On July 18, 2025, the \Modernization of British Social Governance Academic Seminar\ and the launch of the new book series \Research on British Social Governance\ funded by the National Publishing Fund were held at the School of History, Beijing Normal University. The event was hosted by the School of History, Beijing Normal University, and co-organized by Nanjing Normal University Press.

The \Series on the Study of British Social Governance\ is edited by Professor Guo Jiahong from the School of History at Beijing Normal University, and is divided into ten volumes. The content covers ten major social governance issues during the period of social transformation in the UK, including the development of medical service mechanisms, the consumer revolution and social transformation, the construction of crime punishment mechanisms, the establishment of food and drug safety systems, changes in public health management systems, the development of life insurance systems, the transformation of trade policy systems, animal disease prevention and management, local judges and local governance, and the development of primary education management mechanisms. These are all focal topics encountered in the social governance processes of countries around the world. Organizing, examining, and publishing these topics will help provide historical paths and practical references for the construction of contemporary Chinese government governance systems, and has strong practical significance.

National Publishing Fund project \Series on British Social Governance Studies\

This series of books closely follows the national \14th Five-Year Plan\ for development, taking the United Kingdom, which was the first to embark on the path of modern industrialization and urbanization and successfully achieve social transformation in human history, as the research subject. It examines the major social issues encountered during the transition from traditional agricultural civilization to modern industrial civilization through special topic research, reflecting forward-looking, strategic, and holistic characteristics. It clarifies the basic process of actively promoting social governance system reforms in various fields in British society, reveals the development trends and objective laws of the construction of the British social governance system, and focuses on the mistakes that occurred in the governance process during the transformation period of British society, serving the national development strategy. The series consists of 10 volumes, covering ten key topics, broadening and deepening the research situation.

At the meeting, Fan Lishuang, Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of History at Beijing Normal University, Zhang Peng, Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman, and President of Nanjing Normal University Press, and Professor Cao Ruicheng, a representative of the authors of the \Series on British Social Governance Research,\ delivered speeches

President Zhang Peng pointed out that Beijing Normal University and Nanjing Normal University shine in the north and south, both advocating for a focus on reality and service to society. This series of books reveals the characteristics and lessons of the British social governance model, achieving an academic leap from \historical decoding\ to \empowering reality\ through the innovative development of interdisciplinary integration. During the project implementation, Nanjing Normal University Press has given high attention and support, with the president taking the lead to establish a key project working group, forming a team of senior editors and proofreaders with relevant academic backgrounds, and even designing a brand logo specifically. It is hoped that in the future, efforts will continue to strengthen the international dissemination of Chinese academic culture and contribute cultural strength to the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.

The author, on behalf of Professor Cao Ruicheng, expressed sincere gratitude for the efforts made by all parties during the compilation of the series, noting that this set of books brings together the strengths of many scholars, hoping to present the experiences and lessons of modern British social governance to readers in a more comprehensive manner.

Subsequently, Professor Qian Chengdan from the History Department of Peking University, Editor-in-Chief Zhang Peng, Professor Yang Gongle from the School of History at Beijing Normal University, and Series Editor Professor Guo Jiahong jointly unveiled the new book. On behalf of Nanjing Normal University Press, Editor-in-Chief Zhang Peng presented the series to the School of History at Beijing Normal University, represented by Vice Dean Professor Xu Chang.

inauguration ceremony

Book gifting segment

Book gifting segment之后，北京师范大学历史学院教授、丛书主编郭家宏详细介绍了丛书概况。他感慨，自2005年于剑桥大学访学起，就深深感受到研究英国社会治理问题的重要性，作为世界上第一个工业化、城市化国家，它的社会治理经验和教训特别值得总结，这套丛书的出版使他得偿所愿。他强调该书的出版不仅是多位学者的思想精华，也是构建中国世界史研究自主知识体系的一次尝试，更是北京师范大学历史学院有组织科研的重要实践，指出该丛书涵括的10本分册就像封面图片印制的探照灯一样，从不同角度考察了英国社会转型历程。

He also provided a brief introduction to the main content of each volume in the series.

Professor Guo Jiahong and others have written \The Modern British Public Medical Service System,\ which mainly focuses on the changes in the medical service system during the social transformation of the United Kingdom. They argue that modern British public medical service institutions and systems, including voluntary hospitals, poorhouse hospitals, mental hospitals, isolation hospitals, working-class medical mutual aid organizations, and pharmacies, are continuously improving, reflecting the transition of British public medical services from a charitable nature to a national-led universal service nature.

Professor Cao Ruichen's book \The Consumer Revolution and Social Transformation in Modern Britain\ discusses how consumption stimulates social development, emphasizing that the consumer society began to rise in the early 18th century, developed in the 19th century, and gradually perfected in the 20th century. The characteristics are that consumer revolutions have occurred in daily life areas such as diet, coal, cultural reading, clothing, and home leisure, which have greatly promoted Britain's trade growth, economic development, technological innovation, and social progress.

