Event — Seminar

Multi-level governance in a globalising world: Regional authorities and subnational political economy in Asia

The IIAS Centre for Regulation and Governance organises the Seminar Series 2012 together with Clingendael Asia Studies. The four seminars of this series will bring together academics, policymakers, business people, and students of various social science disciplines.

The first seminar introduces the topic of multi-level governance and focuses on the political economy of evolving subnational governance structures. After a more general introduction to multi-level governance related to global politics, the role and functioning of subnational and transnational actors, such as cities and companies, in a complex setting of multi-level governance is explained by using the example of the EU. The subsequent two presentations on Indonesia and Malaysia relate more general thinking on multi-level governance to developments in Asia. The institutional environment and economic development of a town in eastern Indonesia is discussed. Then, the interaction between multi-level governance and emerging production networks in Malaysia is examined. The seminar closes with a brief Q&A session.

 

Programme

Introduction - IIAS Centre for Regulation and Governance

The Relevance of Multi-level Governance in Global Politics, Dr Adam Chalmers, Institute of Political Science, Leiden University

The Participation of Transnational Actors in Multi-level Governance: The Example of the EU, Dr Rosa Sanchez Salgado, Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam

Globalisation and its Discontents: The Political Economy of an Indonesian Town, Dr Gerry van Klinken, KITLV - Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Leiden

International Production Networks and Multi-level Governance in Malaysia, Dr Leo van Grunsven, Urban and Regional Research Centre Utrecht, Utrecht University

Q & A

 

IIAS Centre for Regulation and Governance Seminar Series 2012: Subnational and Transnational Actors in a Globalising World

 

The IIAS Centre for Regulation and Governance is the first European research centre devoted to the study of regulation and governance in Asia. It engages in innovative and comparative research on the theories and practices of regulation and governance in this and serves as a focal point of collaborative research between European and Asian scholars. The centre organises several academic workshops and seminars every year.

The Seminar Series 2012 focuses on emerging governance structures in Asia and the role of subnational and transnational actors. At the moment, Asia‘s emerging economies are keen to establish governance systems to meet the social, environmental, and fiscal challenges that are related to fast economic expansion and increasing integration into the world economy. However, the process of improving subnational and national governance is taking place in a globalising world. Institutions at various levels of governance have already been engaged in relations with foreign entities for years. As a result of the simultaneity and rapidity of these processes, in Asia the institutionalised adaptation of national governance to economic globalisation and interdependence will not follow the path of Western democratic states. Western democracies boast established constitutional and institutional systems of governance and try to adapt existing systems to the challenges of globalisation within this context.

Governance in Asia, however, is shaped differently, as it is mainly driven by interactive processes that take place simultaneously and require instant responses. To comprehend these developments it is important to study the emerging structures of governance in Asian states from an interdisciplinary perspective. These processes are more political and flexible and less defined by legal remedies and institutional constraints than in Western states. Outcomes in the Asian context are less predictable and less determined by past processes of decision-making and might lead to what could be seen as an “Asian“ response to the challenges of globalisation.

The IIAS Centre for Regulation and Governance organises the Seminar Series 2012 together with Clingendael Asia Studies. The four seminars of this series will bring together academics, policymakers, business people, and students of various social science disciplines. The seminars will take place in Leiden and The Hague.