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Thomas Heberer

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For the German trumpeter, see Thomas Heberer (musician).
Thomas Heberer
CitizenshipGerman
EducationUniversity of Bremen (PhD)
OccupationSinologist
EmployerUniversity of Duisburg-Essen

Thomas Heberer (born 13 November 1947 in Offenbach/Main, Germany) is a German sinologist. He is senior professor of Chinese politics & society at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Education

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Thomas Heberer studied Social Anthropology (major), Philosophy, Political Science, and Chinese Studies in Frankfurt, Göttingen, Mainz and Heidelberg.

In 1977, Heberer completed his Ph.D. at the University of Bremen on the Mass Line concept of the Chinese Communist Party.[1] The same year he went to China, where he worked as an editor of the German section of the Peking Review in Beijing for more than four years (1977–81).[2] During this time, he witnessed China’s early reform and transformation process first-hand.[3]

Career

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Heberer worked from 1983 to 1985 as a research fellow with the Overseas Museum in Bremen (Übersee-Museum Bremen), where he was in charge of the Chinese Collection and established the museum’s permanent China exhibit. He was then appointed as a research fellow at the Institute of Geography of the University of Bremen and carried out a research project on the development of the private economic sector in China, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. His ensuing habilitation thesis dealt with the role of the informal economic sector of urban and social development in China. In 1989 he received the venia legendi, or authorization to lecture, in Political Science at the University of Bremen.[1]

From 1991 to 1992, Heberer served as a professor of Chinese Economic Studies at the University for Applied Sciences in Bremen.[1] From 1992 to 1998, he was a professor of political science with a focus on East Asian politics at the University of Trier.[1] From 1998 to 2013, he held a chair professorship of political science with a focus on East Asia at the University of Duisburg-Essen’s Institute of East Asian Studies.[1] Upon his retirement in February 2013, he was appointed Senior Professor of Chinese Politics and Society by the university president.[1] He continues to actively pursue research on China and its political and social development.[1]

Heberer has held visiting professorships at: Seoul National University, University of Washington; China Center for Comparative Politics and Economics; National Taiwan University and National Sun Yat-sen University; Zhejiang University; University of Vienna and Peking University.[1]

Thomas Heberer is on the editorial board of several academic journals, including the International Journal of Political Science & Diplomacy, The China Quarterly (until the end of 2021), the Journal of China in Comparative Perspective, the European Journal of East Asian Studies, the Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, the Journal of Chinese Governance, the Chinese Political Science Review, the International Quarterly for Asian Studies, the International Journal of Political Science & Diplomacy, and the journal 国外理论动态/Foreign Theoretical Trends. He is co-founder of the Association of Social Science Research on China (ASC) and was on the Advisory Board of the Europe-China Academic Network (ECAN) of the European Commission. Heberer was the founding director and co-director of the Confucius Institute "Metropole Ruhr" at the University of Duisburg-Essen from 2008 to 2021.[4]

In 1998 he hosted the “Second International Yi Conference” at the University of Trier, and in 2006 he organized a major exhibition on the history, culture, religion, and society of the Yi at the Duisburg Historical Museum. In 2000/2001 he collected 250,000 Deutsche Mark among several German institutions for establishing a primary school for Yi minority children in Meigu County including a scholarship program.[citation needed][5]

Heberer is active as a political consultant. Among other things, he has worked on issues such as urban diplomacy or academic and cultural exchange.[6][7][8]

Research

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Heberer conducted his first field research in 1981 on the issue of Chinese nationalities’ policies and development policies in ethnic minority areas among the Yi (Nuosu), one of the largest ethnic minorities in China, in the Liangshan Mountains in Southwestern Sichuan province.[9][10][11] He has continued to work on various aspects of the Yi society such as ethnic entrepreneur and environmental governance, and has been actively involved in creating academic and public awareness for the Yi minority.

Throughout the following decades, Heberer extended his research to study such diverse topics as the development of China’s private sector, rural urbanization and social change, the political and social role of private entrepreneurs in China and Vietnam, the diffusion of intellectual ideas into politics, environmental governance, urban communities (shequ), mobilized participation and co-production; administrative reforms; new patterns of governance in rural areas; and the agency of local cadres.[12]

Heberer has also examined the formal and informal political participation and organizational behavior of social groups in China. In the process, he has further developed the sociological concept of “strategic groups” in the context of both local cadres and entrepreneurial groups in China.[13] In addition, he studied social and policy innovations in China, and critical junctures of authoritarian systems. He also worked on new patterns of political representation from a comparative perspective, and on social disciplining and civilizing processes in the context of modernization.[citation needed][14][15][16]