Professor Xu Zhiqiang's book \The Social Crime Governance in Modern Britain\ takes the issue of crime governance during the transformation period of British society as its entry point, with the changes in police and other management systems as the main thread, and the comprehensive management of urban crime as the hidden thread. It argues that in the context of the traditional crime governance model in the UK facing challenges, to better address social crime issues, Britain gradually established a bureaucratic, professional, and efficient crime governance system.

Professor Wang Guangkun's work \Public Health Management in Modern Britain\ examines the construction, development, and maturation of the public health management system in modern Britain. It emphasizes that its management model gradually shifted from relying on the professional skills of engineers and medical experts to valuing government decentralization guidance. In terms of management philosophy, it mainly shifted from focusing on \environmental health\ to \medical services,\ and then further shifted to a decentralized administrative control that takes into account both environmental and medical health.

Professor Chu Qingdong's work \Modern British Magistrates and Local Governance\ discusses the significant role of modern British magistrates in the governance of local societies. It emphasizes that the group of magistrates was the power center of local government in early modern Britain, acting as managers of local societies with authority covering judiciary, economy, and social aspects. The diligence of this group directly relates to the strength and effectiveness of national policies in local practice.

The book \Modern British Food and Drug Safety Governance\ written by Associate Professor Lan Jiaocai is related to modern British food and drugs and social livelihood issues, discussing the regulation of food and drugs by British society and the industry itself, and sorting out the practice of British society and government in defending food and drug safety. It is believed that under the leadership of the state, through the joint participation and close cooperation of relevant stakeholders in society, a relatively mature and comprehensive food and drug safety supervision system has been constructed.

Associate Professor Sun Ying's book \The Transformation of British Trade and Commerce Policy in Modern Times\ focuses on the transformation of British trade and commerce policy since the late 19th century. It argues that due to the inability to solve new problems emerging in the fields of economy, trade, and empire, Britain's traditional free trade policy began to be questioned. With the successive emergence of the tariff reform movement from 1903 to 1906, World War I, and the economic crisis of 1929, Britain began to reset tariffs and implement trade protection policies.

Associate Professor Zang Shulei's work \Voluntary Associations and Elementary Education in the UK\ elucidates the relationship between elementary education in the UK and national governance. It points out that following the Industrial Revolution, the demand for education in the UK surged, and voluntary associations could no longer meet the growing needs for elementary education, leading to state intervention. However, the significance and influence of voluntary associations in the governance of elementary education are substantial, providing valuable experience for the state-led education management system.

Gao Feng, a research librarian, wrote \Modern British Life Insurance and Social Change\ which identifies the significant factors that drove the emergence of the British insurance industry, introducing changes in the main body, patterns, and legislation of insurance consumption. It is believed that the British insurance industry originated after the Industrial Revolution, with the most representative and fastest-developing being the commercial life insurance industry, emphasizing that this industry had a comprehensive and profound impact on the creation of the subsequent British national insurance system.

Dr. Lv Fuyuan's \The Epidemic and Prevention of Animal Diseases in Modern Britain\ examines the management of animal diseases in the process of urbanization and industrialization in Britain. It points out that since modern times, with the increasing shift in population nutrition towards meat and dairy, the agricultural focus on animal husbandry, the prosperity of imported livestock and their products from overseas, and the rise in pet keeping, animal diseases have frequently occurred in Britain. In response, Britain has gradually established a relatively effective mechanism for the prevention and control of animal diseases.

The guests at the meeting then engaged in an open and enthusiastic discussion and exchange on the series of books and the modernization of British social governance. Professor Qian Chengdan from the History Department of Peking University pointed out that the scale of each book in this series is considerable, which has promoted the deepening of British history research in our country. This academic achievement is inseparable from the development of China's world history discipline and should continue to inherit the spirit of \sitting on a cold bench\ in academic research. He believes that there is currently a problem of \fragmentation\ in Western historiography, whose biggest characteristic is to weaken the importance of systems and theories, and there is a \deconstructive\ tendency in historical research. Chinese world history scholars should adhere to their own characteristics and advantages and not blindly imitate.

