Hagiographies or idealized biographies which recount the lives of saints, bodhisattvas and other charismatic figures have been the meeting place for myth and experience. In medieval Europe, the "lives of saints" were read during liturgical celebrations and the texts themselves were treated as sacred objects. In Japan, it was believed that those who read the biographies of lofty monks would acquire merit. Since hagiographies were written or compiled by "believers," the line between fantasy and reality was often obscured. This study of the bodhisattva Gyoki - regarded as the monk who started the largest social welfare movement in Japan - illustrates how Japanese Buddhist hagiographers chose to regard a single monk's charitable activities as a miraculous achievement that shaped the course of Japanese history.

Economic reform in China has resulted in a widening gap between the rich and the poor, and urban poverty has emerged as a key factor which may affect future development. This new book examines the poverty problem in relation to housing and social changes in large inland cities, and assesses the effectiveness of recent government anti-poverty policies. The book also puts the Chinese experience in the wider context of transitional economies and discusses the similarities and differences between China and Central and Eastern European countries. The book is based on a long period of research on Chinese urban development, and benefited from several research projects conducted in Chinese cities. It is an important reference for all of those interested in housing, urban studies and social change, and is a key text for students of the Chinese economy and society.

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Embraces a wide range of aspects of Indian mysticism, displaying the structural patterns in mystical experiences and the mystic paths in different traditions and schools, while there are also significant contributions to comparative mysticism, Eastern and Western. First published in 1989.

"Institutional Change in Southeast Asia" examines the institutional changes taking place in, and challenges facing, the region since 1997. The book focuses on determinants to the adjustments and on implementations of the reforms. It also describes various differences in the reform process between countries in the region. Southeast Asia's economic development over the last decades has been impressive.
Most of the region achieved consistently high growth rates accompanied by significant structural transformation and industrialization, poverty alleviation and improvements in their overall standard of living as indicated by such social indicators as greater longevity, more widespread delivery of basic education and lower infant mortality rates. However, the crisis that struck Southeast Asia in 1997 had severe economic, social and political consequences in the region. It also threw into doubt the future economic prosperity of the countries in Southeast Asia and raised intriguing questions about the quality of their institutions and their approach to economic development.
Sjoholm and Tongzon argue that the economies of Southeast Asia need to reform their institutions if the previous rapid development is to continue. The institutional weaknesses have been addressed to different degrees and with different success in the affected countries. Against the backdrop of Southeast Asia's importance in the world economy, it is hardly possible to overestimate the need to understand this process of change.

The fragmentation of Bengal and Assam in 1947 was a crucial moment in India's socio-political history as a nation state. Both the British Indian provinces were divided as much through the actions of the Muslim League as by those of Congress and the British colonial power. Attributing partition largely to Hindu communalists is, therefore, historically inaccurate and factually misleading. The Partition of Bengal and Assam provides a review of constitutional and party politics as well as of popular attitudes and perceptions. The primary aim of this book is to unravel the intricate socio-economic and political processes that led up to partition, as Hindus and Muslims competed ferociously for the new power and privileges to be conferred on them with independence. As shown in the book, well before they divorced at a political level, Hindus and Muslims had been cleaved apart by their socio-economic differences. Partition was probably inevitable.

This book analyzes the political economy of reproduction and its role in the process of Japanese modernization. Hiroko analyzes state attempts and policies to intervene into women's bodies and everyday lives to integrate them into the Japanese political economy. Based on Foucault's concept of governmentality the author develops a model to assess reproduction in three forms - economic, biological and socio-political - from 1868 until the present day.

