Springer Political Science and Chinese Political Studies: The State of the Field

We have witnessed the substantial transformation of China studies, particularly Chinese political studies, in the past 30 years due to changes in China and its rising status in the world as well as changes in our ways of conducting research. As area studies specialists, we are no longer “isolated” from the larger disciplines of Political Science and International Relations (IR) but an integral part of them. This book contains theoretically innovative contributions by distinguished political scientists from inside and outside China, who together offer up-to-date overviews of the state of the field of Chinese political studies, combines empirical and normative researches as well as theoretical exploration and case studies, explore the relationship between Western political science scholarship and contemporary Chinese political studies, examine the logic and methods of political science and their scholarly application and most recent developments in the study of Chinese politics, and discuss the hotly-contested and debated issues in Chinese political studies, such as universality and particularity, regularity and diversity, scientification and indigenization, main problems, challenges, opportunities and directions for the disciplinary and intellectual development of Chinese political studies in the context of rising China. Review The excellent articles in this eye-opening volume offer the analyses of diverse but extremely well-informed scholarship on these most vital matters. This book is a must read for anyone seeking to comprehend these most profound questions about how Chinese political studies has developed and where it is heading. ―Edward Friedman, University of Wisconsin, Madison     A thought-provoking collection that draws together Chinese and western scholars to ruminate about the field of Chinese politics. This book shows us how research is changing, how area and disciplinary approaches can support each other, and how “indigenous” and western concepts can deepen the study of Chinese politics.   ―Kevin J. O'Brien, University of California, Berkeley From the Back Cover This book represents a pioneering effort to offer an up-to-date overview of the state of the field of “Chinese political studies.” It assesses the field’s past, present, and future, emphasizing the role of Chinese scholars in transforming it both from within and outside of China. In the process, this book discusses the most hotly-debated problems, challenges, opportunities, achievements, and directions in terms of its disciplinary and intellectual developments. The book focuses on the epistemologically-oriented debate, i.e., the serious tensions between scientific, universalistic, positivist traditions on the one hand and particularistic, historical and contextual traditions in the study of Chinese politics on the other. The book also deals with the ontologically-oriented debate between scientific knowledge and local knowledge, i.e., between scientification/westernization (ke xue hua/xi fang hua) and indigenization (ben tu hua) of Chinese political studies, and thus their influences on the study of Chinese politics. About the Author Sujian Guo is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for US-China Policy Studies at San Francisco State University, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chinese Political Science. Concurrently, he is a Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean of the Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences at Fudan University, and a chair professor of Zhejiang University, PRC. He is also a guest professor at numerous Chinese universities. His areas of research include Chinese politics, international relations and methodology, and he has published over 40 academic articles and 16 authored and edited books in the above areas.