150060 SE Specialist Seminar GG/PR: Cross-disciplinary approaches to culture and economy in China (2016S)

In various disciplines in the social sciences, the notion of ‘culture’ plays an important role, aiming at understanding and explaining systematic behavioural, ideological and structural differences across the societies of the world, past and present. In particular, cultural analysis is gaining ground recently in economics, and assumes practical relevance in international management. The course explores the uses of ‘culture’ in Chinese studies both in terms of different methodologies of cultural analysis and in different topical contexts, concentrating on issues that relate with the Chinese economy. These topical contexts are:
• Networks and the social organization of business
• Corporate culture and globalization of management practices
• Regional cultures of business
• Political culture and the making of economic policy
• Demographic change and value change
The course disentangles different aspects of social organization, such as values, beliefs, institutions, or structures of power and dominance, and locates the explanatory value of culture as a distinct phenomenon related to the creation and maintenance of individual and group identities.
The course enables students to assess and employ different methodological approaches to culture in the context of Chinese studies. They understand how cultural phenomena can be identified and described in the context of particular empirical and practical applications. They can critically reflect upon cultural explanations and weigh their significance against alternative and competing approaches in economics, political science and sociology. In applying these capabilities on the Chinese case, they learn about the variety and scope of cultural phenomena in Chinese society, and learn to assess their relevance for analysing issues in Chinese business, economics and politics.