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China's transformation over the past four decades has been unprecedented. The vision of its leaders for the next three decades is unprecedented too, as China seeks to fashion an advanced economy without significant political and social liberalization.Stephen Morgan provides a wide-ranging examination of China's remarkable economic history from the time of the great divergence to the present day. Alongside the familiar story of GDP growth, he considers a comprehensive range of issues, including business management, energy use, foreign direct investment, government, innovation and consumerism as well as social and demographic factors such as social networks, health, education and migration and their interlinked challenges for the Chinese state. The specifics of development are examined 'capitalism from above and below and its regional variances' as well as notable consequences, including growing inequality and severe pollution. The book also assesses the challenges to China's continued growth, including its ageing and shrinking workforce (and rising dependency ratio), the constraints on innovation and raising productivity, as well as its ambitious international plans.The book provides an accessible and authoritative survey of China's recent economic history and the workings of its unique political economy suitable for courses in Asian business and economy, Chinese history and East Asian studies.

AbstractThis article examines how German Protestant missionaries to the Herero people influenced colonial "native policy" in German Southwest Africa in the years leading up to the Colonial War of 1904 to 1907. By the late 1890s, burgeoning European settlement increasingly displaced the Herero from their traditional territory. While colonial officials promoted more settlement, missionaries had developed a concept of conversion that linked Christianization with living in self-sufficient agricultural communities, and hoped to place limits on Herero displacement. Thus, missionaries and colonial officials engaged in protracted political negotiations over the creation of inalienable "native reservations" for the Herero. I show that missionaries' model of Herero conversion prompted them to promote an alternative mode of settler colonialism that would make room in Southwest Africa for self-sufficient Herero settlements. Prior to the Colonial War, missionaries succeeded in convincing the colonial government to begin creating reservations, thus shaping colonial policy according to missionary priorities.

Books reviewed in this article:R.E.(Robert Edward) Elson, The end of the peasantry in Southeast Asia: a social and economic history of peasant livelihood, 1800–1900sYiping Huang, Agricultural Reform in China: Getting Institutions Right. Trade and Development Series

What constitutes a causal explanation, and must an explanation be causal? What warrants a causal inference, as opposed to a descriptive regularity? What techniques are available to detect when causal effects are present, and when can these techniques be used to identify the relative importance of these effects? What complications do the interactions of individuals create for these techniques? When can mixed methods of analysis be used to deepen causal accounts? Must causal claims include generative mechanisms, and how effective are empirical methods designed to discover them? The Handbook of Causal Anlaysis for Social Research tackles these questions with nineteen chapters from leading scholars in sociology, statistics, public health, computer science, and human development.

Why do we need a new model of educational attainment? -- Expectation formation and the status socialization theory of educational attainment -- Do beliefs matter? : a reanalysis of the relationship between educational expectations and attainment -- The generation of preparatory commitment from forward-looking beliefs -- The evolution of the beliefs that determine commitment -- Incorporating imitative and normative sources of commitment -- A new agenda for the sociology of educational attainment.

AbstractEconomic growth over the past three decades has greatly improved the nutrition and living standards of people in China. However, increasingly, the Chinese are becoming heavier. As many as a quarter of Chinese school-age urban boys are overweight or obese, yet a third of Chinese children remain underweight. Drawing on six national surveys of children's health conducted since 1979, the article reports on trends in nutritional status and regional disparities. It shows that the drivers behind the increase in mean body mass and in nutritional inequality are associated with rising household incomes and associated inequalities between provinces.