Ideas, Society and Politics in Northeast Asia and Northern Europe

Worlds Apart, Learning From Each Other

edited by Ras Tind Nielsen and Geir Helgesen

  • Published:
  • Pages: 248 pp., illus.
  • Series number: 1
Worldwide

About the book

  • Highlights the parallels and differences between East Asia and the Nordic region.
  • Explores how both regions have much to learn from each other.
  • Offers challenges to scholars and policy-makers from both regions.

This intriguing volume explains why, after centuries of Western scholars studying Asia, Asian scholars are beginning to study Western societies in return.

Responding to the rise of Nordic studies in China, Japan and Korea, the authors explore how economic success in East Asia is raising issues – like how to deal with an ageing population, income redistribution and provision of social security – that have long been addressed in the Nordic region. Conversely, the Nordic countries have much to learn from the dynamism and flexibility found in East Asia today. Yet, the authors also show how cultural and political differences pose challenges to mutual understanding and learning.

The essays offer a challenging point of reference for scholars and policy-makers from both regions.

About the author

author image not supplied

Ras Tind Nielsen is a research assistant at NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark.  He follows domestic politics and foreign  policy in China as well as regional politics in East Asia.  He has a special interest inthe sociology of science and in the development of the social sciences in China.

Ras Tind Nielsen is a research assistant at NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark.  He follows domestic politics and foreign  policy in China as well as regional politics in East Asia.  He has a special interest inthe sociology of science and in the development of the social sciences in China.  Ras is actively engaged in promoting Nordic collaboration with Asia in research and higher education and has been a consultant to the Nordic Council of Ministers advising on sciences collaboration with China and India.

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