Heberer describes China's robust state capacity as based on the following five factors: (1) the legitimacy of its political system as viewed by its citizens, (2) the ability to exercise social control and regulation, (3) coercive resources, (4) the capacity to consult and collaborate with emerging social groups and organizations to balance conflicting interests, and (5) the ability to learn from failures and mistakes.[17]

In an op-ed in September 2023 together with another German China scholar, Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, the authors opted for the release of sanctions against China because they considered the situation in Xinjiang as having shown "clear signs of a return to 'normality' ". After their statements met with criticism from within the German-speaking community of China scholars – which pointed in particular to the highly restricted environment in which the visit took place –, Heberer and Schmidt-Glintzer published another piece a week later in which they attempted to explain their trip.[18][19]

Selected publications

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Heberer has authored or co-authored more than 40 books and has also edited or co-edited more than 25 volumes in German, English and Chinese. His English book publications include:[20]

Books authored

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  • Heberer, Thomas (2003). Private Entrepreneurs in China and Vietnam: Social and Political Functioning of Strategic Groups. Brill China Studies. Translated by Gluckman, Timothy J. Brill (Leiden, Boston). ISBN 978-9004128576.
  • Fan, Jie; Heberer, Thomas; Taubmann, Wolfgang (2015). Rural China: Economic and Social Change in the Late Twentieth Century. Routledge. ISBN 0-7656-0818-9. First published by Armonk/London (M.E. Sharpe), 2006.
  • Heberer, Thomas (2014). Doing Business in Rural China: Liangshan's New Ethnic Entrepreneurs. University of Washington Press. ISBN 9780295993737. Softcover edition. First published by University of Washington Press, 2007.
  • Heberer, Thomas; Göbel, Christian (2011). The Politics of Community Building in Urban China. London/New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415597029. (paperback edition 2013).
  • Heberer, Thomas; Schubert, Gunter (2020). Weapons of the Rich. Strategic Action of Private Entrepreneurs in Contemporary China. Singapore/London/New York et al.: World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-12-1279-6.
  • Heberer, Thomas (2023). Social Disciplining and Civilising Processes in China: The Politics of Morality and the Morality of Politics. Routledge. ISBN 978-1032404363.

Books edited

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  • (co-edited by Claudia Derichs), The Power of Ideas – Intellectual Input and Political Change in East and Southeast Asia, Copenhagen 2006 (NIAS Press)[21]
  • (co-edited by Gunter Schubert), Regime Legitimacy in Contemporary China: Institutional Change and Stability, London/New York (Routledge) 2008[22]


He also attaches great importance to publishing in Chinese and presenting his work to a wider audience in China.[23]

On the occasion of his 70th birthday in 2017, Zhejiang University Press published a Chinese collection of Heberer’s major research articles on China (托马斯∙海贝勒中国研究文选), edited by the political scientist Yu Jianxing.

Among his book publications in Chinese are:

  • 作为战略群体的企业家. 中国私营企业家的社会与政治功能研究(Entrepreneurs as Strategic Groups. The social and political function of private entrepreneurs in China), Beijing (Zhongyang bianyi chubanshe) 2003.
  • 凉山彝族企业家. 社会与制度变迁的承载着 (Yi Entrepreneurs in Liangshan. Carriers of Social and Institutional Change), Beijing (Minzu chubanshe) 2005.
  • 从群众到公民. 中国的政治参与 (From Masses to Citizens. Political Participation in China), Beijing (Zhongyang bianyi chubanshe) 2009.
  • (co-edited by Dieter Grunow and Li Huibin), 中国与德国的环境治理比较的视角 (Environmental Governance in China and Germany from a Comparative Perspective), Beijing (Zhongyang bianyi chubanshe) 2012.
  • (co-edited by Gunter Schubert and Yang Xuedong), 主动的地方政治。作为战略群体的县乡干部 (Proactive Local Politics: County and Township cadres as Strategic Groups), Beijing (Zhongyang bianyi chubanshe), December 2013.
  • (co-edited by Yu Keping and Björn Alpermann), 中共的治理与适应：比较的视野 (Governance and Adaption of the CCP: A Comparative Perspective), Beijing (Zhongyang bianyi chubanshe) 2015.
  • 东普鲁士与中国——追溯一段不解之缘 (East Prussia and China: Tracing a wondrous relationship, Chinese Edition), Wuhan: Wuhan University Press 2022.

