Thesis (Ph. D.)--Keiō Gijuku Daigaku. / Translation of: Shin Kan hōseishi ronkō.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- Keiō Gijuku Daigaku. / Translation of: Shin Kan hōseishi ronkō.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Chinese / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

During a period of unprecedented rapid urbanisation and social transformation in China, this thesis considers the children of internal rural migrants and their access to compulsory education in the regions where they settle. There are currently 38 million such children. Institutional and systemic challenges often bar them from receiving an education of adequate quality, equal to that of their peers. The thesis reviews the legal and regulatory framework covering childrens’ right to education at both international and national domestic levels. It then describes the actual experience of internal migrant children attempting to access schools, and analyses the main factors barring them from the education they are entitled to. These barriers are categorised in a ‘4-A’ conceptual framework – Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability, Adaptability. The research draws on a range of secondary data, supplemented by interviews conducted with personnel engaged in education in Beijing. The main findings are that, though the legal framework of rights is generally sufficient, inadequate institutional and normative arrangements and lack of government accountability (at all levels) work together to hinder proper implementation of relevant laws and regulations. The problem is exacerbated by the institutional barrier of hukou-based enrolment and registration, and deepened even further by the current cadre and local governance arrangements, with the information asymmetry they engender. The thesis concludes that, at central, provincial and municipal levels, adequate funding for the education of migrant children must be assured, especially in the dense receiving regions. A new enrolment system is required based on a child’s current place of residence. Finally, a reform of the current civil service and cadre management systems is needed, with a move away from current growth-oriented development strategies that impose policy burdens and subordinate the children’s good to the pursuit of economic targets.

China’s ascent up the echelon of the contemporary interstate system is often debated by reference to its implications for the US designed neoliberal world order. A ‘cauldron of anxiety’ appears to be brewing around what is said to be a potentially contesting force that is at best shallowly integrated and at worse set on institutional reconstitution. US anxiety over the integrity of the order she landscaped and from which she benefits may be understood insofar as insufficient submission signifies the risk of a rising untamed competitor. Yet, against the background of China’s participation in the international financial institutions, membership of the World Trade Organisation and the conclusion of a prolific bilateral investment treaties (BITs) program, in what way can she be said to have remained resistant and untamed? This work seeks to contribute to the debate by looking at it from the perspective of discourse. It examines two interrelated discursive structures:those of paradigm and law. In relation to the former it looks at the US engendered neoliberal worldview more specifically formulated as a Washington Consensus on the one hand and China’s vision of a harmonious world of lasting peace and prosperity on the other. In relation to the latter, juridical institutions furnish legitimising mechanisms and the rules by which paradigms are to be practiced. Since treaties form part of the US designed world order, this work applies BITs as a prism through which the interiors of paradigms may be unpacked. BITs are creatures of the capitalist paradigm in its neoliberal configuration in that they articulate and provide rules for the material realisation of a homogenised world in which the spatial movement of capital is free of impediments and sovereign rights are subjugated to property rights. By contrast they are not creatures of the harmonious world paradigm with its resurrection of indigenous heritage. In the context of China they represent processes of importation and adaptation originally triggered by forcible rupture. Against this construct of two different paradigms that nevertheless share a juridical structure this work concludes that China does aspire to a reformed world order. However, only time will tell whether reformative ambitions can survive own integration and the expansive compulsions of neoliberalism.

Thesis (S.J.D.)--University of Toronto, 1996. / Adviser: Ronald St. J. Macdonald. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University Of Chicago, 1939. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1981.

published_or_final_version / History / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1991. / "Order number: 9208666." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-336).