Tuesday, September 29, 2015

[Publication] 大資本農場不能打敗家庭農場嗎? ——華南地區對蝦養殖業的資本化過程


黃瑜教授的文章"大資本農場不能打敗家庭農場嗎? ——華南地區對蝦養殖業的資本化過程"被刊登於《開放時代》2015年第5期。文章節錄如下:


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黃瑜

【內容提要】中國農業涉及的雇傭勞動比重之低,使得很多學者認為資本化並不必然帶來農民的無產化。本文通過揭示對蝦養殖業中農業資本從形式隸屬實際隸屬的轉變來反駁上述假設。在早期階段,由於自然的和社會的雙重障礙,資本只是通過壟斷產業鏈的上下游來榨取農民的價值。然而在近幾年,蝦農在經歷了幾場嚴重的蝦病侵襲之後,不得不放棄對蝦養殖,農業資本借機滲透進生產環節,從而最終完成了資本的實際隸屬。通過追蹤廣東雷州一個新興的對蝦養殖基地,本文探討農業資本如何完成土地流轉、技術控制和勞動監督以獲得反季銷售的高價,進而逐步淘汰家庭農場。這個分析有助於我們理解階級形成的動態過程以及農民無產化的軌跡。


Abstract The low ratio of hired labor in China’s agriculture has convinced quite a number of scholars that capitalization does not necessarily lead to proletariatization of the farmers. The author rejects this view by revealing the transformation of agricultural capitals from “nominal ownership” to “real ownership” in prawn aquaculture. In the early stage due to both natural and social obstacles, capitals can only extract the farmers’ values through monopolizing the production chain upstream and downstream. However, in recent years after a few bouts of catastrophic prawn endemic, prawn farmers have to give up prawn business. Agricultural capitals cash in on this situation and achieve “real ownership.” By tracing the development of a rising prawn aquaculture base in Leizhou, the author explores how agricultural capitals accomplish land transfertechnological control and labor supervisionand successfully mark up sales price in the low season. In this way, agricultural capitals are gradually driving household farms out of business. The analysis will give some insight into the dynamic process of class formation and the way in which farmers are being turned into proletariats.


《開放時代》網頁截圖

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英文版本:Wiley Online Library

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

[Upcoming Seminar] Risks, Resources and Allies: Sex Workers’ Strategies for Working with Other Sex Workers


Risks, Resources and Allies: Sex Workers’ Strategies for Working with Other Sex Workers

Speaker: Julie HAM
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 pm, 25 Sept 2015 (Friday)
Venue: Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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Working with others is generally recognized as an important safety strategy for sex workers, yet the ability to choose who one works with remains criminalized in various jurisdictions (e.g. Canada). Public and policy debates regarding if sex workers can or should work with others contrasts with the relative lack of research on how sex workers work with others in the sex industry. Interviews with 65 migrant, immigrant and racialized women sex workers in Vancouver, Canada and Melbourne, Australia revealed three different views that informed sex workers’ workplace relationships with other sex workers – as risks, resources or allies. This presentation explores how these perspectives of workplace dynamics shaped workers’ understanding of the sex industry and work practices.

Julie Ham is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong. Her recent research explores the regulation of sex work and migration and its impact on sex workers’ security, mobility and agency. She has published on sex work, anti-trafficking, gender and migration, feminist participatory action research, and activist efforts by trafficking survivors, sex workers and domestic workers.

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME.




Monday, September 21, 2015

[In the press] 垃圾圍城——中國高速城市化背景下的垃圾治理困境


本系哲學博士生張劼穎的文章「垃圾圍城——中國高速城市化背景下的垃圾治理困境被刊載於《澎湃新聞》的思想市場(2015年6月17日),文章的節錄如下:


過去三十年,中國創造了驚人的經濟奇跡,隨著工業化和城市化的迅速發展,民眾的消費生活也發生了史無前例的革命:消費品種類繁多,不斷推陳出新。一次性用品、智慧電子產品在帶給人們便利生活的同時,他們短暫的使用週期也製造了大量的垃圾;繁多的商品還帶來多種包裝物,它們則在以更快的速度完成從商品到垃圾的轉變;而在“刺激內需”、“電器下鄉”,“結婚要有房和車”等夢想口號的感召下,更多的商品被生產出來,而刺激消費也意味著刺激“丟棄”。消費有快感,丟棄似乎也是一種樂趣,在時尚和潮流面前,“丟棄”不一定是因為商品不再具有使用價值,人們更多的是通過“丟棄”和消費的行為在塑造著消費者的新身份,但與此同時,大量的城市“固體廢棄物”(municipal solid waste)也被製造出來。

根據世界銀行的報告,2004年中國固體廢棄物年產1.9億噸,已經取代美國,成為了全世界第一的垃圾生產大國。到2012年,據《中國城市建設統計年鑒》的統計,全國的生活垃圾總量已經增加到了2.39億噸。儘管垃圾生產量如此巨大,卻並未引起太多人的注意——或許更多的時候,人們甚至將此當作一個發展的指標。但不可輕視的是,垃圾已經構成了中國環境治理和城市管理的一個嚴峻挑戰,國外學者更是將生活垃圾帶來的問題稱為城市化過程中的“廢棄物危機”。從08年至今,筆者持續關注和研究與垃圾相關的問題,並在北京和廣州兩座城市做田野調查,對象包括普通市民、環保人士、城市管理工作人員、相關科研人員、相關企業家、清潔工人、拾荒者、廢品收購站經營者等,本文將基於此檢視中國當下的垃圾問題以及與之相關的社會和文化現象。

