The People’s Republic of China, the so called “factory of the world,” is undergoing a re-novation from the ground up. Faced with rising labour costs, sluggish global demand and intensifying competition from neighbouring countries, China’s global lead in low value production is rapidly disappearing. But Chinese firms, in partnership with the state, have not been flat footed in the face of these challenges. Under the banner of the “Made in China 2025” plan, China is engaged in an ambitious effort to push Chinese industries up the value chain, a broad based initiative that encompasses domestic innovation policy, increased state financing of Chinese firms as well as overseas investment policy.

The course will focus on a number of core themes in the assessing China’s new growth model, including:

- Understanding the concepts of Industry 4.0 (past, present, future)

- Prospects of China’s state-led efforts in Industry 4.0: Analysis of policy aims and current and future challenges

- Sector analysis: smart manufacturing, clean tech, robotics.

- Regional analysis: local government case studies

- Social impacts of digital and high-tech growth

- Environmental impacts of digital and high-tech growth

- Global Impact

The course gives students an introduction to the main concepts and most recent empirical developments in high/tech Industry 4.0 in China. Classes will be a mixture of readings, group discussions, and group research projects. Students will be asked to conduct in groups a small research project on one of the seminars core themes: 1.) Policy analysis of Industry 4.0, 2.) sector or regional case studies, 3.) Industry 4.0 and social impacts and 4.) Industry 4.0 and environmental impacts. In a second step, students will be invited to join a small expert workshop on exactly those themes and to present their posters, which will take place in January 2018 at the FU Berlin. The expert workshop will allow students to engage directly with leading scientific experts from China and Europe and offers an opportunity to receive additional input to their group research project.

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