This volume presents leading edge research into the disparate economies of Asia, and considers the dynamics and developments of those economies and their implications for the emerging global economy. Global Change is based on debates that took place at the second Global Change conference at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1998. The conference captured the Asian economic crisis as it was happening, enabling both the causes and effects of the crisis to be analysed by researchers, practitioners and key academics. The editors present here a selection of papers from the conference which focus on Asia's impact in the twenty-first century: ranging from the history of developments in Asia over the last thirty years and the changes in growth, to the processes of globalisation and its effects. The contributors are specialists in the Asian region, enabling them to analyse recent case evidence from an `insider' perspective.