Since the 1973 publication of Alain Peyrefitte's prophetic "When China Awakens," developments in East Asia have outstripped even the wildest predictions. China has undergone the fastest industrialization and urbanization process in history, yet tensions there are rising as some realize how far they have been left behind. This volume explores the applicability of European economic and social models to our analysis of East Asia's and, in particular, China's situation. Though millions of Chinese and other Asian people have been lifted out of poverty, inequality is rising nonetheless, and contemporary Europe and Asia are both witnessing collective action against rampant economic neoliberalism in the former and the exclusion of minorities in the latter.

It is difficult to overstate the relevance of this assessment, which seeks answers to some central questions: Can events in Europe serve as a model for those in East Asia? Are there similarities or differences between the two regions? To what extent do political, economic or social systems stimulate or inhibit collective action? How culturally equivalent are the collective actions of marginalized/ disadvantaged people in the two locations, or are events in Europe symptomatic of specific cultural attributes? Comparing and contrasting the research tools and dominant paradigms in the social and economic sciences in East Asia and Europe, as this volume does, throws out some revealing results.

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The editors of this book examine social movement scholars' use of contemporary concepts and paradigms in the study of protest as they analyse the extent to which these tools are valid (or not) in very different regional - and thus political or cultural - contexts. The authors posit that 'weakly resourced groups' are a particularly useful point of departure to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of three key social movement schools of analysis: resource mobilization, political opportunity structures, and frame analysis. Some of the groups considered in this volume are financially disadvantaged, lacking money and work; others are economically disadvantaged, with members having precarious, part-time, or short-term jobs; some are socially disadvantaged, with fragile networks of solidarity; others are culturally disadvantaged, with members continuously victimized, stigmatized and rejected; finally some are politically disadvantaged when they have little or no access to decision-making structures. These exclusionary factors can be cumulative and give way to different outcomes. The chapters cover a large range of examples including urban riots in France and in Great Britain, the World Social Forums of Dakar and Nairobi, the struggles of precarious workers in Italy and Greece, unemployed mobilization in Germany and Ireland, the mobilization of the Roma and Muslims in Europe, the Brazilian landless movement, the mobilization of small farmers in France, as well as mobilization in authoritarian states such as Morocco and Cuba. This book will be of interest to scholars, students and activists working within social movement studies.

Designed to cater for the growing interest in French studies, this volume assembles contributions about various aspects of change in a number of contemporary French-speaking societies. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the book expands on the traditional concepts of French studies focusing on language and literature and embraces politics, economics and cultural studies. The volume is divided into four parts and includes contributions from leading European specialists. Collectively, the contributions span the broad fields of Politics and Society, Arts and Culture, the French Language, and Francophone Literatures. Individual chapters review and analyse contemporary issues, debates and developments in the contributors' specialist areas. The contributions address the many requirements of undergraduate and postgraduate students in French Studies which makes this collection of essays of considerable value to the specialist reader as well as to those looking for a more general understanding of key contemporary issues in French Studies.

Since the 1973 publication of Alain Peyrefitte's prophetic When China Awakens, developments in East Asia have outstripped even the wildest predictions. China has undergone the fastest industrialization and urbanization process in history, yet tensions there are rising as some realize how far they have been left behind. This volume explores the applicability of European economic and social models to our analysis of East Asia's and, in particular, China's situation. Though millions of Chinese and other Asian people have been lifted out of poverty, inequality is rising nonetheless, and contemporary Europe and Asia are both witnessing collective action against rampant economic neoliberalism in the former and the exclusion of minorities in the latter. It is difficult to overstate the relevance of this assessment, which seeks answers to some central questions: Can events in Europe serve as a model for those in East Asia? Are there similarities or differences between the two regions? To what extent do political, economic or social systems stimulate or inhibit collective action? How culturally equivalent are the collective actions of marginalized/ disadvantaged people in the two locations, or are events in Europe symptomatic of specific cultural attributes? Comparing and contrasting the research tools and dominant paradigms in the social and economic sciences in East Asia and Europe, as this volume does, throws out some revealing results.

Designed to cater for the growing interest in French studies, this volume assembles contributions about various aspects of change in a number of contemporary French-speaking societies. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the book expands on the traditional concepts of French studies focusing on language and literature and embraces politics, economics and cultural studies. The volume is divided into four parts and includes contributions from leading European specialists. Collectively, the contributions span the broad fields of Politics and Society, Arts and Culture, the French Language, and Francophone Literatures. Individual chapters review and analyse contemporary issues, debates and developments in the contributors' specialist areas. The contributions address the many requirements of undergraduate and postgraduate students in French Studies which makes this collection of essays of considerable value to the specialist reader as well as to those looking for a more general understanding of key contemporary issues in French Studies.