State-Society Networks in Northeast Asia

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

Networks have become a “hot” research area across the social sciences. Spurred by the dramatic expansion of online social networks (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, WeChat) and new social network analysis tools, scholars in the United States and Europe are now interested in how networks, not just institutions, influence politics and policy. Scholars of Northeast Asia have been studying the role of networks for decades and can offer considerable insight to their colleagues’ new research agendas. Our analysis of keiretsu networks challenged and ultimately transformed the understanding of how capitalism works. Our ongoing investigation into guanxi networks is contributing to greater insight into how informal and formal channels of power can influence economic, political, and social outcomes.

This panel draws together scholars who are studying a diversity of networks in Northeast Asia. The networks we study are all located in Northeast Asia and are all organized in order to influence public policy. The networks vary in country of origin, scope of operation, actors involved, and issues of interest. Our hope is that by gathering these papers together in one panel we will be able to generate broader insights about how network formation, behavior, and influence might vary according to the political regime of the host country, the scale of the network, network member diversity, and the topical focus of the network. Our insights should be valuable not only to our colleagues studying Northeast Asia, but also to social scientists studying policy-relevant networks anywhere in the world.

Area of Study

• Interarea-Border Crossing

Session Organizer

• Mary Alice Haddad, Wesleyan University

Chair

• Ezra Vogel, Harvard University

Individual Presentations

• Promoting Positive Change: Nonprofits’ Role in Facilitating Pro-Environmental Policy Networks - Mary Alice Haddad, Wesleyan University

• Lawyers’ Networks and Policy Change in Japan and South Korea - Celeste Arrington, George Washington University

• Comparative Agricultural Cooperatives across East Asia - Kay Shimizu, University of Pittsburgh

• Beyond Corporatism: The Role of Civil Society Networks in Changing Environmental Policy in China - Jessica Teets, Middlebury College

Discussant

• Elizabeth Perry, Harvard University