Unusual Comparisons: New Area Studies and Caring for the Learning-Disabled in China and England

The article explores the everyday practice of public service delivery by comparingsocial care of people with learning disabilities in China and England and what wecan learn from insights from the New Area Studies. We address three researchquestions: How is trust-building influenced by the beliefs and practices of localactors? How are the dilemmas posed by trust building managed by both state andlocal actors? What is the role of diplomacy in trust building? In section 2, weprovide a rationale for our unusual comparison of China and England. In section 3,we summarise our theoretical approach of decentred governance and describe ourethnographic research method. In section 4, we describe the policy contexts oflearning disabilities in Southampton and S District, Hangzhou. In section 5, wereport our fieldwork on caring for those with learning disabilities. In section 6, wediscuss the difference and similarities between the two policy arenas, especiallyusing diplomacy to manage network relations. In section 7, we identify six lessonsfrom the research and we draw the key lessons for practitioners in both countries.We offer the concluding plausible conjecture that local networks in both countriesare a mix of hierarchy, markets and networks, and local actors in both networksmust find diplomatic ways of managing their encounters with the state.