This book examines the relationship between land tenure, conservation and rural development in the context of the Southeast Asian archipelago. In particular, it is concerned with people living in and around national parks and other protected areas. It discusses the value of reinforcing indigenous tenure and sustainable resource use practices and of including them in policies and projects that attempt to integrate conservation and development. Use is made of a wide range of case studies from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

This book explores how one of the world's most literary-oriented societies entered the modern visual era, beginning with the advent of photography in the nineteenth century, focusing then on literature's role in helping to shape cinema as a tool of official totalitarian culture during the Soviet period, and concluding with an examination of post-Soviet Russia's encounter with global television. As well as pioneering the exploration of this important new area in Slavic Studies, the book illuminates aspects of cultural theory by investigating how the Russian case affects general notions of literature's fate within post-literate culture, the ramifications of communism's fall for media globalization, and the applicability of text/image models to problems of intercultural change.

Based on extensive original research, Globalisation, Transition and Development in China explains China's development strategy and its underlying forces, and the success of this strategy. It examines China's gradualist approach which emphasizes development first and regards transition and globalization as secondary, enacting liberalization of domestic markets and integration into the world economy in a paced way, avoiding dramatic changes which might impede or even reverse development, and argues that this approach is broadly correct. It considers China's failures, including the failure to build large globally competitive corporations despite the intention to do this, and shows how China's economic strategy has been implemented in detail with a case study of the large and important coal industry.

"The Politics of Buddhist Organizations in Taiwan" looks at a relatively unexplored aspect of modern Taiwan: the influence of religion on politics. Although much has been written on the contribution of Christian churches to the debates on self-determination and democratic tradition on the island, we know less about the political influence on Buddhist organizations, which claim together to attract over four million adherents. These organizations exercise considerable influence in Taiwanese society and yet their stand on relations across the Taiwan Strait, communal harmony, economic and political liberalization, as well as the creation of a welfare State, remains largely unexplored.
Laliberte demonstrates that Taiwanese Buddhists are not a monolithic bloc, and that the organizations that represent them reflect in their diversity the complexity and pluralism of the society in which they have evolved. This book offers a detailed survey of three of the most important Buddhist organizations in Taiwan: the Buddhist Association of the Republic of China (BAROC), the Buddha Light Mountain (or Foguanshan) monastic order, and the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Association (or Ciji). It examines their contrasting approaches to three issues: state supervision of religion, the first presidential election of 1996, and the establishment of the National Health Insurance.
This study analyses the factors that explain the diverse paths the three organizations have taken in the politics of Taiwan. It reveals that despite a shared theological background, individual religious leaders interpret their tradition very differently when they believe it constrains the development of their organizationsand the fulfilling of its goals. Based on an in-depth examination of Buddhist leaders' behavior, "The Politics of Buddhist Organizations in Taiwan" compels us to question conventional views about the allegedly passive aspect of religious tradition, deference to authority in societies influencedby Confucian culture and the adverse legacy of authoritarian regimes.

Contents:
Introduction Part I: The Volunteers 1. The Life and Death of a Volunteer 2. Life Choices 3. Civic Leaders Part II: The Programs 4. Cultivating Children 5. Preventing Juvenile Delinquency 6. Helping Others Conclusion

This book examines a number of key questions about social change in contemporary Russia - issues such as how people survive when they are not paid for months on end, 'the New Poor', the falling birth rate, why so many Russian men die in middle age, whether regional identities are becoming stronger, and how people's sense of 'Russianness' has developed since the creation of the Russian Federation in 1992. It examines these issues by looking at actual experiences in three small Russian towns. It includes a great deal of original ethnographic research, and, by looking at real places overall, provides a good sense of how different aspects of social change are interlinked, and how they actually affect real people's lives.

Hong Kong has been undergoing considerable changes since its postcolonial independence. This book provides a detailed comparative account of the development of citizenship and civil society in Hong Kong from its time as a British colony to its current status as a special autonomous region of China. Subjects covered include immigration, race, gender, homosexuality, the law and resistance. The book also compares citizenship and civil society in Hong Kong with a number of other East Asian countries.

