In the past nearly three years CCPN has been very well supported by it members, core members, Academic Advisory Committee members and everybody who helped us. The review report below will sketch its general achievement and usefulness for the School and the MSc Programme for China in Comparative Perspective.
I. What has the CCPN achieved?
Since the CCPN website was launched in 2008 it has successfully demonstrated its usefulness in promoting LSE China related studies and activities nationally and globally. From its foundation one of its purposes has been to link all the China research being conducted at LSE and to give it a web-based profile. This includes:
• LSE China experts, LSE staff with research interests, projects and publications including dissertation titles on China since the 1920s;
• listings of taught courses on China at LSE, China-related events and seminars, and all the China related activities and relations with Chinese universities of the School
• on line resources on China studies as reference.
The latest Web Services statistics record an average of more than 300 visits to the CCPN website per day for the last 12 months (May 2010 - April 2011), more than double that of all 6 other relevant LSE websites put together, see table below:
II. How useful is the CCPN to the School?
1. CCPN's International Collaborative Research Base (ICRB) is a useful tool for fund-raising and operating projects for China related studies. Since we started to develop the CCPN website, especially after official launch of the CCPN in 2008, we have successfully applied for and coordinated the following bids for funding:
• Globalization and villagers' autonomy in China (2005-07), funded by the British Academy [funded through the LSE];
• Social-cultural factors, ethnic minority entrepreneurial orientation and firm growth: a comparative study of Turkish and Chinese small firms in the UK (2006-08), with other universities, funded by the ESRC;
• Value orientation in entrepreneurs and local officials, and its role in the interactions which affect small firm growth in the Yangtze River Delta, China (2007-09) [funded by the LSE Seed Fund].
• Chinese entrepreneur relationships and global economics (2008-09), funded by the DIUS [funded through the LSE];
• China's governance models in the transitional period, with Northeastern University, China (2009-11), funded by the Ministry of Education of China;
• Qingli (social obligations of law embedded in human feelings), a Keyword Special Project of 'In-Depth Study of China' (2009-10), with Fudan University;
• Comparative Studies on the 'New Migrants from BRIC counties in America, Australia, Japan and the UK', in a BRIC migrant studies project (2009-12), in collaboration with several Universities, funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Mr Gus Stewart, the former Director of the RPDD, has described himself as 'hugely impressed by the success of these research funding applications.'
2. In order to enhance the quality of comparative research on China, as an off-shoot from the CCPN we are launching the Journal of China in Comparative Perspective (JCCP). As an LSE flagship of social science comparative research, serving the whole LSE and beyond postgraduate and research community, the JCCP will be our representative and base for our research work in the long term. The CCPN website would include the proposed on line and print journal JCCP, which is currently being considered by Routledge, and also three working paper series for on line publication. They are:
• Bijiao: China in Comparative Perspective (ISSN 2043-0434)
• Bijiao, China in comparative perspective book review (ISSN 2045-0680)
• Bijiao: Network and Relationship Research (ISSN 2044-1975)
Kent and Stephan are co-editing an issue of the Bijiao: China in Comparative Perspective; Geoffrey Gowlland, the Review Editor, is editing the Bijiao, China in comparative perspective book review; Xiangqun is co-editor with Professor Xiaowei Zang, Sheffield University, for the working paper set Bijiao: Network and Relationship. CCPN RA Jaan Soone, a former MSc CCP student, is co-editing the set of Working Paper Series of selected dissertations by the previous MSc CCP students.
3. The CCPN is the only network in the world with a core focus on 'networking'. Our sub-network Chinese Relationship and Network Studies Network (CRNSN). One of the core projects is interpersonal relationship research, especially entrepreneur relationships, a topic common to every culture and society. Its aims are to further the work of researchers interested in the study of interpersonal relationships, and provide a platform on which ideas and practices specific to Chinese culture can be identified and compared. It will stimulate interdisciplinary research on Chinese interpersonal relationships internationally, and comparison with other cultural practices of interpersonal relationships; generate a series of potential research projects based on related themes as well as projected advances in theory and methods; and afford research-based understanding of these relationships in areas of practical value to government agencies and business consultants.
