This study examines how a grassroots government in peri-urban China facilitated the rise of e-commerce as a driver of local development. Drawing on a single-case study of L Town in X County, based on multi-year fieldwork and more than 100 interviews, we identify three stages through which the local state cultivated this nascent industry: understanding the market through surveys and experiential learning; assisting the market by promoting industrial clustering, strengthening human capital, and reducing costs; and planning market upgrades by cultivating regional brands and increasing product value. Our evidence further suggests that officials’ motivations extended beyond career advancement and fiscal incentives: concerns with social reputation and local visibility complemented material considerations. By tracing how a resource-poor township government promoted a frontier industry without an established governance playbook, this study extends the literature on local state entrepreneurialism and sheds light on state–market relations in China's rural e-commerce boom.
Walter Isard, the founder of Regional Science, developed one of the most groundbreaking projects of the twentieth century, known as Isard’s “Dream”. In his vision, space represented a fundamental dimension of economic analysis and general equilibrium theory, which were largely neglected in classical and neoclassical literature. Factors like production location, transportation costs, market areas and urban structures were treated as endogenous variables in his framework, developed particularly in his book Location and Space-Economy (1956). Despite remaining initially in the background due to its methodological and conceptual complexity, Isard’s work has gained renewed relevance and inspired new theories thanks to the emergence of new technologies and analytical tools. From the New Economic Geography (NEG) to recent studies on agglomeration and urban systems, these developments can be interpreted as a partial realisation of Isard’s ambition: restoring space at the core of economic science and understanding the geography of economic life as an essential component of human development.
Max Weber’s ‘iron cage of bureaucracy’ is one of the most famous metaphors in social science and has left an indelible mark on organizational analysis. There is a problem, however. Weber never mentioned an ‘iron cage’ or an ‘iron cage of bureaucracy’. This is a mistranslation of the German phrase stahlhartes Gehäuse by Talcott Parsons in the first English publication of The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism . It should read ‘shell as hard as steel’ or ‘steel-hard casing’. And it has nothing to do with bureaucracy. Could we be overlooking insights about contemporary workplaces that only a correct translation of Weber’s stahlhartes Gehäuse can reveal? Perhaps. I am not suggesting we abandon the ‘iron cage’ metaphor. My objective is simply to examine whether a literal reading of stahlhartes Gehäuse offers any additional insights for studying contemporary organizations.
Purpose: Research indicates that building schools and districts capable of problem solving and continuous improvement requires focused effort to develop internal capacity for organizational learning. As a field, however, we lack substantial evidence regarding the ways that this capacity manifests within education organizations and how it can be nurtured, sustained, and leveraged within the complex world of public schooling. This study explores how one team of school district leaders set out to build and nurture a culture of learning and improvement throughout their district. Methods: This study investigates an instrumental case of school district leaders building such a culture in their district. Through analysis of interviews with leadership team members, focus groups of improvement teams, and observations of key learning routines, we examine the values, beliefs, and norms of practice that frame a culture of organizational learning and improvement, and the practices leaders enacted to build it. Findings: Our analysis indicates that the culture of learning and improvement district leaders endeavored to create in their district rested on three elements: distributed leadership and shared authority, relational trust and collective efficacy, and an improvement mindset . Implications: Our findings support existing research indicating that the complex work of improvement rests on shared beliefs, values, and norms held by leaders and educators – and extend our understanding of how those elements of culture are both defined and operate interdependently. The findings also illuminate everyday practices and ways of work enacted by leaders as they supported the culture of improvement in their school district.
Professional learning and development (PLD) activities for Chinese kindergarten teachers have introduced imported knowledge to promote teaching and learning. Much PLD provision is led by leaders and experts rather than teachers. To understand the educational beliefs and power differences that surface among teachers, leaders and experts during PLD sessions and how teachers navigate this complex terrain, this paper presents a post-intentional phenomenological study involving seven participants from two Chinese early childhood settings. Data collection included semi-structured interviews, observations of PLD meetings and videos of teachers’ implementation of PLD ideas. Educational policies, PLD materials, and the researcher’s reflexive journal were also used for analysis. Analysis involved a line-by-line reading process where theoretical concepts, data and researcher reflexivity interacted. The findings reveal that teachers experienced tensions in relation to formal PLD sessions. These tensions stemmed from established values and hierarchical constraints that limited their joint reflection and actions. Our analysis, framed by the concepts of relational agency and in-between spaces, shows how teachers navigated these tensions. Despite these constraints, the teachers responded by creating opportunities for collaborative learning. They sought out informal situations where they had the flexibility to develop shared knowledge. We argue that Chinese teachers’ PLD can occur within and across such tensions and opportunities. These informal situations empowered teachers to enact relational agency by aligning their expertise to make PLD decisions. This process eased tensions and created space for collaborative learning. The study concludes that valuing these informal, teacher-initiated spaces is crucial for moving beyond top-down knowledge transmission and fostering sustainable professional growth in hierarchical educational contexts. Ultimately, by empowering teachers as collaborative and adaptable professionals, this model of PLD offers new insights into enhancing the professional environments that shape teaching practice and young children’s learning.
