ABSTRACT
I have carried this book project around on my travels. It has been constructed on the basis of lecture notes produced for classes which I have given in various universities, in particular the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), where I had a mix of local students, Hong Kongers in the main, and international students, mostly from America and Europe. The lecture courses were designed to introduce people to the dynamics of change in the region and to provide a base for their own further work. This book was begun in the delightful surroundings of CUHK, which is located on a hilltop in the New Territories, overlooking Tolo Harbour and at a distance the open sea. Further work was accomplished in the sometimes smoky environs of Beijing Normal University, located in a determinedly urban environment, some twenty minutes by foot from the Behai Lakes. Some further work was done in a trio of cafes in the neighbourhood of Ramkhamhaeng University in Bangkok; one of these was a familiar chain, albeit unusually spacious and civilized, the others independents, set amongst trees and flowers. And finally the basic text was completed whilst sitting in the spectacular new library of Jiangsu University, which is set amongst beautiful parkland surroundings in Zhenjiang on the Yangtze River. The book was finally finished back in England over the course of a rainy summer. The book grows out of teaching and research: the former noted, the latter available in a series of books, all addressing, one way or another, core preoccupations with the ways in which diverse groups of people make sense of their changing social circumstances.279
