The production and reproduction of Chinese and Taiwanese identities in Taiwan’s popular songs

This article charts the impact of Chinese and Taiwanese identities on popular songs in Taiwan in three major historical periods: the Japanese colonization between 1895 and 1945; the Kuomintang (KMT) rule between 1945 and 1987; and the cultivation of Taiwanese identity since the 1980s. By exploring the historical processes of nation-building on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, this article demonstrates how socio-political transformations have produced, reproduced and mediated both Chinese nationalism and Taiwanese identity, and the role of popular songs in that process. It shows how, since 1895, the themes of popular songs have developed through processes of ‘de-Japanizing’ to ‘de-Sinolizing’ to ‘Taiwanizing’. The political and cultural forces which have affected both Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese identities are evident in the changing market for Taiwan’s popular songs. At a period when questions of political and cultural identity are still hotly debated in Taiwan, popular songs now seek to integrate its multiple identities.     

Trade options for a small open economy: The different impact of Taiwan exports to China and to other countries

This study aims to explore advantageous trade arrangements for a small open economy. To discover the arrangement, the fundamental question to ask is how trade affects a small economy. Due to the differential factor mobility, the two main streams of trade theory—new economic geography and comparative advantage—make divergent predictions of trade effects. This study identifies the differences in factor mobility and distinguishes the differential impacts of exports to China and other countries on Taiwan’s manufacturing clusters. Using Taiwan’s 2006 and 2011 census data and trade statistics, this study applies the two-stage least squares method to test the differential impacts. The findings reveal that the growth in Taiwan’s exports to other countries significantly increased the employment level of manufacturing clusters in Taiwan. However, such effects have not been found for exports to China. The lack of response in Taiwan’s local employment to exports to China can be inferred as a short-term exhibition of the long-run core-periphery effect. The policy implication of this study is that trade involving low factor mobility is more beneficial than that involving high factor mobility for a small open economy. Thus, for a small economy, trade liberalization that will ‘not’ attract large factor outflows from the small economy is more desirable.     

Redefining the 'Rural Question': The New 'Politics of the Rural' and Social Policy

Politics in the countryside has undergone a significant shift in emphasis in recent decades, which may be characterized as a transition from ‘rural politics’ to ‘a politics of the rural’. Whereas ‘rural politics’ refers broadly to politics located in rural space, or relating to ‘rural issues’, the ‘politics of the rural’ is defined by the centrality of the meaning and regulation of rurality itself as the primary focus of conflict and debate. However, far from marginalizing social issues – as early work on the new rural conflicts by Mormont implied – the paper argues that the new politics of the rural has liberated rural social policy from the shadow of agricultural policy, providing a new language and context through which rural social issues can be placed on the political agenda. Three examples of this are discussed, drawing on illustrations from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and North America – conflicts over the rationalization of public and commercial services in rural communities; campaigns around the closure of rural schools and their symbolic place at the heart of rural communities; and issues of difference and discrimination in the countryside, including responses to travellers and asylum‐seekers.     

Deregulation,bank efficiency and economic cooperation across China–Taiwan Strait

This study investigates whether deregulation has affected bank efficiency in the ‘cross-strait’ relationship between China and Taiwan. I measure bank efficiency across three periods – after Taiwan and China joined the World Trade Organization, the global financial crisis, and the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) – and show that Taiwanese banks were significantly more efficient than their Chinese counterparts. These results show that the ECFA platform has not improved bank efficiency and thus has failed to function effectively. This finding suggests that China and Taiwan should continue negotiating within the ECFA context to enhance cross-strait financial cooperation.     

The dislocation of agriculture and food: a network analysis of interlocking directorates in New Zealand's corporate economy

Abstract

As a political project, ‘agri-food’ calls for improved communication between New Zealand's land-based industries and the business of food. Such communication may be enhanced by the sharing of company directors, a social practice whose interlocks create information flows across the economy. These flows can overcome market fragmentation and help establish a common sense of purpose. However, a social network analysis of interlocks between New Zealand's largest businesses shows few signs of the communication structures that agri-food requires. Food is the most isolated sector, primary production the most connected. Brokerage and clique analysis shows that primary production's major partners are the consumer and finance sectors. These two sectors have very different profiles and their differences drive primary production networks in two opposed directions. Primary production is not only dislocated from food, it is also deeply divided between relatively small locally-owned consumer companies and large overseas-owned banks.     

Learning to make sense: interdisciplinary perspectives on sensory education and embodied enculturation

ABSTRACT

In this introductory essay we examine through a ‘temporally inflected lens’ some of the complex entanglements of learning, senses, and sense making; body-sensory experience and practice; and culture and society. We thereby aim to bring into dialogue inter-/multisensorial approaches to education as a project and praxis and processes of ‘enculturation’, which have always, in one way or the other, involved ‘embodied’ learning (and imaginaries thereof), rather than mere ‘mental processing’. We first situate the ‘turn’ to the senses, across a range of disciplinary fields, brought on by a growing interest in ‘modes of meaning-making’, including the visual, aural, audio-visual, material, bodily, and spatial. Secondly, we investigate the explanatory potential of enculturation and embodiment as seemingly entangled notions. From this, we derive the concept of ‘embodied enculturation’ for the study of situated, historical entanglements of sensory learning and education. We link this proposed research paradigm to incisive scholarship on ‘cultural learning’ through sensorial lenses, after which we tease out six key questions or concerns emerging from a review of relevant, recent research. These key concerns help to contextualize state-of-the-art ‘sensuous education scholarship’ introduced in the final section of the article and elaborated further in the ensuing contributions to this special issue.     

