Suchergebnisse

AbstractWhy do provincial governments change policy, even when those policies have proven successful? This paper explores a debate regarding the determinants of provincial policy choice and the degree of discretion provinces are permitted in this area. It does so by scrutinizing the shift in Guizhou's development policy from a poverty reduction orientation to a wholehearted pursuit of economic growth, urbanization and industrialization. In contrast to those who argue that central experience, prospects for promotion or local conditions are key factors explaining policy choice, the paper concludes that Guizhou's shift in policy had more to do with the backgrounds and experiences of top provincial leaders. The result has implications for our understanding of central–local relations and local government decision making.

This paper offers a "more-than-representational" understanding of how heritage value is reproduced by cottage food businesses in Singapore. It advances the notion of haptic heritage to highlight the importance of touch and feel in inculcating food with a sense of heritage value. Haptic heritage is reproduced through the physical handling of ingredients in ways that contribute to more "authentic" products. However, it also foregrounds food production processes that are more tactile, time-consuming and thus unscalable than their automated counterparts. Accordingly, the reproduction of haptic heritage is becoming increasingly unviable in Singapore's competitive economic landscape. These ideas are explored through a supply-side analysis of interviews conducted with owners of cottage food businesses in Singapore. We highlight the importance of provenance in passing on haptic knowledges over multiple generations of business owners, the affective value and inefficiency of haptic knowledges, and the present-day politics of provenance. To conclude, we call for research to continue to explore the ways in which sensory forms of heritage are understood and (under)valued in the contemporary world.

For decades, Mr. Hong and his family have toiled the ground of Dounan Village, an area of Yunnan Province that became well-known throughout China for the quality of its fresh vegetables. While Hong and his neighbors have, since the early 1980s, concentrated on the small plot of land that the state allocated to them, in recent years, Dounan village has begun producing vegetables in large enough scale to market to distant, wealthy coastal areas, bringing new-found prosperity to the area. After gaining experience producing vegetables both on the plot that the government allocated to his family, and on his neighbors' plots, where he worked as a temporary hired hand, Hong soon attained sufficient skill and capital to allow him to rent the land held by other households. In this way, Hong increased production, renting at his peak between 10 and 20 mu of land closer to Kunming, the provincial capital city. The Hong family held so much land in this way that they could not provide sufficient labor to manage it. So they in turn were compelled to hire informal, temporary workers, primarily migrants from poor, remote counties in Yunnan province. By expanding beyond subsistence agriculture and using land and labor controlled by those outside his household, the Hong family is no longer a part of the Chinese peasantry. Instead, they have joined the ranks of millions of rural residents participating in rural China's newest revolution – agrarian capitalism and de-peasantization.

Mode of access: Internet. ; of the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics;

How can individuals with contrasting interests in a declining industry, at odds with the country's identity, and facing an illiberal and sceptical government, band together to promote collective goals? This article addresses this question by examining Singapore's Kranji Countryside Association, one of Singapore's few civil society organisations to focus on community organising. To Association members, the material and time costs of organising were high, the odds of success were low and the material rewards of success were modest. The article evaluates two views that purport to explain collective action: the rational choice approach that focuses on selective incentives and the social-psychological approach that emphasises non-excludable collective incentives and collective identity. It is concluded that while selective incentives were necessary for attracting several non-active members to fill out the ranks of the organisation, the rational choice approach cannot explain the group's initial establishment or why some members have been especially active. For this, social-psychological factors were vital to both building and sustaining the organisation. The results illuminate collective action in Singapore's illiberal context and enhance our understanding of the state's dilemmas in managing civil society.