ARC Internal Seminar: Koen Rutten & Tanya Pavlova

ARC Internal Seminar with

Koen Rutten, Research Assistant, ARC

"A long march; The transition from a capital to a knowledge driven economy in China"

&

Tanya Pavlova, PhD, Russian Academy of Sciences

"Indian Political Stability: the Naxalite Movement"

Abstract/Rutten

A long march; The transition from a capital to a knowledge driven economy in China

The issues of social-economic disparity and economic and environmental sustainability have led the Chinese government to focus on technological innovation and development. The success of the transition towards a knowledge economy will depend to a large extent on the domestic business sector. The willingness of entrepreneurs to engage in innovation can be expected to be directly related to their perception of how profitable such an endeavor is compared to other modes of economic activity. Incomplete reform of legislative and economic institutions have led to a hybrid of socialist planning and market-economy, and entrepreneurs have aligned their economic activities and business practices accordingly (Choi, Zhou, 2001). Vested interests in relationship and factor dependent activities might lead entrepreneurs to have a negative evaluation of proposed policies geared at making innovation the main driver of China's economy. Alternatively, they might consider government initiatives too incomprehensive to effectively engender the intended transformation, demanding greater economic and social freedom. If such is the case, the CCP might only be able to maintain its authority by decreasing its autonomy, i.e. its direct influence over the economy and its constituents. Given the influence of entrepreneurs on the policy making process, their acquiescence is crucial to the success of the intended economic reform. The proposed research project seeks to examine how extant modes of organization will influence China's transition towards a knowledge economy, by exploring entrepreneurial attitudes towards extant and proposed innovation policy. This is expected to provide important insights into the prospective for China's economic, social and political future.

Abstract/Pavlova

Indian Political Stability: the Naxalite Movement

This short presentation will provide a brief overview of a research proposal to study the Naxalite movement in contemporary India. India faces several national security issues at the moment. One of the most serious ones is the growing and spreading Naxalite movement. Over the recent few years, this internal Naxalite problem has escalated in terms of violence, costing the lives of several thousands people. About half of India's states and one third of India’s districts are now affected by Naxalite activities, mostly along a so-called “Red corridor” from the Nepalese border to India’s southwest coast.

Although the Naxalite movement is primarily active in tribal areas, it now threatens to expand to some key industrial areas such as Bangalore, Calcutta and Chennai. Our proposed research aims at improving the existing understanding of the Naxalite movement in India. In particular, the research will analyse the current strategies of the movement and attempt to predict its growth potential and future evolution. The research will attempt to answer the following main question: Will the Naxalite movement grow and evolve further to destabilise the country, or will it simply disappear over the next few years? We propose to first look at the recent changes in the Naxalite movement, using both temporal and regional comparative analysis. Next, we will compare the movement with other analogue movements, highlighting similarities and differences. Finally, the growth potential of the movement will be analysed, focusing on recruitment strategies, political aspects and government policies.

The Asia Research Centre Internal Seminars is a series of seminars to share knowledge among members. To build up a lively and committed research community, members of the ARC network and other interested scholars will present and discuss their current research at the seminars.

The ARC Internal Seminars are mainly for researchers affiliated with the Asia Research Centre, but other interested scholars are most welcome to attend.

Please note: The centre hosts a small lunch for the participants, so should you wish to attend please inform us no later than two days before the seminar at arc@cbs.dk