“Evolution and Challenges in Local Governance in Asia”
July 21 – August 11, 2021 – Virtual Program
The third APSA Asia Workshop was conducted as series of weekly zoom sessions from mid-July through mid-August 2021. Maria Ela Atienza (University of the Philippines, Diliman, Philippines), Allen Hicken (University of Michigan, USA), Yuko Kasuya (Keio University, Japan), and Sarah Shair-Rosenfield (University of Essex, UK) co-led the workshop. Twelve Ph-D students and early-career scholars attended as fellows, representing universities across East and Southeast Asia, Europe, as well as the United States.
Consisting of weekly sessions held over 5 weeks, the program brought together co-leaders and fellows to advance research related to local governance and decentralization across Asia. Through a robust set of readings (see schedule and syllabus), attendees examined the heterogeneous experiences and outcomes associated with local governance and decentralization programs designed to devolve authority from central governments to subnational and local levels. In addition to exploring local governance in Asia, co-leaders provided preliminary feedback on fellow’s research papers. The program also included professional development sessions on publishing, networking, and addressed various challenges faced by early-career researchers.
Following their participation in the full program, alumni received 2 years’ membership to APSA and are eligible to apply for small research grants.
Attending the workshop were:
- Chao-Yo Cheng – London School of Economics and Political Science
- Ai En Isabel Chew – University of British Columbia
- Jan Robert Go – University of the Philippines
- Xin Han – University of Pittsburgh
- Sol Iglesias – National University of Singapore
- Charles McClean – Harvard University
- Matthew Ordonez – Shanghai Jiao Tong University
- Pak Wan Major Pau – The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Nathan Peng – University of British Columbia & Singapore Management University
- Heng Xu – Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- Anju Yamada – University of Tübingen & The University of Tokyo
- Ruosui Zhang – Waseda University