The value chain in the Asian online gaming industry: a case study of Taiwan

This research examines the changing nature of the Asian online gaming industry and the position of Taiwan in the regional market. The evidence used was gathered through fieldwork conducted in Taiwan, Beijing and Shanghai from January to October in 2007. Firstly, it explores the situation from the perspective of political economy in order to understand the process of commodification, including production, marketing and distribution. The research establishes that the game industry operates within a highly competitive market requiring substantial investments. Since game production requires complex technological skills, there is a high capital cost, and the process is very time consuming. Today's online gaining business has segmented into different sectors with varying roles, i.e. developer, publisher, distributor and operator, controlled by different players in the business. The research shows that Asian game firms seek vertical synergies by expanding complex collaborative networks of production, marketing and operation in order to minimize costs and maximize profits. This implies that an international value chain has been established within the regional economy due to that the capacity of modern East Asian cities to accelerate the integration of the online gaming industry into regional economic activity. Secondly, online gaming overall is a popular form of interactive entertainment in the intra-Asian market. The key theories used to understand digital games are debated between narratology and ludology. However, neither is capable of providing an explanation for the Asian gaming culture. On further examination, certain types of game genres, 'wuxia' and 'cute' games, are found to have a particular appeal for Asian users. The wuxia genre is exclusively circulated in the greater Chinese cultural arena. The 'cute' game originates from the protagonists and themes of Japanese video games. This genre is well accepted by Asian users living in urban environments, and has become a force to unite city gainers in different Asian countries. Lastly, the thesis explores the unique position of Taiwan's game industry, which has been transformed from a test-bed for games aimed at the Chinese market into an intermediary between China and the rest of the world. Before 2002, Taiwan was regarded as a springboard for foreign firms wishing to enter the big Chinese market. Now, China's game industry has emerged and Chinese games have been exported to other Asian countries. Currently Taiwan is the biggest export market. The sophisticated features of the Taiwanese market mean that it can act as a stepping stone for Chinese game firms wishing to expand into wider regional and global markets

Donghak and sacramental commons: Eastern learning, creation consciousness, and Korean socioecological ethics

The purpose of this dissertation is to construct a Korean socioecological ethics based on comparative studies of the Eastern indigenous ecological spirituality of Donghak and the Western creation consciousness of sacramental commons. As this thesis examines the significant similarity between Donghak (initiated by 수운 , Su-woon) and sacramental commons (elaborated by John Hart), it highlights their common socioecological understandings of "interrelatedness," "interdependence," "interaction," and "transformation." In the nineteenth century, before the intrusion of Western modernization into traditional Korean society, Donghak's revolutionary egalitarian thinking included liberating and empowering minjung, the common people. Donghak's radical ideas are precursors of socioecological concepts; its social consciousness has affected contemporary Korean ecological spirituality. By virtue of Donghak's spirituality and consciousness, Korean socioecological ethics might overcome the harm of Western anthropocentric influences. This project envisions a utopian socioecological community and a versatile pedagogical program as a socioecological project in Korean contexts. Although Koreans have experienced a conflict between traditional value systems and Western imported ideologies, eco-community movements have been developed that integrate them. These movements emphasize participation, solidarity, and responsibility for local communities, and aim to change daily life through a transformation of cultural consciousness and contextual conduct. The methodological significance of this dissertation lies in the interreligious and transcultural dialogue between Donghak and sacramental commons. Elements of comparative socioecological ethics--themes of "relational community," "relational consciousness," and "interconnectedness"--in both Donghak and sacramental commons reveal their shared, holistic understanding of a socio-ethical relationship among the divine Spirit, humans, and nature. These comparative constructs suggest how socioecological ethics can restore socioecological relationality to a dynamic unity of the divine and the earthly, the infinite and the finite, transcendence and immanence, universality and particularity, and individuality and diversity. Donghak and sacramental commons emphasize relational socioecological consciousness, the role of divine Spirit, and the importance of practice and projects based on this holistic understanding. Their common creation consciousness can provide a shared socioecological vision and have a transformative role in Korean contexts

Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies

The notion of the “Silk Road” that the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen invented in the 19th century has lost attraction to scholars in light of large amounts of new evidence and new approaches. The handbook suggests new conceptual and methodological tools for researching ancient economic exchange in a global perspective with a strong focus on recent debates on the nature of pre-modern empires.The interdisciplinary team of Chinese, Indian and Graeco-Roman historians, archaeologists and anthropologists that has written this handbook compares different forms of economic development in agrarian and steppe regions in a period of accelerated empire formation during 300 BCE and 300 CE. It investigates inter-imperial zones and networks of exchange which were crucial for ancient Eurasian connections.Volume I provides a comparative history of the most important empires forming in Northern Africa, Europe and Asia between 300 BCE and 300 CE. It surveys a wide range of evidence that can be brought to bear on economic development in the these empires, and takes stock of the ways academic traditions have shaped different understandings of economic and imperial development as well as Silk-Road exchange in Russia, China, India and Western Graeco-Roman history

An afrocentric critique of the discourse of good governance and its limitations as a means of addressing development challenges in Nigeria

The current study is an African-centred critique of the idea of ‘good governance’; which since the 1990s, has been a prescription of the international development institutions for all development challenges facing developing countries. Despite almost two decades of implementation of good governance reforms in Nigeria, poverty, corruption and underdevelopment persist. The analysis showed that the limited involvement of local people in the design of donor-sponsored good governance reforms mainly produced a universal, donor-conceptualized good governance agenda, which did not fully capture local issues. Given this, the main objective of the current study was to develop a cultural, context-specific governance model that shares local citizens’ understanding of governance, as well as, addresses challenges of governance at local levels in Nigeria. However, given the diversity of cultures in Nigeria and the uniqueness of each of them, this study only focused on Southwest Nigeria. Afrocentricity is the theoretical framework for this study. Mainstream development theories have mainly guided the development efforts of African countries but these theories are based on the experience of the European countries and primarily seek their interests. Given the failure of Eurocentric development theories in Nigeria, this study deemed it fit to adopt a theoretical framework that is based on African experience and that seeks African interests. Afrocentricity is the only theory in which the centrality of African interests, principles, and perceptions predominate (Pellebon 2007: 174). In terms of methodology, this study adopted the case study design. The study also used both the qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. But the study was largely qualitative because it relied on participants’ interpretations. The inclusion of quantitative data was for purposes of expanding and complementing the interpretive information. The study is significant because the findings provide agency to indigenous people in Nigeria by the voicing their perception of governance. The study also identified context-specific issues affecting governance in Nigeria, which were not captured in the donor’s universal good governance agenda. The study proposed how the principles that have enabled the effectiveness of traditional governance systems could be incorporated into formal governance to achieve better government performance. Most importantly, this study offers context-specific and people-centred recommendations to address Nigeria’s governance and development challenges. This study’s Afrocentric approach to the understanding of good governance is an epistemological rupture against the Eurocentric idea of good governance.Development StudiesPhD (Philosophy

Borderlands of nations, nations of borderlands. Minorities in the borderlands and on the fringes of countries

In the past two years, the European continent has become the target of mass migration of various ethnic and religious groups who, for reasons of security or economic hardship, have decided to leave their homelands and go into dangerous exile, mostly by sea. In order to reach the world perceived by them as an oasis of security and prosperity, and above all tolerance for racial, ethnic, cultural and religious differences, the arrivals are deepening the already large diversity of the Old Continent's population, where the various minorities have been living for a long time. Particularly interesting is the question of the functioning of national and religious minorities in the borderlands between countries, as well as the formation of such borderlands by different nations. Therefore, the editors propose that number 13 of Region and Regionalism addresses the issue of Borderlands of nations, nations of borderlands. The proposed subject matter met with the lively response from the authors, so much so that the number of submitted papers prompted the Editorial Board to divide them into two volumes. The first volume, collects the works discussing Minorities in the borderlands and the fringes of countries

Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies

The notion of the “Silk Road” that the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen invented in the 19th century has lost attraction to scholars in light of large amounts of new evidence and new approaches. The handbook suggests new conceptual and methodological tools for researching ancient economic exchange in a global perspective with a strong focus on recent debates on the nature of pre-modern empires.The interdisciplinary team of Chinese, Indian and Graeco-Roman historians, archaeologists and anthropologists that has written this handbook compares different forms of economic development in agrarian and steppe regions in a period of accelerated empire formation during 300 BCE and 300 CE. It investigates inter-imperial zones and networks of exchange which were crucial for ancient Eurasian connections.Volume I provides a comparative history of the most important empires forming in Northern Africa, Europe and Asia between 300 BCE and 300 CE. It surveys a wide range of evidence that can be brought to bear on economic development in the these empires, and takes stock of the ways academic traditions have shaped different understandings of economic and imperial development as well as Silk-Road exchange in Russia, China, India and Western Graeco-Roman history

Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies

In the second volume a wide range of economic actors – from kings and armies to cities and producers – are discussed within different imperial settings as well as the tools which enabled and constrained economic outcomes. A central focus are nodes of consumption that are visible in the archaeological and textual records of royal capitals, cities, religious centers, and armies that were stationed in imperial frontier zones

Information literacy instruction for Kuwaiti students and the role of cultural relevance

This study identifies the components of an instructional programme for information literacy that is culturally relevant to Kuwaiti students. It discusses culturally relevant education, instruction for information literacy, the provision of library and information skills instruction in Kuwait, and its characteristics as an independent nation, and as a Gulf, Arab, Islamic, and developing country. The study further tests the effect of cultural relevance on instruction for information literacy for Kuwaiti students with an experiment of comparative instruction. The control group received Western-oriented instruction for information literacy and the experimental group received instruction that substituted Kuwaiti cultural referents for some of the Western-oriented referents. The aims of instruction for both groups were basic levels of proficiency as described in Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning, and the main vehicle of instruction was the Big SixTM information problem solving strategy. The only difference in instruction between groups were the images in the Big SixTM transparencies used for overhead projection, the examples used in class to discuss various information problems and the corresponding images that represented the examples. The study measured the information problem solving achievement of 126 fourth- and eighth grade students with a pre- post-test, the recall of the Big Six strategy with a post-test, and student attitudes with a questionnaire. The analyses revealed that, overall, there is a significant difference in the mean achievement scores in information problem solving and the recall of the Big Six strategy between students who received culturally relevant instruction and those who received instruction that was not culturally relevant. Examined separately, males' scores were significantly higher in the group that received culturally relevant instruction, while females responded equally well to both types of instruction. In addition, the study found a strong correlation between the attitudes of students in the control and experimental groups, and between males and females within groups

The Development of the Southeast Asian Border Zone : A Social Theory

The main objective of this thesis is the development and testing of a theory to explain the interplay of historical processes that led to the creation of the borderline between the Southern parts of China (Yunnan and Sichuan) and what is now Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. Given that many polities existed in the area, this thesis investigates the process how these entities were absorbed in the lowland states and couldn’t maintain their independence. To that end, the development of the theoretical argumentation is based on concepts of territorialization, marginalization and state-development to bring the formation processes of the border into the context of different concepts of statehood and rule and to allow for a longue durée perspective. At the center of the theoretical argument are the ways and means of the territorial penetration of lowland states whose abilities of administrative, economic and political integration furthered a sense of otherness and so were crucial for the nexus between statehood and bordering. This process however was not a linear expansion of Southeast Asian lowland states but a cyclical contraction and expansion of contacts between lowland and upland entities who mutually informed ways of acceptance, resistance, defiance or coexistence that gradually morphed into territorialised states. Testing this model of cyclical territoriality allows to define five large cycles: from the 10th to the 15th century, from 1450s to 1600, from 1600s to the 19th century, and the creation of territorialized colonial states starting in the 19th century until the end of the Second World War. The analysis of these cycles shows that agency and control-mechanisms on both the sides of lowland states as well as upland states mutually informed actions and provided possibilities so that independent entities could maintain their existence sometimes over centuries in this border-region. At the same time, it refutes the narrative of predatory lowland and defensive upland entities, but provides insights on the complex management and leveraging of interrelations that often provided mutually beneficial equilibria, the disruption of which led to new cycles of integration or disintegration. This thesis also accounts for the internal dynamism and motivations of both lowland states and entities in the border-region to explain their actions and objectives and to provide insights how this contributed to the transformation of this area from a central hub of knowledge and economic transfer into a marginalized border-region. By going beyond linear models of state-development or statist ideas of territoriality, a century-long back-and-forth process of negotiation, integration and dissolution of statelets in the border area becomes visible that eventually formed a system that could accommodate the very different trajectories of state-building, territorial expansion and consolidation of the larger lowland-states. The formation of equilibria of interests and constantly changing fault-lines of territoriality followed certain trendlines yet not in a linear or congruent way. Over time economic and political determinants produced changes and asymmetric relations that in the long run fostered integration within teritorially stabilized states. This thesis shows that these trend lines can be understood as the aggregation of many smaller actions and developments on the ground that finally brought the border area into the fold of the lowland states. Entities in the border-region were far more than a playing ball between different lowland centers of power but boasted their own capabilities of agency and so created a dynamics that led to a congruence of the intention to exert control and to have this control manifested in a spatial view of possession and contained within a demarcated space – a border