4. CCPN is an interdisciplinary platform for academic and related networking activities. CCPN organised more than 40 seminars, workshops, public lectures, and conferences specializing in local work on major issues, mainly involving Chinese scholars and researchers carrying out fieldwork in China. They complement similar events organized by SOAS, University of Westminster, Kings, UCL, and other universities in London. The conference and seminar series in December 2010 to commemorate the centenary of Professor Fei Xiaotong's birth was very well received internationally. CCPN was also one of the organizations that initialised the very successful China Development Forum (CDF) and has been its supportive collaborator.
5. CCPN has set up a "Researcher Fostering Laboratory" that allows researchers and students to develop skills by participating in real projects. Among its researchers, Dr Xi Lin, who obtained a PhD from Department of Government, LSE in 2008, successfully applied for a research project in China under our guidance, and is participating in CCPN's collaborative project with Northeastern University (one of the very few cases of overseas participation in research on China's governance in the transitional period that has been allowed.) Here is an example of feedback from our MSc student voluntary RAs: 'I have enjoyed being an RA for the CCPN, where I have been given a large amount of freedom in completing tasks in the way I have found best. Dr. Chang replies quickly to e-mails and has been patient when confronted with my questions. I am grateful for the opportunity to do research for the CCPN and glad to have been able to contribute to making a comprehensive website for the network'. --- Ingeborg Farstad, MSc China in Comparative Perspective
6. CCPN integrates Online Resources from a very significant quantity of existing materials, data and information available from China-related work within and outside LSE. The On line Resources are designed as a data source to provide a large amount of links to existing materials, data and information available from interdisciplinary China related studies and work within and outside LSE. Our aim is to build one of the largest on line databases on China studies and related information. Since the CCPN is migrating to the School's new Website system much new data not yet shown on the website will become available when the migration is completed.
7. In addition to academic events, the CCPN engages in knowledge transfer and public engagements, e.g.
• China-Europe Dialogue on Society with the China-Europa Forum;
• Help to the LSE Students Union China Development Society (CDS) in establishing the first China Development Forum;
• Regular participation in the London Universities Chinese Debate Tournament
The above activities are very much in accordance with the HEFCE's strategy "third stream as second mission".
8. CCPN is the only website in the world offering Chinese and English bilingual content for social scientific studies on China, helping to halt the decline in modern language learning that "threatens the future of the UK's research base" according to the British Academy's report . Since CCPN was launched we have opened the use of the venue for students and academics to gain information as well as to improve their Chinese language in social sciences. According to feedback from MSc students and PhD students on China, the methods and materials available at the Language Centre and CIBL are of little help to their understanding of social scientific studies in Chinese. This is not surprising, since teachers of Chinese are language graduates, well able to teach their students Chinese language skills, but unable to help them to use language effectively in communication within social and cultural studies' contexts. CCPN's efforts to provide bilingual contents have already benefited those who want to learn Chinese for social science at the School and beyond.
9. CCPN takes every opportunity to facilitate its community's needs, including a Research Interests Blog and Discussion Board which have won the interest and approval of Mr Stephen Emmott, Head of Web Services.
The CCPN and JCCP's efforts have been well recognized both by the School and by academics internationally. The Asia Research Centre Management Committee was considering to use some of the CCPN resources to build the School's China Programme website. The CCPN website is at the top of 'Related links' on LSE China. On the CCPN website there are very generous endorsements on the CCPN and endorsements on the JCCP from scholars around the world.
III. How useful is the CCPN to the MSc CCP students?
The CCPN is an excellent utility for MSc China in Comparative Perspective students. All its functions are useful to the MSc students, in particular:
• It has helped recruit students through publicising the Programme. The web profile shown above demonstrate that it is very frequently accessed.
• Anecdotally we have found that for Chinese students in particular on the MSc it has been a major attraction. The carefully bilingual nature of the site, and its interest in the links between Chinese and western academic work, have a very positive effect.
• It is a useful resource for its large number of users but in particular for the MSc students, who benefit from its content and its links for their essays.
• When the authors' permission has been granted, the best dissertations (those with Merit or Distinction) will be published as working papers on line in CCPN, where comments will enable the ex-student to develop the dissertation into a publishable article.
• Many MSc students attend the seminars, workshops and conferences that the CCPN has organised through CCPN and her many academic contacts, both national and international. The broad cross-cultural links thus highlighted are particularly relevant to the MSc topic and make a rich informal addition to the formal course material.