This book, this work, is based on a 20-year engagement with China. Both as a visiting academic at universities in China, and as a teacher of Chinese students in Australia. This period has seen me reading up on China and keeping abreast of a profound change unfolding before my eyes. 

The book focuses on Innovation. Both Social and Technical.

I have been doing research on 'poverty reduction' in China. This work is secondary research on published works. I have been doing research on technical innovation in China. This work has involved field work. Visiting factories and design studios in China. 

I am focussed on change, new product development, and the work of industrial designers within manufacturing and social ecologies of practice. My intention in writing this book is to propose a place-based account of the challenges of enacting change and of getting things made.

This is a book aiming to make theory. So, I do not dwell on facts and give historical accounts. Yet, I want to capture the spirit of the 40 years of profound change and the discourse of method this period has crafted in the zeitgeist, in the minds of those who live in China on a daily basis. 

This is a book writing research project. About investigating a China that remains hidden from most people for a variety of reasons. For me a striking example is how collectivism and collaboration intersects in manufacturing, whether OEM, ODM, or OBM.