《澎湃新聞》網頁截圖

澎湃新聞閱讀全篇文章 。

(首發表於《文化縱橫》20156月號,題目為“中國高速城市化背景下的垃圾治理困境”。)

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

[Pakistani Culture Workshop] The Pakistani Community in Hong Kong: An overview


The Pakistani Culture Workshop of Multiculturalism in Action will organize a public seminar on 26 Sept, 2015 (next Saturday). The seminar topic is "The Pakistani Community in Hong Kong: An overview", and the speakers are Prof. Raees Baig from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Prof. Paul O'Connor from Lingnan University.



Details of the seminar are as follow:
Date: 26 Sept, 2015
Time: 2:30PM–4:30PM
Venue: Room 239, Sino Building, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

All are welcome. Due to limited seats, please register on or before 23 Sept 2015

Enquiry / Registration: Ms. Connie Lee (lee-connie@cuhk.edu.hk).

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Friday Seminars Schedule (Fall 2015)


The Friday seminars schedule of this semester is out. Don't forget to mark down the dates on your calendar!

Seminars in this semester will take place at 1:00P.M.2:30P.M. at Room 401, Humanities Building, CUHK (except on 18 September and 20 October).


Friday Seminar Schedule (Fall 2015)

The first activity is the launch party of Prof. Teresa Kuan's book Love's Uncertainty: The Politics and Ethics of Child Rearing in Contemporary China. If you still haven't register for the event, make sure you do it on or before 13 September.

We look forward to seeing you at the book launch party and the seminars.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

[Publication] East Asian Anthropology in the World


The article "East Asian Anthropology in the World", written by Prof. Gordon Mathews, has been published in American Anthropologist (Volume 117, Issue 2, p.364-383). Prof. Mathews talks about the globalization of anthropology and discusses the current development of anthropology in East Asia. Below is an extract from the article:


"Anthropology is a luxury. Rich countries can afford anthropology and particularly anthropology beyond one's own country's borders; poor countries cannot. Throughout much of the 20th century, anthropologists from the United States and Western Europe (as well as, to an extent, Japan) traveled the globe to do their fieldwork, while anthropologists from most other countries in the world practiced within their own borders, lacking the financial means to go elsewhere. This continues to be the case at present: for example, Chinese and Indian anthropologists, to name just two of the world's larger national contingents, continue to be primarily involved in studying different ethnic groups within their own country. However, this is changing: today, an ever larger number of anthropologists in societies throughout the world—in terms of East Asia, not just Japan and Hong Kong but also to an extent Korea and Taiwan—are engaging in anthropological research beyond their own society's borders. As world wealth spreads, anthropology will increasingly become no longer a matter of Western countries conducting ethnography on their former colonies and other poorer societies but more and more of the world investigating more and more of the world."(Mathews 2015:364)

A screenshot of the article of Prof. Mathews on Wiley Online Library

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

[Publication] Building homeland heritage: multiple homes among the Chinese diaspora and the politics on heritage management in China


Hiu Ling Chan and Christopher Cheng, MPhil graduates of our department in 2012, have recently published a co-authored paper in the International Journal of Heritage Studies. The paper, entitled “Building Homeland Heritage: Multiple Homes among the Chinese Diaspora and the Politics on Heritage Management in China”, is based on Chan’s MPhil research “Building ‘Tang Heritage’: The Wuli Mausoleum and its Transregional Connections” under the supervision of Prof. Tracey Lu. 

Hiu Ling's and Christoper's article on Taylor & Francis Online

Abstract of the paper:

"Community involvement is arguably a key component behind sustainable heritage management. Under strict government control, however, local community-led initiatives are difficult to find in China. Nonetheless, through remittances and philanthropic contributions to their respective communities, the Chinese diaspora have long been seen as an important source of foreign capital and a driving force behind homeland development. A transregional study (mainland China, Hong Kong and Canada) was carried out to explore the relationship between local communities in China and the diaspora, how each party was involved (or not) and the factors that affect their engagement in a government-initiated clanship heritage project in post-reform China. Investigating how different ‘associated people’ perceive, construct and even manipulate heritage, this study found that participation is not only related to wealth, success or status, but also to residential orientations, self-perceptions of the motherland and notions of authentic and/or symbolic roots. The study offers insight into the nature and politics of heritage management in contemporary China. Furthermore, it contributes to our understanding of how multiple homes can affect diasporic interpretations of, and connections with, the homeland."

For more information, please visit http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13527258.2015.1068211#abstract.

Monday, September 7, 2015

[Event] Book Launch Party: Love's Uncertainty: The Politics and Ethics of Child Rearing in Contemporary China


There will be a launch party for Prof. Teresa Kuan's new book Love's Uncertainty: The Politics and Ethics of Child Rearing in Contemporary China.

Details of the party are as follows:
Date: 18 September 2015
Time: 12:30 P.M. – 2:00 P.M.
Venue: Arts and Humanities Hub, G24, Fung King Hey Building, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

RSVP at http://goo.gl/forms/GgSYZyz9GN on or before 13 September.


Flyer of the event

All are welcome. We look forward to seeing you at the party!