Abstract
Notions of risk and the risk society have largely been conceptualized and developed in Western social and policy contexts. Risk and Public Policy in East Asia then, which reframes new social risks in terms of East Asian societies that have followed contrasting socioeconomic development pathways, is a particularly salient and welcome contribution to the literature. Welfare states emerged among industrial societies as a means to insulate individual citizens from social and economic vicissitudes, with public policies representing means by which governments regulate and manage economic and environmental dangers. East Asia provides a fascinating context to examine the management of social risks, as these societies have historically dealt with them, by supporting intensive economic growth and the family welfare pillar rather than expanding the caretaker role of the state. The extension of traditional welfare states has thus been contained, and processes and perceptions of individualization restrained, in favor of alternative mechanisms of risk management.
The concerns of this volume are the “new social risks” that have come to the fore along with post-industrialization and recent rapid socioeconomic changes, undermining stable economic growth, employment conditions, and the security of the family. In recent decades, East Asian societies have been rocked by regional and global economic shocks that have destabilized the base of traditional welfare mechanisms and reframed understandings of, and vulnerability to risk.
As an edited volume, the book focuses on three areas of risk and public policy: family, work, and governance. After a thorough introductory chapter followed by a two-chapter initiation to risk theories and concepts, the remaining 13 chapters are broken into three sections that deal with these three respective areas of policy and risk. Individual chapter contributions cover Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in most, but not all, sections. There is thus some geographical selectivity. Indeed, there is little detailed concern with Singapore, which is surprising, considering Singapore is a particularly influential policy model in the region, especially in regard to the role of the Central Provident Fund and the Housing Development Board as social regulatory and risk management mechanisms. Also lightly treated are the more recently advanced East Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam, or more notably the largest economy in the region, China. Arguably, the reference to East Asia in the title indicates (most of) the more developed economies rather than being a comprehensive overview of the region—not surprising considering the scale of such a task and that this is already quite a dense tome.
Each section includes chapter contributions focused on a specific issue in a specific country, typically written by a local expert in that field. Each section is furthermore concluded with a summary of, and a commentary on, the overall contribution of the chapters in that section. For example, the section on family change and risk is summed up by Lillian Lih-rong Wang in Chapter Eight. Here she considers the four chapters on Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in terms of how families have been changing, to what extent the family has been explicitly or implicitly defined in policy, and how governments have reacted to the growing fragmentation of households and families by either reinforcing the family pillar or extending the welfare rights of individuals, or combinations of both. Chapters 12 and 16 provide similar summaries of employment and socioeconomic security, and risk and governance. These briefings vary slightly in length and style, but provide some sort of reflexive point from which to reconsider preceding chapters. While they also tend to make the book lengthier and heavier going, the construction of the book in relatively self-contained sections creates a coherence that is often lost in edited volumes which otherwise tend toward fragmentation. They also provide a means to reflect on the core themes of the book: the emergence of new social risks, the impact of context and international divergence, and the role of public policy.
This volume is indeed a valuable contribution to both public policy and risk society literatures. It engages with a range of countries traditionally neglected in debates on risk, providing detailed insights on different public policy spheres and the implications of recent socioeconomic changes. It also provides a useful means to reconsider assumptions drawn from the Western contexts that dominate understandings of post-industrial modernity and new social risks. It is interesting to note that Japan’s triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima Daiichi radiation leak) happened shortly after the publication of this text, bringing to the fore the various dimensions of risk and public policy that this book set out to illuminate.
In some respects, however, the book is a little overdone. It derives, as the editors explain, from a conference organized at City University Hong Kong in 2008, which explains perhaps why there are so many contributions as well as commentaries. The editors seem to have pursued an inclusive strategy, meaning that rather than trying to condense the ideas and analysis, and thereby avoid repetition, everyone seems to have been given the chance to contribute a chapter. Furthermore, while the book represents both social theory and policy practice, the shift back and forth between the two is not always well balanced. A thinning out and focusing of this 234-page text would have considerably helped the reader to understand the significance of its contribution. It is nonetheless a salient work that will advance understanding in this growing field of interest.