{"product_id":"how-china-escaped-poverty-trap","title":"How China Escaped Poverty Trap","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE 2017 PETER KATZENSTEIN BOOK PRIZE\u003cbr\u003e\"BEST OF BOOKS IN 2017\" BY FOREIGN AFFAIRS\u003cbr\u003eWINNER OF THE 2018 VIVIAN ZELIZER PRIZE BEST BOOK AWARD IN ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow China Escaped the Poverty Trap\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e truly offers game-changing ideas for the analysis and implementation of socio-economic development and should have a major impact across many social sciences.\"\u003cbr\u003e― Zelizer Best Book in Economic Sociology Prize Committee\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcclaimed as \"game changing\" and \"field shifting,\" \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow China Escaped the Poverty Trap\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eadvances a new paradigm in the political economy of development and sheds new light on China''s rise.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow can poor and weak societies escape poverty traps? Political economists have traditionally offered three answers: \"stimulate growth first,\" \"build good institutions first,\" or \"some fortunate nations inherited good institutions that led to growth.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYuen Yuen Ang rejects all three schools of thought and their underlying assumptions: linear causation, a mechanistic worldview, and historical determinism. Instead, she launches a new paradigm grounded in complex adaptive systems, which embraces the reality of interdependence and humanity''s capacity to innovate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombining this original lens with more than 400 interviews with Chinese bureaucrats and entrepreneurs, Ang systematically reenacts the complex process that turned China from a communist backwater into a global juggernaut in just 35 years. Contrary to popular misconceptions, she shows that what drove China''s great transformation was not centralized authoritarian control, but \"directed improvisation\"—top-down directions from Beijing paired with bottom-up improvisation among local officials.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHer analysis reveals two broad lessons on development. First, transformative change requires an adaptive governing system that empowers ground-level actors to create new solutions for evolving problems. Second, the first step out of the poverty trap is to \"use what you have\"—harnessing existing resources to kick-start new markets, even if that means defying first-world norms.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBold and meticulously researched, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow China Escaped the Poverty Trap\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eopens up a whole new avenue of thinking for scholars, practitioners, and anyone seeking to build adaptive systems.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57317659148670,"sku":"NW9781501700200","price":92.85,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781501700200.jpg?v=1778722582","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/how-china-escaped-poverty-trap","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}