access book provides methodological devices and analytical frameworks for the study of societies in transformation. It explores a central paradox in the study of change: making sense of change requires long-term perspectives on societal transformations and on the different ways people experience social change, whereas the research carried out to study change is necessarily limited to a relatively short space of time. This volume offers a range of methodological responses to this challenge by paying attention to the complex entanglement of qualitative research and the metanarratives generally used to account for change. Each chapter is based on a concrete case study from different parts of the world and tackles a diversity of topics, analytical approaches, and data collection methods. The contributors' innovative solutions provide valuable tools and techniques for all those interested in the study of change. Yasmine Berriane is permanent researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS, Centre Maurice Halbwachs), France. Annuska Derks is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Aymon Kreil is Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Ghent University, Belgium. Dorothea Lüddeckens is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Harrison offers a new, critical approach to understanding the formation of Taiwan's identity. It applies contemporary social theory and historiography to a wealth of detail on Taiwanese politics, culture and society.
This title was first published in 2001. By examining the way the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT) dominated Taiwan’s three mainstream television stations before the introduction of political reform in the mid-1980s, the book provides an insightful investigation of how the media can be used as an instrument of both political power and emancipation. This new approach challenges many accepted assumptions about Taiwan’s political development, such as the sacrifice of democracy for stability and wealth and recognizes that threats to society often originate within the state itself, rather than from external forces. However, the development of public television also broadened the political agenda, allowing the Taiwanese population to express its will through collective activities and to exercise the power of (civil) society. Taiwan is an exciting case study with which to explore the post-Cold War understanding of Critical Security. A fascinating look at one of the world’s most rapidly developing nations, this book makes a striking contribution to a fresh area of political thought.