Before Japan was 'opened up' in the 1850s, contact with Russia as well as other western maritime nations was extremely limited. Yet from the early eighteenth century onwards, as a result of their expanding commercial interests in East Asia and the North Pacific, Russians had begun to encounter Japanese and were increasingly eager to establish diplomatic and trading relations with Japan. This book presents rare narratives written by Russians - explorers, official envoys, scholars and, later, tourists - who visited Japan between 1792 and 1913. The introduction and notes set these narratives in the context of the history of Russo-Japanese relations and the genre of European travel writing, showing how the Russian writers combined ethnographic interests with the assertion of Russian and European values, simultaneously inscribing power relations and negotiating cultural difference. Students of Japanese history, nineteenth-century Russia, literature and cultural studies will find this book an invaluable insight into the contact between two civilisations at a time when they were particularly ignorant of each other.

The authors are outstanding scholars engaged in the study of language varieties spoken in 'convergence areas' in which speakers are multilingual in languages of at least two but sometimes all three language families. Many of the contributions present new data collected in fieldwork. The geographic area covered is Western and Central Asia where varieties of Iranian, Semitic and Turkic languages have entered into many different types of contact. The intricate linguistic contact situations demonstrate highly interesting convergence phenomena.

The Kimberley, the far north-west of Australia, is one of the most linguistically diverse regions of the continent. Some fifty-five Aboriginal languages belonging to five different families are spoken within its borders. Few of these languages are currently being passed on to children, most of whom speak Kriol (a new language that arose about half a century ago from an earlier Pidgin English) or Aboriginal English (a dialect of English) as their mother tongue and usual language of communication. This book describes the Aboriginal languages spoken today and in the recent past in this region. The main features are of their grammars are outlined, including their sounds and word and sentence structures. In addition, there is discussion of how they are related to one another, how they were and are used in conversational interactions, and their roles and uses in traditional and modern speech communities.

This is a groundbreaking analysis of China's territorial disputes, exploring the successes and failures of negotiations that have taken place between its three neighbours, namely India, Japan and Russia. By using Roberts Putnam's two level game framework, Chung relates the outcome of these disputes to the actions of domestic nationalist groups who have exploited these territorial issues to further their own objectives. By using first-class empirical data and applying it to existing theoretical concepts, this book provides a detailed account of China's land and maritime border disputes that is both clear and accessible.

Changes to corporate structure, including the role of the corporate headquarters, have been key factors in bringing about economic reform in China. In this penetrating and insightful book, Xiao questions the conventional theory of the firm, arguing that the ultimate goal of the headquarters of modern large corporations is to function as a substitute for the market, and introducing a new explanation for the nature of the firm - the 'substitution function model'. He provides an insider's account of the reforms in CITIC, and as such this is a rare narrative that should be essential reading for scholars and practitioners who care about the theory and practice of the firm, in particular in the context of Chinese enterprise reform.

During the twentieth century Japan was transformed from a poor, primarily rural country into one of the world's largest industrial powers and most highly urbanized countries. Interestingly, while Japanese governments and planners borrowed carefully from the planning ideas and methods of many other countries, Japanese urban planning, urban governance and cities developed very differently from those of other developed countries. Japan's distinctive patterns of urbanization are partly a product of the highly developed urban system, urban traditions and material culture of the pre-modern period, which remained influential until well after the Pacific War. A second key influence has been the dominance of central government in urban affairs, and its consistent prioritization of economic growth over the public welfare or urban quality of life. Andre Sorensen examines Japan's urban trajectory from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, paying particular attention to the weak development of Japanese civil society, local governments, and land development and planning regulations.
This is the first book to comprehensively examine the phenomenon of Japanese urbanization and planning, revealing both the many real successes of Japanese urban management, and many of its resounding failures. Japan's distinctiveness makes it an important case study of urbanisation and its management, and helps to put into perspective the major urban and regional planning issues faced by the other developed countries, as well as sounding a timely warning to the rapidly urbanizing countries of Asia.