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h CV of Thomas Heberer
  2. ^ "Thomas Heberer: Die Beijing Rundschau und ich". 2008-07-24. Archived from the original on 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  3. ^ "Homepage of the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen".
  4. ^ Ahlers, Martin (2022-07-04). "Konfuzius-Institut: Prof. Thomas Heberer sagt Adieu". WAZ (in German). Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  5. ^ Die Yi gestern und heute. Chinas Volk der Großen Kühlen Berge. ed. by Kultur- und Stadthistorisches Museum Duisburg. 2006.
  6. ^ Heberer, Thomas; Shpakovskaya, Anna (2022). Urban Diplomacy in the 2020s: More than a Tale of Two Cities. City Diplomacy and Municipal Partnerships between Germany, Europe and China. Implications for North Rhine-Westphalia (PDF). Working Papers on East Asian Studies 133. Duisburg: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen.
  7. ^ Heberer, Thomas; Ahlers, Anna. "More Exchange at Eye-Level: European Research Cooperation with the People's Republic of China". Global Cooperation Research, Quarterly Magazine. 2021 (2): 19–23.
  8. ^ Heberer, Thomas (2023). Kulturelle und wissenschaftliche Zusammenarbeit mit China. Plädoyer für die Fortführung des Dialogs und Handlungsempfehlungen für Kooperationsvorhaben. Schriftenreihe des Instituts für Auslandsbeziehungen. Stuttgart.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ Heberer, Thomas (1984). Nationalitätenpolitik und Entwicklungspolitik in den Gebieten nationaler Minderheiten in China. Bremer Beiträge zur Geographie und Raumplanung. Bremen: University of Bremen.
  10. ^ Heberer, Thomas, ed. (1987). Ethnic Minorities in China: Tradition and Transformation. Aachen: Herodot.
  11. ^ Heberer, Thomas (1989). China and Its National Minorities: Autonomy or Assimilation?. Armonk and London: M.E. Sharpe.
  12. ^ 洪雅筠，從红色憧憬到田野现實 - 王海 (Thomas Heberer) 舆德國中國研究的轉型 (From the red expectation to field reality - Thomas Heberer and the transformation of sinology in Germany). Taipeh: Taiwan National University, Master Thesis at the Institute of Political Science. 2011.
  13. ^ See e.g. Thomas Heberer & Gunter Schubert - County and Township Cadres as a Strategic Group. A New Approach to Political Agency in China's Local State. Journal of Chinese Political Science, vol. 17 No. 3/2012: 221-249 Research Gate. Accessed January 8th, 2016.
  14. ^ Heberer, Thomas. "Representation in a context across political orders and the Chinese case". Journal of Chinese Governance. 2019 (4): 339–361.
  15. ^ Heberer, Thomas; Shpakovskaya, Anna. "Online Connective Representation in China. The Case of the Entrepreneurs". Asian Survey. 60/2020 (2): 391–415.
  16. ^ Heberer, Thomas (2023). Social Disciplining and Civilising Processes in China. The Politics of Morality and the Morality of Politics. Abingdon, New York: Routledge.
  17. ^ Meng, Wenting (2024). Developmental Peace: Theorizing China's Approach to International Peacebuilding. Ibidem. Columbia University Press. pp. 50–51. ISBN 9783838219073.
  18. ^ Heberer, Thomas; Schmidt-Glintzer, Helwig (2023-09-11). "Wenn es nach Peking geht, sollen sich die Verhältnisse in Xinjiang normalisieren" [According to Beijing, the situation in Xinjiang is returning to normal]. Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  19. ^ Sharma, Yojana (27 September 2023). "Row erupts over state-approved research trips in China". University World News. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  20. ^ Literature by and about Thomas Heberer in the German National Library catalogue
  21. ^ Thomas Heberer & Claudia Derichs - The Power of Ideas - Intellectual Input and Political Change in East and Southeast Asia. NIAS Press. Accessed 11. January 2016.
  22. ^ Thomas Heberer & Gunter Schubert - Regime Legitimacy in Contemporary China: Institutional Change and Stability. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Accessed 11. January 2016.
  23. ^ For instance: 托马斯•海贝勒， 俞可平，安晓波 （主编）：中共的治理与适应。 比较的视野。北京，中央编译出版社，2015; 托马斯•海贝勒，杨雪冬，舒耕德共同主编： “主动的”地方政治：作为战略群体的县乡干部“。北京 (中央编译出版社)， 2013年; 托马斯•海贝勒，迪特•格鲁诺，李惠彬共同主编：中国与德国的环境治理(比较的视角) (中文)。 北京 (中央编译出版社)， 2012年; 托马斯•海贝勒，舒耕德： 从群众到公民——中国的政治参与。北京 (中央编译出版社)， 2009年; 托马斯•海贝勒，何增科，舒耕德： 城乡公民参与和政治合法性，北京 （中央编译出版社），2007; 托马斯•海贝勒：凉山彝族企业家。 社会和制度变迁的承载者。 北京（民族出版社），2005; 托马斯•海贝勒：作为战略群体的企业家。中国私营企业家的社会与政治功能研究。北京(中央编译出版社) 2003.
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