Explorations into Creaturely Sensations and Trap-lines

This exposition is a meditation on the embodied sensations of being idle learnt from sitting with and dressing as a cat, to the contentious issues of pest control in New Zealand, Aotearoa. Dress, one of the most distinctively human cultural forms, is used to explore both the human-animal divide and animal –becomings. Putting into practice Kate Soper’s concept of ‘alternative hedonism’ and Ron Broglio’s ‘surface encounters’ this is an engagement with writing, a performance project and the complex relationship with our fellow creatures and environment.     

RECONSTITUTING COMMUNITY: SOCIAL JUSTICE,SOCIAL ORDER AND THE POLITICS OF COMMUNITY

Social policy debates are informed today by a rhetoric of the ‘politics of community’ which focuses on problems of social fragmentation and exclusion in the new era of globalisation. While this rhetoric was earlier associated primarily with debate on social justice, it now more frequently relies on notions of social order, notably in the Federal Government's welfare reform agenda. ‘Community ‘ is thus a central and dynamic focus of debate, especially in relation to the arguments over ‘social capital’. The most important question in this project of ‘reconstituting community’ is the kind of community likely to emerge under globalisation: which question cannot be raised without shifting the current focus on social order back to one on social justice.     

The Royal Commission,ATSIC and Self-Determination: A Review of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody

The National Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, in recommending fundamental reforms of government policy, proposed a primarily political and administrative notion of Aboriginal empowerment or ‘self-determination’. That is, the Commissioner argued the fundamental importance of publicly-funded Aboriginal organisations and urged governments to relax financial accountability requirements imposed on them. The paper quotes extensively from the National Report to argue that this, rather than ‘land rights’ or ‘economic independence’ is what the Commissioner meant by ‘self-determination’. But what is the place of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) in such a view of Aboriginal and Islander political development? The paper demonstrates the Commissioner's ambivalence about ATSIC, and his failure consistently to project ATSIC's role when making his recommendations about health, alcohol and housing policies. It concludes by citing Commonwealth responses which indicate that ATSIC is likely to emerge as an obstacle in the Commissioner's scenario of Aboriginal and Islander political development.     

Novel biotechnologies for eradicating wasps: seeking Māori studies students’ perspectives with Q method

Aligned with the New Zealand government’s ‘Predator-Free 2050’ target for Aotearoa New Zealand, National Science Challenge: Our Biological Heritage supports research into five distinct ‘novel biotechnological controls’ of exotic wasps. A framing question within this project is which controls are considered ‘socially acceptable’ and thus suitable for further development to control and potentially eradicate introduced wasps? How can the public answer this question without first engaging with complex technologies? Can they develop and express an informed view that still reflects their ‘gut’ reactions and unique positions? To model and explore the views of an ‘informed public’, university students in Māori studies engaged in reflection, writing and mapping activities; choice and ranking exercises; Q Method; and focus group interviews. Amongst the interviewees, Q Method analysis distinguished three ‘factors’, describing unique viewpoints: those who see the potential of biotechnologies, those who are in doubt about them and those in a position of trust in scientists. Overall, the group see potential in new biotechnologies for wasps but are wary of political, economic and social decision-making mechanisms.     

日本新海洋安全战略中的对台政策

作为地理特征上的典型海洋国家,海洋安全战略是日本国家战略的重要组成部分,也是其对台政策的主要内在动力与依据.新世纪日本的海洋安全战略发生了不同于以往的显著变化,为实现最大限度拓展海洋安全空间的战略目标,遏制主要战略对手中国走向海洋,日本的对台战略表现为阻挠两岸以任何方式统一,同时力图控制台湾.反映在对台政策上就是积极谋求武力介入台海问题、加强日台安全关系、强化对台经济控制和社会文化渗透.对此,我们要从战略高度做好应对.     

城市化过程中的农村化现象分析

“农村化”现象是中国城市化过程中出现的一种伴生的现象.农村化主要表现为进城务工人员的“就业非农化、身份农村化”和“生活市民化、身份农村化”两个特征.通过对不同时期不同行政单位的流动人口、城镇经济活动人口和非本地户口人口中农村户口人口的统计和分析得出中国城市化进程中农村化现象不断扩散的结论.同时,本文从人口流动政策、户籍制度、隐性失业和城市化方式四个方面分析了农村化现象出现的原因,并且对农村化现象带来的流动人口与当地居民的融合、市民化问题及解决途径进行了分析和探讨.     