The phenomenon of filial piety is fundamental to our understanding of Chinese culture, and this excellent collection of essays explores its role in various areas of life throughout history. Often regarded as the key to preserving Chinese tradition and identity, its potentially vast impact on government and the development of Chinese culture makes it extremely relevant, and although invariably virtuous in its promotion of social cohesion, its ideas are often controversial. A broad range of topics are discussed chronologically including Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, making it essential reading for those studying Chinese culture, religion and philosophy. This is a multi-disciplinary survey that combines historical studies with philosophical analysis from an international team of respected contributors.

The problems of an ageing population are particularly acute in Japan. These problems include people living longer, with many needing more care, and the problems of supporting them by a diminishing working population and a diminishing tax base. This book, based on extensive fieldwork in a Japanese institution for the elderly, explores the problems associated with ageing and responses to it in Japan. By looking at the institution from the viewpoints of residents, staff and visitors, as well as from the policy point of view, the book carefully assesses how far the home succeeds in offering an acceptable quality of life to the home's residents. It gives insights into the life and work of long-term care institutions; discusses how people in Japan have changed their perceptions towards family responsibility, the institutionalization of the elderly, and rights of welfare; and examines how institutions for the elderly are run in Japan and how their management differs from that in the West.

This book examines key questions and challenges the widely prevalent view that the Palestinian Authority collapsed because of its internal governance failures, its lack of commitment to democracy, and corruption. It argues that the analytical framework of 'good governance' is not appropriate for assessing state performance in developing countries, and that it is especially inappropriate in conflict and post-conflict situations. Instead, an alternative framework is proposed for assessing state performance in a context of economic and social transformation. This is then applied in detail to different aspects of state formation in Palestine, showing that the institutional architecture set up by the Oslo agreements was responsible for many of the serious failures.

Susan Miller, author of two foundational works on shame ("The Shame Experience" [TAP, 1985/1993pbk]; "Shame in Context" [TAP, 1996]), now turns to disgust, an intriguing emotion that has received little attention in the professional literature. For Miller, the psychological study of disgust revolves around boundary issues: We tend to feel disgusted about things (from bodily processes to decaying organic matter to ethnic attributes of "foreign" people) that lie on the border between our sense of self and nonself or between our sense of "good self" and "bad self." Miller's clinical and everyday examples of disgust lead her to explore the developmental grounding of the capacity to disgust, and this topic opens to consideration of the relation of the various sensory modalities to disgust reactions. Why, Miller asks, do we see disgusting images and smell disgusting smells but not hear disgusting sounds? And further, what makes sensory impressions or objects "disgusting" to certain people but not to others? Why do the images and smells of disease so frequently elicit disgust? And what is the relation of disgust to sex, procreation, and human intimacy?
Laced with developmental insights and vivid illustrations of disgust-related syndromes, "Disgust: The Gatekeeper Emotion" incorporates cultural analysis that links disgust to images of illness and health, to family life, to group identity, and to artistic and scientific creativity. For Miller, the central disgust dialectic - the self's need to safeguard itself against noxious intrusions from without and simultaneously to nourish itself through contact with "otherness" - obtains whether the discourse concerns nature, nations, or noses. Withher typically graceful and gracious prose, Miller puts disgust on the psychological map and thereby adds a chapter to our understanding of the role of emotion in therapy and in everyday life.

This book examines key questions and challenges the widely prevalent view that the Palestinian Authority collapsed because of its internal governance failures, its lack of commitment to democracy, and corruption. It argues that the analytical framework of 'good governance' is not appropriate for assessing state performance in developing countries, and that it is especially inappropriate in conflict and post-conflict situations. Instead, an alternative framework is proposed for assessing state performance in a context of economic and social transformation. This is then applied in detail to different aspects of state formation in Palestine, showing that the institutional architecture set up by the Oslo agreements was responsible for many of the serious failures.