Events

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Tim Bunnell, Asia Research Institute, and Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

PROGRAMME

ABSTRACT

This book offers an empirically based exploration into work-integration social enterprises as a means for delivering social services in China.

Focusing on the political economy of social enterprise development in China, Wang examines the nature of the relationship between the state and social enterprises and the implications of such relationships for their institutional effectiveness. She adopts a bottom-up approach that investigates indigenous practices embedded within the local political context. Common ground has been established internationally that the social enterprise model provides new ways of social service delivery that could potentially change and restructure the social welfare economy. However, the development path differs across social contexts, especially in an authoritarian country like China. This study provides insights into China’s efforts to develop its social welfare sector and reinvigorate customary ideas about how public services could be better offered given the country’s political economy.

This book will be of great interest to both scholars of China’s political economy and those with an interest in the development of the social enterprise sector looking to see how this works in a Chinese context.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Echo Wang currently serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of China Studies at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. She received her joint PhD in political science and China studies with a specialisation in public administration from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and King’s College London (2019) and worked at Asia Research Institute, NUS as a post-doctoral fellow. Her research interests include state-society relations, non-profit management and institutional change, social entrepreneurship, and the collaborative governance of the public service sector.

Kong Chong Ho is Head of Urban Studies at Yale-NUS College and Associate Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, NUS. Trained as a sociologist at the University of Chicago, his research interests are in neighbourhoods and international student mobilities. Much of his published work is on East Asian (Hong Kong, Seoul and Taipei) and Southeast Asian (Hanoi, Bangkok and Singapore) cities.

Wilson Wong is Founding Director and Associate Professor of the Data Science and Policy Studies Programme in the Faculty of Social Science at Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also a senior research fellow at the School of Management, University College London, and a fellow at Center of Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences of Stanford University (2022-23). In addition, he has served as a visiting fellow at Brookings Institution and Harvard University. His research focuses on several major areas, including artificial intelligence and big data, social data science, digital governance, information and communications technology and innovation, disruptive technologies in government, comparative public policy, and administration. With his expertise, he currently serves as the Lead Area Editor of Data & Policy, a flagship journal by Cambridge University Press that is dedicated to exploring the impact of data-policy interactions. Furthermore, he is Associate Editor of two interdisciplinary journals: Nature Humanities and Social Science and Public Library of Science. He holds the position of regional editor of the Asian Journal of Political Science and serves as an editorial board member of the International Review of Administrative Sciences. His research has been published in leading journals in his fields, such as Administration and Society, China Review, Governance, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Journal of Asian Public Policy, Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Policy Studies Journal, and Public Administration Review.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this hybrid talk has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to ziqi@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the event.