Professor Yang Gongle from the School of History at Beijing Normal University pointed out that the authors of this series of books have inherited the spirit of the predecessors in the field of British history research, and have jointly written outstanding results, which is an important event in the research and publication of British history in our country. This series of books is grand in scale and systematic in content, including topics closely related to the livelihood of modern British society, such as the public medical service system, food and drug safety, social epidemic prevention and control, as well as education, economic trade, and crime governance. The topics are closely linked, with focused and distinct themes, adhering to a problem-oriented research approach, and deeply analyzing the experiences and lessons in the process of British modernization, which is pioneering and of great significance. He emphasized that academic research should establish a distinctive school, forming an organized, targeted, core, and scaled academic ecological space; scholars must produce ideas, not just list historical events; they should do distinctive and meaningful historiography to achieve the ultimate goal of \learning from history\; he believes that academic research needs continuous innovation, not the pursuit of \fragmentation\ and \homogenization\, and hopes that the young scholars involved in the writing of the series will have this awareness and implement it.

Researcher Xu Zairong, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the \World History\ magazine at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that a series of organized book research can promote the specialization of British history research and is worth learning for scholars of other national histories. Historians must have a sense of problem awareness and real-world concern, and can promote the study of modernization from the perspective of world history. At the same time, this series of books is also an example of regional country studies. Regional country studies need to strengthen cooperation with world history scholars, and it is hoped that in the future, there will be further progress in integrating the study of ancient history, medieval history, and modern history. He emphasized that academic research needs to have a certain degree of non-utilitarianism, and all scholars need to have academic awareness and academic responsibility.

Professor Liu Cheng from the School of History at Nanjing University believes that this series of books demonstrates the Chinese perspective of 21st-century Chinese scholars in studying British history, representing the trend and high level of British history research. In the current social context, the study of world history urgently needs organized, interdisciplinary research, but such research also needs to closely follow specific themes, keeping pace with the times in line with national development strategies and international situation changes. The writing and publication of this series of books reflect this trend and are particularly worth advocating. Professor Liu Jinyan from the School of History at Nanjing University points out that social governance is an important aspect of national governance. The UK is the world's first urbanized and industrialized country, and the government's handling of many new social issues is particularly worth referring to and learning from, which can provide considerable enlightenment for the development of Chinese-style modernization. He emphasizes that this series of books meets the needs of national strategy, providing reference experience for the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities, while also adhering to academic inheritance and forming a large-scale series of works.

Professor Song Lihong from the School of Humanities at Tsinghua University believes that the 10 volumes of this series are all substantial and profound in depth, and the themes are also relatively concentrated and systematic. For a country with a large number of immigrants like the UK, social history research on the government's perception of crime and the management of criminals related to it is very meaningful. Professor Jiang Shuming from the School of History and Culture at Nanjing Normal University, starting from his own academic experience, points out that the exchange and interaction among scholars of all ages are very necessary. He emphasizes that young scholars should have academic ambitions, actively promote and inherit the excellent research traditions left by their predecessors, and this series of books is a model that can provide an exemplary force for subsequent organized scientific research activities. Professor Zhang Yadong from the School of Marxism at Hunan University of Technology points out that the modernization of national governance capacity is an extremely important practical concern for the Chinese government, and this series of books reflects a highly refined and precise sense of problem awareness. He believes that after the 20th National Congress of the Party, social governance issues have become a concern of the times, and the topics selected in this series are very caring for reality. Researcher Hu Chuansheng from the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences points out that this series of books takes into account both macro and micro perspectives, has academic depth, is well-produced, and is an excellent interdisciplinary work, reflecting the integration of history, political science, and sociology, and has enlightening significance for other disciplines. It is the result of Chinese world history scholars' deep academic research.

Professor Huang Guangyao from the History Department of Jiangsu Second Normal University believes that this series of books has strong professionalism, systematically analyzes the gains and losses in the process of modernization in the UK, condenses the years of effort of all participants, and discusses certain issues with timeliness and universality, such as food safety and public health. He also pointed out that the structure and framework logic of the series are relatively rigorous, and many studies involve issues that still exist in today's world. Professor Jin Yan from the School of Marxism at Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications also pointed out that the topics of the series are very concerned with reality, such as life insurance, public health, medical services, and food safety issues during the transformation period of British society, which are related to many issues that still exist today and are closely related to ordinary people, reflecting the keen insight of Chinese world historians and having reference significance. Professor An Ran from the School of History at Beijing Normal University believes that the problem consciousness of this series of books has timeliness, forward-looking, and universality, and is a development issue that countries around the world are concerned about together. Some issues still appear repeatedly in the history of developed countries, and sometimes the means of solving problems become the problem itself, which is closely related to the periodicity and complexity of historical development. She emphasized that in today's era where global history research has become a new trend, historical scholarship needs to pay more attention to structural research and comparative research, providing a mirror for regional country studies and the modernization of China's social governance with a comprehensive global perspective.

学术讨论后，这套丛书的各位作者和前来参会的诸多媒体记者也进行了深入细致的交流。“英国社会治理现代化学术研讨会”暨National Publishing Fund project \Series on British Social Governance Studies\新书发布会至此圆满落幕。

Group photo of participants

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