The Engaging State

The global financial crisis has highlighted the critical importance of Australia's engagement with the United States and the industrialising giants of Asia. In particular Australia's exports to China and India have helped to insulate the nation from some of the worst consequences of the downturn elsewhere in the world. Increasingly, sub-national governments such as South Australia's are engaging directly with the region in an attempt to strengthen economic ties. The Engaging State shines a light on emerging forms of engagement in the Asia-Pacific century.

John Spoehr is the Executive Director of the Australian Workplace Innovation and Social Research Centre at The University of Adelaide. He is a political economist specialising in research on work, in-equality and society. His previous books with Wakefield Press include Beyond the Contract State: Ideas for social and economic renewal in South Australia, Power Politics: The electricity crisis and you, State of South Australia: Trends and issues and State of South Australia: From crisis to prosperity. He is currently working on new edition of State of South Australia.

Purnendra Jain is Professor in Asian Studies at the University of Adelaide. Author and editor of 12 books and numerous scholarly articles on contemporary Asian politics and foreign policy issues, his latest co-edited books are Japan in Decline: Fact or fiction?, Japanese Politics Today: From karaoke to kabuki democracy and Japan’s Strategic Challenges in a Changing Regional Environment. A former President of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia, he is currently President of the Asian Studies Association of Australia.