This book examines how the Chinese state responds to the increasingly diverse civil society and maintains regime stability in a changing society. In recent years, the Chinese leadership has demonstrated great capability of adapting and developing sophisticated mechanisms of social control. The chapters in this book cover a wide range of these mechanisms, including co-opting social forces, managing population and migration, as well as controlling the media, trade unions, the internet, non-governmental organisations, and the cultural industries. The authors also discuss challenges the government is about to face and possible adjustments.

This book attempts to provide an overview of social and political changes in Chinese society since the global financial crisis. Rapid economic development has restructured the setup of society and empowered or weakened certain social players. The chapters in this book provide an updated account of a wide range of social changes, including the rise of the middle class and private entrepreneurs, the declining social status of the working class, as well as the resurgence of non-governmental organisations and the growing political mobilisation on the internet. The authors also examine the implications of those changes for state-society relations, governance, democratic prospects, and potentially for the stability of the current political regime.

This book provides a comprehensive review of China's experience in reform and opening up from political, social, and economic perspectives. It attempts to engage existing scholarly debates in three areas - first, how the party-state has evolved in the past four decades and whether it remains a Leninist system or has departed from this system; second, how public attitudes, values and behavior have been intertwined with institutional change, and how the state is expanding its welfare coverage to enhance regime legitimacy. Second, how China has attempted to explore new engines for its growth, with consideration towards environmental protection and technological progress.Chapters in this book are selected from three years of conference presentations co-organized by the Institute of Public Policy (IPP) at the South China University of Technology and UNESCO. Since 2014, IPP and UNESCO have co-hosted a series of annual international conferences and invited leading scholars from China, Europe, and the US to discuss the major challenges to China and the world.

This book discusses lessons and challenges of metropolitan circles development and urbanization in Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America and Africa. The book examines the effects of local governance systems, central-local relations, and administrative borders on metropolitan area development. It surveys economic, social and environmental issues, with an emphasis on how interconnectivity, circular economy, and climate issues should be integrated into megaregion development planning.The chapters are selected papers from the international conference on metropolitan circles development and urbanization jointly held by the Institute of Public Policy (IPP) at the South China University of Technology and UNESCO in 2018. Contributors from the US, the UK, Japan, France, Singapore, Indonesia, Mexico, Tanzania present their questions, observations, and analyses in a narrative and descriptive style which appeal to a wide range of audience.