{"product_id":"how-china-escaped-the-poverty-trap-paperback-softback-9781501764561","title":"How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (Paperback \/ softback) 9781501764561","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eHow China Escaped the Poverty Trap\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eYuen Yuen Ang (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781501764561\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 15 March 2022\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e344 pages, 11 halftones, 1 map, 15 tables, 24 charts - 11 Halftones, black and white\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.907 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eChina's transformation cannot be attributed to a single cause; rather, it arose from a contingent, interactive process—Ang calls it 'directed improvisation.' She formalizes this insight which has the potential to influence future studies of institutional and economic change beyond China.\u003c\/p\u003e (Foreign Affairs) \u003cp\u003eWhile adaptive approaches to development have become new buzzwords, Yuen Yuen's work brings rigor to this conversation.... This analytical lens has enormous potential for thinking through the adaptive challenge, whether at the national level, subnational level or sectoral level.\u003c\/p\u003e (The World Bank) \u003cp\u003eThe book combines methodological rigour, employing a complexity perspective hitherto unknown in standard political economy analyses... with rich original empirical data drawn from more than 400 interviews.... This is an important book with a bold thesis that, at its most ambitious, demands a rethinking of the history and evolution of capitalism.... In terms of policy implications, Ang's thesis has the potential to upend much that the global development establishment holds dear.\u003c\/p\u003e (The Straits Times) \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow China Escaped the Poverty Trap\u003c\/i\u003e... is an original and insightful take on what is perhaps the biggest development puzzle of my lifetime.\u003c\/p\u003e (Building State Capability Blog) \u003cp\u003eThis book is a triumph, opening a window onto the political economy of China's astonishing rise that takes as its starting point systems and complexity. Its lessons apply far beyond China's borders.\u003c\/p\u003e (Oxfam Blog) \u003cp\u003eAng provides specialists and nonspecialists alike with a fresh inside-the-black-box account of how the Chinese state... has actually practiced (not merely preached) innovation, problem solving, and effective implementation.... Future studies of bureaucratic life in China and elsewhere must reckon seriously with Ang's account.\u003c\/p\u003e (Governance) \u003cp\u003eAs if explaining modern Chinese economic development was not enough of a challenge, Ang has two even loftier goals. The first is methodological. She expresses a frustration with political science's causality obsession and modeling approaches that deliver isolated snapshots of complex processes.... Ang's second ambition is to apply this coevolutionary schema to how we understand economic development generally.\u003c\/p\u003e (Perspectives on Politics) \u003cp\u003eThis book is an invaluable addition to the scholarship on the political economy of development.\u003c\/p\u003e (Pacific Affairs) \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow China Escaped the Poverty Trap\u003c\/i\u003e is an innovative account to explain why China has economically developed in spite – or because – of its low-quality institutions. It is both a theoretically original and empirically rich study of Chinese economic development and required reading for those who want to understand China's and our own future.\u003c\/p\u003e (VoegelinView) \u003cp\u003eThe author has certainly filled the gaps in the literature on the political-economic analysis of China's historic transformation from a low-income to a middle-income country through adoption of a co-evolutionary approach to development. Overall, this interesting book goes deeper beneath the broad political-economic surface of Chinese society. It should appeal not only to researchers on Chinese society, but also to practising political economists.\u003c\/p\u003e (Ecoomic Record)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE 2017 PETER KATZENSTEIN BOOK PRIZE\u003cbr\u003e \"BEST OF BOOKS IN 2017\" BY FOREIGN AFFAIRS\u003cbr\u003e WINNER OF THE 2018 VIVIAN ZELIZER PRIZE BEST BOOK AWARD IN ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow China Escaped the Poverty Trap\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e truly offers game-changing ideas for the analysis and implementation of socio-economic development and should have a major impact across many social sciences.\"\u003cbr\u003e ― Zelizer Best Book in Economic Sociology Prize Committee\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAcclaimed as \"game changing\" and \"field shifting,\" \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow China Escaped the Poverty Trap\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eadvances a new paradigm in the political economy of development and sheds new light on China's rise.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHow can poor and weak societies escape poverty traps? Political economists have traditionally offered three answers: \"stimulate growth first,\" \"build good institutions first,\" or \"some fortunate nations inherited good institutions that led to growth.\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eYuen Yuen Ang rejects all three schools of thought and their underlying assumptions: linear causation, a mechanistic worldview, and historical determinism. Instead, she launches a new paradigm grounded in complex adaptive systems, which embraces the reality of interdependence and humanity's capacity to innovate.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCombining this original lens with more than 400 interviews with Chinese bureaucrats and entrepreneurs, Ang systematically reenacts the complex process that turned China from a communist backwater into a global juggernaut in just 35 years. Contrary to popular misconceptions, she shows that what drove China's great transformation was not centralized authoritarian control, but \"directed improvisation\"-top-down directions from Beijing paired with bottom-up improvisation among local officials.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHer analysis reveals two broad lessons on development. First, transformative change requires an adaptive governing system that empowers ground-level actors to create new solutions for evolving problems. Second, the first step out of the poverty trap is to \"use what you have\"-harnessing existing resources to kick-start new markets, even if that means defying first-world norms.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBold and meticulously researched, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow China Escaped the Poverty Trap\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eopens up a whole new avenue of thinking for scholars, practitioners, and anyone seeking to build adaptive systems.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction: How Did Development Actually Happen? \u003cbr\u003e Part 1 FRAMEWORK AND BUILDING BLOCKS\u003cbr\u003e 1. Mapping Coevolution \u003cbr\u003e 2. Directed Improvisation \u003cbr\u003e Part 2 DIRECTION\u003cbr\u003e 3. Balancing Variety and Uniformity \u003cbr\u003e 4. Franchising the Bureaucracy \u003cbr\u003e Part 3 IMPROVISATION\u003cbr\u003e 5. From Building to Preserving Markets \u003cbr\u003e 6. Connecting First Movers and Laggards \u003cbr\u003e Conclusion: How Development Actually Happened Beyond China \u003cbr\u003e Appendix A: Steps for Mapping Coevolution \u003cbr\u003e Appendix B: Interviews\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52653197721880,"sku":"9781501764561","price":20.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/how-china-escaped-the-poverty-trap-paperback-softback-9781501764561","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}