Research Clusters
The four research clusters of the School of East Asian Studies are organised under the White Rose East Asia Centre, each embracing prominent and evolving themes in research on East Asia. Each cluster includes multi- and inter-disciplinary approaches and combines and coordinates research activities from different disciplines, as well as straddling political boundaries in East Asia.
Each cluster represents an area of existing research strength and priority, and builds on the strong track record of language-based area studies and related multi- and inter-disciplinary research at both Sheffield and Leeds Universities.
Visit the White Rose East Asia webpage
Below is a summary of the current Research Clusters in the School of East Asian Studies, along with links to their individual webpages.
Business, Political Economy and Development
Directors: Professor Peter Buckley (Leeds) and Dr. Harald Conrad (Sheffield)
This cluster focuses on the development of and interactions between East Asia's political economies, which constitute one of the most dynamic areas of research today.
China's growth and the rapid transformation in the structures of Japan's economy pose great challenges to economists, political scientists and those in business and management studies seeking to explain the institutional dynamics and governance issues involved in the development of the East Asian economies.
Current changes in corporate management, state regulation, financial and consumer markets, and ownership structures are also setting the agenda for our business research on the region.
The effects of Foreign Direct Investment on national economies in the region is another core research theme.
Visit the Business, Political Economy and Development Cluster webpage
East Asian Identities and Cultures
Directors: Professor Xiaowei Zang (Sheffield)
This cluster works on the ethnic and religious, cultural, social and sexual/gender identities of East Asia's nation states have become central foci in the Centre's cultural studies research on China, Japan and East Asia, reflected in a strong interest in film, historiography, literature and music.
The cultural interrelationships in East Asia are profound, in both historical and current contexts, calling for the type of comparative, multi- and inter-disciplinary research environment provided.
The cluster is also examining the rise of Chinese and Japanese diasporas globally and within the East Asian region focusing in particular on cultural contrasts and identities. Research in this cluster additionally explores how consumer and corporate identities and cultures compete with national and political belonging.
The role of the artist, writer, film director, and others as cultural creator forms an important strand of research. Historical memory and elision in the cultural and ethnic construction of East Asian statehoods is also a core theme, as with Japanese historiography on WWII.
Visit the East Asian Identities and Cultures Cluster webpage
Social Change and Transition in East Asia
Directors: Dr Heather Zhang (Leeds) and Dr Peter Matanle (Sheffield)
This cluster examines major social upheavals in China, the main features of which are the rise of new poverty, new forms of social class formation, and huge internal and international migrations.
In Japan research focuses on the disintegration of social institutions and anomie of social relations and changing demographics. The cluster also currently examining the role of new middle classes in East Asia and issues of the cultural convergence of tastes, lifestyles and consumer preferences.
It additionally explores the theoretical conceptualisations of class and social stratification in East Asia and addresses the nexus of migration, poverty and public policy.
Visit the Social Change and Transition in East Asia Cluster webpage.
Regionalisation and Globalisation
Directors: Professors Glenn Hook (Sheffield) and Jeremy Clegg (Leeds)
This cluster promotes research into East Asia's regional institutions and their global roles, a particular strength in the Centre's research portfolio and a theme which reflects the rapid developments in the region´s economic regimes.
Regional integration, in terms of growing international trade, inward and outward investment flows and globalising labour markets, is also a major research strand.
The cluster continues to develop its current research on regional security, and on the recalibration of risk under the influence of globalisation. The historical antecedents of regionalism in the past two centuries are additionally core research themes.