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Based on findings from three years of site-intensive fieldwork at the local level, this article presents evidence to suggest that binary governance frameworks like centre-local relations are insufficient to understand certain local regulatory outcomes in contemporary China. I seek to specify a distinct type of local governance that has been emerging in recent years, which blurs existing binary concepts. It can be distinguished along two main dimensions: ostensible structure and modalities of governance. Two cases are analysed to illustrate the ways in which it impacts local regulatory outcomes. The analyses point to the need for expanding our portfolio of approaches to understanding local governance in contemporary China. (China Q/GIGA)

China's energy-service companies (ESCOs) have developed only modestly despite favorable political and market conditions. We argue that with sophisticated market institutions still evolving in China, trust-based relations between ESCOs and energy customers are essential for successful implementation of energy efficiency projects. Chinese ESCOs, who are predominantly small and private enterprises, perform poorly in terms of trust-building because they are disembedded from local business, social, and political networks. We conclude that in the current institutional setting, the ESCO model based on market relations has serious limitations and is unlikely to lead to large-scale implementation of energy efficiency projects in China.

Seoul in the global economy : (re)conceptualizing a political economy of urban development -- Government's economic growth policy and labor structure in the city -- A new global urban middle class? Gangnam area --Transnational communities in Seoul Metropolitan Area -- New Town Project in Seoul : neoliberal urban policy at crossroad? -- Hallyu in global culture flow : moving cultural products between cities -- Appendices.

Korean women who immigrate into the U.S. following their American husbands face a harsh reality. A new Korean wife and American husband may find themselves in unfamiliar situations that expose their marital life to vulnerability and cause their marriage to end quickly. This study endeavors to describe the diverse patterns of inequality in the marital life of select couples, and the resilience that Korean women display in their American lives after marital crises, such as divorce. The study also explores the relationship between "social factors," including financial status, familial relations, age, activities in the community, and the situation of "psychosocial well-being" among such Korean women. Through intensive interviews of Korean women who married American soldiers, the study shows that differences in culture, income, and the historical hierarchy inherent in the political/military relationship between South Korea and the U.S. are significant in explaining the social and psychological well-being of Korean women and their modes of survival and adaptation to life in American society. The cases analyzed in this study demonstrated that these women were weak and vulnerable socially as well as psychologically.

In this paper, we focus on the roles of the steel and shipbuilding industries as generative sectors in Korea's rapid economic ascent. We argue that a world-systems analysis focusing on these generative sectors provides a more complete understanding of Korea's rapid economic ascent than do other theoretical models. We outline the similarities between this case and those analyzed by Bunker and Ciccantell (2005, 2007) both in terms of the central role of generative sectors in raw materials and transport industries and how the creation and growth of these two industrial sectors shaped institutional patterns and the broader economic ascent of South Korea and East Asia. Even though South Korea has not and may never become a challenger for global hegemony, its rapid ascent has helped reshape East Asia and the capitalist world-economy. We use the model of generative sectors to analyze the critical industries that underlay and shaped South Korea's ascent from a low wage, light industry base to a world leader in electronics, automobiles, and other advanced industries.

Gender role identity (androgyny, masculinity, femininity), and its link to gender and academic achievement were examined across a sample of Korean and American college students. Results indicate that the androgyny group represented the largest proportion in the American sample, while
the femininity group was the largest in the Korean sample. Korean students with masculinity achieved the highest score in Korean Sooneung Examination, followed by the androgyny group. In contrast, American students in the femininity group scored highest in the American College Testing examination.
Academic performance in Korean male students differed across socioeconomic status but that of the American male students was influenced more by gender role identity than by socioeconomic status.