As the last event of the CRC 1342 Jour Fixe lecture series in the winter semester 2023/24, Jonathan London from Leiden University gave an insight into his current research on Wednesday, February 28. He presented excerpts from his book "Welfare and Inequality in Marketizing East Asia".
In his lecture, Prof. London presented his book, in which he described socio-political expansion tendencies based on a determination of regime types and accumulation regimes in ten Southeast Asian countries - against the backdrop of the increasing marketization of these countries' economies. Despite the expansion of new protection programmes, however, serious problems must be noted. On the one hand, there are considerable differences between the de jure and de facto forms of these social programmes in terms of the scope of benefits and inclusivity. On the other hand, serious shortcomings can still be observed in particularly demanding areas (such as education and health), in which the creation of effective infrastructures, qualified labour etc. is necessary for a sustainable improvement in the situation for broad sections of the population, in addition to the necessary funds. Taken together, this stands in the way of an effective reduction in social inequalities, despite the significant economic development in Southeast Asia.
Jonathan D. London is Associate Professor of Political Economy - Asia at Leiden University's Institute of Area Studies. London's research interests span the fields of comparative political economy, development studies, and the political economy of welfare and inequality. Fluent in Vietnamese, London is sole editor of the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Vietnam (2023). His 2018 book, “Welfare and Inequality in Marketizing East Asia” developed a critique of theoretical literature on welfare regimes analysis and a comparative analysis of 10 East Asian countries. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy, Research IV and China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 200-3382
E-Mail: ttenbrink@constructor.university
