GYM4470

Development and environment in Asia-Pacific and Australia

Dr Peter Marden

12 points
* 3 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton
* Prerequisites: Consult with lecturer

Objectives On the successful completion of this subject students should have gained an understanding of the social, political and environmental costs of rapid economic growth in Asia, and a grasp of the various competing approaches to Australia's role in the region.

Synopsis The Asia-Pacific region is recognised as a major area of growth, and Australia's future is increasingly seen as linked with this region. In this subject the causes of rapid growth are examined, and the role of Australia in the emerging division of labour in the Pacific region is evaluated. Of particular concern are the long-term development prospects of the `miracle' economies of Asia within the context of a changing global political-economy. Issues such as nationalism, super-power politics, and strategic interests are examined. Particular emphasis is given to the environmental implications of continued growth in the region. The political, social, and cultural dimensions of change are explored as well as the economic. Hence, issues of political culture are explored, particularly the changing nature of state and society relations in both the Asian and Australian contexts. Emphasis is placed on the social and cultural aspects of change with a specific focus on Australia's role in the region.

Assessment Written (6000 words): 65%
* Examinations (2 hours): 30%
* Tutorial: 5%

Prescribed texts

Milner A (ed.) Comparing cultures OUP, 1996

Recommended texts

Bello W People and power in the Pacific Pluto Press 1992
Bello W and Rosenfeld S Dragons in distress Penguin 1992
Daly M and Logan M The brittle rim Penguin 1989
Deyo F C (ed.) The political economy of the new Asian industrialisation Cornell U P 1987
Dirlik A (ed.) What is in a rim: critical perspectives on the Pacific region idea Westview Press, 1993
Evans G Cooperating for peace: The global agenda for the 1990s and beyond Allen and Unwin 1993
Evans G and Grant B Australia's foreign relations MUP 1991
Garnaut R Australia and the Northeast Asian ascendancy AGPS 1989
Harris S and Cotton J (eds) The end of the Cold War in Northeast Asia Longman 1991
Hewison K, Robinson R and Rodan G (eds) Southeast Asia in the 1990s Allen and Unwin 1993
Higgott R, Leaver R and J Ravenhill (eds) Pacific economic relations in the 1990s: Cooperation or conflict? Allen and Unwin 1993
Higgott R A and Robinson R (eds) South East Asia: Essays in the political economy of structural change RKP 1985
Jones E, Frost L and White C Comin full circle: an economic history of the Pacific rim OUP, 1993
Redclift M Sustainable development: Exploring the contradictions Methuen 1987