Technology Politics And Society In China

This study is the first to summarize the major technological policies implemented in China since 1949 and to place them in their social and historical context. Dr. Volti looks at technological change in China as part of a broader process of economic, political, cultural, and organizational change, focusing primarily on four key areas—agriculture, energy, ground transportation, and medicine and public health. He emphasizes how technological change has been shaped by political and ideological structures, notes how China’s unique cultural heritage has affected adoption of technologies developed outside China, and assesses China’s success in developing technologies appropriate to its specific needs as an economically and politically developing nation. He draws on interviews with technicians engaged in the transfer of technology to China as well as extensive primary source materials.

China and the Internet: Politics of the Digital Leap Forward is a comprehensive assessment of the political and economic impact of information and communication technologies (ITCs) on Chinese society. It provides in-depth analyses of topics including economic development, civil and political liberties, bureaucratic politics, international relations and security studies. The book covers the aspirations of Chinese policy-makers using the Internet to achieve a 'digital leapfrog' of economic development. Avoiding technical jargon, the book is accessible to anyone interested in the social impact of the Internet and information and communication technologies, from those in academia to business and public policy-makers.

This book examines China’s information and communications technology revolution. It outlines key trends in internet and telecommunications, exploring the social, cultural and political implications of China’s transition to a more information and communications rich society. It shows that despite remaining a one-party state with extensive censorship, substantial changes have occurred.

Will new information technologies, especially the Internet, bring freedom and democracy to authoritarian China? This study argues that the Internet has brought about new dynamics of socio-political changes in China, and that state power and social forces are transforming in Internet-mediated public space. Its findings are fourfold. First, the Internet empowers both the state and society. The Internet has played an important role in facilitating political liberalization, and made government more open, transparent, and accountable. Second, the Internet produces enormous effects which are highly decentralized and beyond the reach of state power. Third, the Internet has created a new infrastructure for the state and society in their engagement with (and disengagement from) each other. Fourth, the Internet produces a recursive relationship between state and society. The interactions between the state and society over the Internet end up reshaping both the state and society.

Many maintain that the arrival of computers networked across sovereign borders and physical barriers is a liberating force that will produce a global dialogue of liberal hues but this book argues that this dominant paradigm needs to be supplemented by the perspective of alterity in the impact of Information Technology in different regions. Local experts draw upon a range of Asian cases to demonstrate how alterity, defined here as a condition of privileging the hitherto marginal and subterranean aspects of a capitalist world order through the capabilities of information and communications technologies, offers an alternative to the paradigm of inevitable material advances and political liberalization. Calling attention to the unique social and political uses being made of IT in Asia in the service of offline and online causes predominantly filtered by pre-existing social milieus the contributors examine the multiple dimensions of Asian differences in the sociology and politics of IT and show how present trends suggest that advanced electronic media will not necessarily be embraced in a smooth, unilinear fashion throughout Asia. This book will appeal to any reader interested in the nexus between society and IT in Asia.

Once the world’s most technologically advanced civilisation, China is poised to yet again take this mantle, having made incredible technological strides over recent decades; but what does this in fact mean? What will this mean for Chinese society, and what ramifications might it have for the future? This book offers an account of social change under the growing influence of communications technology in media-saturated urban China. The challenges presented by the rise of technology and its pervasive nature in the mediation of all facets of everyday life pose questions not just for Chinese society but for all contemporary media societies. Drawing on theories from the philosophy of technology and conceptual tools from political anthropology, this title moves beyond debates surrounding mediative technology as a liberating or malevolent force. China at a Threshold addresses academic concerns surrounding communications technology and state control, looking for an interpretative approach to understand the role media might play in social change so that we might ascertain its impact on social relations. Urging a reconsideration in our understanding of technology as neither liberative nor oppressive, the author advances a proposal that brings social forces into play in their own right. Taking inspiration from thinkers in philosophy and anthropology, this title investigates storytelling and liminal characters as real agents in social change so that we might identify alternative forces for change not reducible to technological impact or human proclivity.

Decade of Reform: Science and technology policy in China

The admiration of science and technology and the emphasis on political stability are two sides of the same coin in China. Therefore, China is more likely to take aggressive measures to promote or inhibit platform development than the United States and the European Union. But the uncertainty in the decision-making process is worrisome and calls for a broader discussion of the multiple political consequences of technology.