Social Psychology,Consumer Culture and Neoliberal Political Economy

Consumer culture and neoliberal political economy are often viewed by social psychologists as topics reserved for anthropologists, economists, political scientists and sociologists. This paper takes an alternative view arguing that social psychology needs to better understand these two intertwined institutions as they can both challenge and provide a number of important insights into social psychological theories of self‐identity and their related concepts. These include personality traits, self‐esteem, social comparisons, self‐enhancement, impression management, self‐regulation and social identity. To illustrate, we examine how elements of consumer culture and neoliberal political economy intersect with social psychological concepts of self‐identity through three main topics: ‘the commodification of self‐identity’, ‘social categories, culture and power relations’ and the ‘governing of self‐regulating consumers’. In conclusion, we recommend a decommodified approach to research with the aim of producing social psychological knowledge that avoids becoming enmeshed with consumer culture and neoliberalism.     

俄罗斯发展PFE经济的障碍及其对中国农地产权改革的启示

俄罗斯发展PFE经济面临三大障碍,即私有化与所有制权能的障碍、土地股份退出障碍和农业大企业优势障碍。相应地,促进PFE发展的三个法律变革方向是:推进私有化,完善土地股份退出方法,否定大农场经济。根据俄罗斯的经验,中国农地产权制度改革的选择是:维护土地产权关系的稳定,提高其权能的充分性;完善中国家庭农场农地控制退出机制;限制农业法人对土地的兼并,维护、推动以家庭为主体的PFE的发展。构建符合中国国情的新的农地产权结构模式,中国的PFE将为中国的农村改革开辟新路。     

Do social allowance transfers crowd out private transfers? An analysis of responses among elderly households in Taiwan

Chuang JCC. Do social allowance transfers crowd out private transfers? An analysis of responses among elderly households in Taiwan This article examines whether public transfers ‘crowd out’ private inter‐household transfers in Taiwan, focusing on two old age social allowance schemes (old age allowance and old age farmer allowance) during the 2002–2008 period. This study used a data set from the Survey of Family Income and Expenditure in Taiwan. Empirical evidence suggests that Taiwanese donors are strongly motivated by altruism, and that the increase of public transfers will crowd out private transfers, and vice versa. Besides, altruism is more likely to dominate among poorer elderly recipients, whereas the exchange motive would dominate among richer recipients. Thus, the response of Taiwanese donors is likely to neutralise the distributional impact of public transfers. Finally, the elderly are not a homogenous group, and the effect of public transfers on private transfers varies significantly by household characteristics, in particular depending on age, marital status and living arrangements.     

Participation in Science Service: Factors Influencing Volunteers’ Intentions

In spite of previous researches in large-scale volunteerisms have explored volunteer’s theory of planned behavior (TPB), little has been known concerning the scale development of volunteers’ Satisfaction and Motivation in related to science volunteer service. This study tested an expanded TPB model with a sample of 443 volunteers taken from a project for science volunteers run by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan. To explore volunteers’ perspectives on their involvement in science service, structured questionnaires examined their attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, Satisfaction and motivation via continued observation throughout the duration of the project. The findings from the path analyses suggest that the TPB is a useful tool for understanding event volunteers’ intention. In addition, Satisfaction emerged as the exclusive determinant of sustained volunteering and also as the potential predictor of the effects of other variables on future volunteering behavior. However, it was found that the science volunteers’ motivation had significant negative correlation with behavioral intention. In general, the expanded model of TBP provided an appropriate framework for understanding the factors associated with volunteering. Practical implications and future research directions for science volunteer management are also discussed.     

北京市“三农”问题现状及解决途径

本文分析了北京市“三农”当前存在的四个突出问题,并从提高农民收入、提高农产品国际竞争力、加快城镇化步伐、发展涉农服务业与强化科研、教育与推广系统的创新等五个方面进行了论述。     

Developing a collaborative methodology for research with community groups

This ‘short communication’ considers four different methodological approaches for ethnographic research projects that engage community groups when the research topic is contested amongst group members. I locate my comments in the context of a proposed project on concepts of gender in the ‘mythopoetic’ men's movement, and on feminist responses to these concepts; however, many of the points raised are applicable to a range of community projects. I discuss benefits and drawbacks of the following candidate methodologies: participant-observation (in this case, with a male partner researcher who is an ‘insider’); participatory-action research; reflexive ethnographic interviewing; and a collaborative documentary that incorporates aspects of video ethnography. A key consideration throughout is the positioning of the researcher and participants. I make a case for the uniquely collaborative potential of video when quite diverse perspectives are part and parcel of a proposed research agenda.     

The Coordination of Welfare and Health Services in Australia

The report of the Task Force on Coordination in Welfare and Health (Bailey Report) is the most important single report on the organization of health and welfare services since the first Medibank Green Paper. It provides for the collapsing of a plethora of categorical grants into four broad ‘programme grants’. The effects of this report will be felt by most health and welfare organizations. It is the purpose of the article to review the main recommendations of the Task Force and of the related Report from the Committee on the Aged and the Infirm.