News

The project Cultural Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation in Africa and Asia (CEDITRAA), jointly organised by Goethe University Frankfurt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, has received funding by BMBF since April 1st 2021. Despite restrictions due to the pandemic the research team can look back on a first year of great activity.

The opening conference was organised primarily by Prof. Matthias Krings (Ethnology) and Prof. Tom Simmert, both University of Mainz. The subject of Cultural Entrepreneurship was approached from various angles, for instance in a talk given by the renowned institutionalist Michael Lounsbury from the University of Alberta.

A digital workshop, organised by Prof. Cornelia Storz in cooperation with Egbert Amoncio and the IZO Academic Coordinator Bertram Lang on 4 and 5 October, brought together experts from Europe, Asia and the United States who presented and discussed innovative methods of using digital sources. On Day One the focus was on machine learning and computer-assisted image and video analysis. On Day Two the emphasis was on digital and hybrid ethnography.

Alongside these main events the team of academics from the universities of Frankfurt and Mainz and colleagues from the Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos came together regularly at the virtual CEDITRAA Friday Meetings, which facilitate the general exchange of ideas among researchers and the presentation of one sub-project at a time, thus highlighting the many different methodical approaches to the East Asian and African cultural industries. 

The time has come! The IZO is pleased to present the activity report of the academic year 2020/21 as an online version.

The difficult situation at the time of the pandemic has not prevented the IZO from continuing research and activities - albeit virtually - and the Center can look back on an eventful year. The following pages will give you an insight into the activities of the center under the difficult conditions of the pandemic.

The complete report in German and English can be downloaded here:

In November 2021 Cornelia Storz, together with Marcus Conlé, Henning Kroll and Tobias ten Brink, published an article in the Journal of Technology Transfer (JOTT). Technology transfer in Europe and Asia is a subject that receives much attention, especially from an economic and political perspective, because interesting transfer mechanisms have developed in these contexts. One instance is the University Satellite Institutes (USI), which feature large in China. Prof. Storz and her co-authors take a closer look at this contributor, which has been largely overlooked, taking as an example the situation in the Chinese province of Guangdong.

In the context of IZO research on Global East Asia, this project identifies an important mechanism largely neglected in innovation research, namely institutional proximity which helps to successfully implement technology transfer. This mechanism is shown to be of equal relevance to any successful innovation policy in our part of the world. JOTT was chosen advisedly for the publication of this article because of the journal's interest in both failed and successful policies of technology transfer. The article is an open access publication and is available under DOI (see below).

Policy consultation and direct public interaction with political decision makers play an important role in foregrounding the social relevance of Chinese and Asian Studies. It is for this reason that the IZO's Academic Coordinator, Bertram Lang, makes regular contributions to policy journals and to studies conducted by NGOs and public institutions.

When a controversial passage about non-profit organisations in the draft EU-China investment agreement became public in March 2021, the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament commissioned Bertram Lang to submit a study on the role of civil society in Europe's policy on China. In this study Mr Lang takes a critical look at the position of the European Commission and the European member states and makes specific suggestions on how expert knowledge in civil societies might be better integrated into European foreign and trade policy, so as to emphasize the European interest in an international order endorsed by a multiplicity of actors and to stress European values.

In a webinar chaired by Christina Sadeler on 8 December 2021, Bertram Lang and Reinhard Bütikofer, Member of the European Parliament and China expert of the Green Party, discussed the study's central arguments as well as options for future action with regard to the investment agreement which is currently on halt.

Addendum: The webinar is now freely accessible here.

On 29 November 2021 Professor Barry Naughton, chair of Chinese International Affairs at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy, took part in two events organised by IZO at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften in Bad Homburg. Under the title "China Summer 2021: From Industrial Policy to Comprehensive Steerage?" Naughton discussed the spate of far-reaching regulatory measures and radical reforms launched in recent months by the leadership of the Communist Party of the People's Republic of China.

In the afternoon, following a discussion with IZO research staff and guests, Prof. Naughton was available for the many questions of junior researchers from the recently established IZO Early Career Researcher Network. This opportunity for an informal exchange of ideas was eagerly seized upon and the discussion about Naughton's research work as well as the future perspectives of research about and in China could easily have exceeded the three hours that had been allocated for this.

We would like to extend our thanks to Barry Naughton for this inspirational debate and we look forward to further meetings of the IZO ECR network in the months ahead.