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Journal ArticleDOI

Technology of Self, Technology of Power. Volunteering as Encounter in Guangzhou, China

08 Jul 2011-Ethnos (Routledge)-Vol. 76, Iss: 3, pp 300-325
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the growing popularity of volunteering in China and delineate several factors that play into the phenomenon, including students' desire to break out of strict routines, to engage in meaningful activities, to meet people, and to contribute to China's development.
Abstract: In this article, I explore the growing popularity of volunteering in China. I delineate several factors that play into the phenomenon, including students' desire to break out of strict routines, to engage in meaningful activities, to meet people, and to contribute to China's development. Linking these issues to the socio-political, economic, and ideological transformations in China, I show that we cannot meaningfully distinguish between altruistic and self-interested motivations to volunteer. For the students volunteering is a means to transform themselves into modern, entrepreneurial, and responsible selves, necessary to meet the challenges of urban life in China today. Yet, volunteering, encouraged and framed by the government, is also a ‘technology of power’, a means to nurture self-reliant and socially responsible individuals. I show that volunteerism is not simply the reflection of a new ‘governmentality’ but an encounter in which the very relationship between state and society is constantly negotiated.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore theories, discourses, and experiences of globalization, drawing on perspectives from history, anthropology, cultural and literary studies, geography, political economy, and sociology.
Abstract: COURSE DESCRIPTION In popular and scholarly discourse, the term \"globalization\" is widely used to put a name to the shape of the contemporary world. In the realms of advertising, a variety of media, policymaking, politics, academia, and everyday talk, \"globalization\" references the sense that we now live in a deeply and everincreasingly interconnected, mobile, and speeded-up world that is unprecedented, fueled by technological innovations and geopolitical and economic transformations. Drawing on perspectives from history, anthropology, cultural and literary studies, geography, political economy, and sociology, this course will explore theories, discourses, and experiences of globalization.

311 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Tang et al. as discussed by the authors explored the nature and origins of mass opinion in urban China through survey research conducted between 1987 and 2000, and examined a wide range of theories and explanations, such as regime legitimacy, the influence of the media on opinion, social capital theory, political participation, and the role of intellectuals.
Abstract: Public Opinion and Political Change in China. By Wenfang Tang. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005. 237p. $55.00 cloth, $21.95 paper.In this comprehensive book, Wenfang Tang explores the nature and origins of mass opinion in urban China through survey research conducted between 1987 and 2000. The general theme is how some local democratic practices can develop within the People's Republic of China (PRC). However, rather than presenting a single theory or model, Tang examines a series of case studies on public opinion. He draws on a rich data set that consists of 11 large-scale urban surveys conducted by Chinese government and academic institutions, including his own 1999 six-city survey. With this data he examines a wide range of theories and explanations, such as regime legitimacy (Chapter 3), the influence of the media on opinion (Chapter 4), social capital theory (Chapter 5), political participation (Chapters 6 and 7), and the role of intellectuals (Chapter 8). Thus, this book has a broad appeal to those interested in political development as well as contemporary China.

79 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors proposes an alternate perspective that considers new and older forms of public sociality in relation to their cultural formation, where the flourishing of solidarity initiatives in contemporary crisis-ridden Greece is not considered a paradox, but rather the expression of the reconfiguration of the social and its potent political content.
Abstract: Narratives of volunteerism and civil society that emerged in Greece in the beginning of the twenty-first century echoed the modernization and Europeanization visions of Greek society that were proliferating in that era. Public discourses as well as state and EU policies endorsed a model of sociality that included volunteerism and was associated with the production of the new European and Greek citizen. Forms of public sociality, such as voluntary associations, thus constituted laboratories that produced subjects. The reformation of sociality and the invention of volunteerism were embedded in various civilizing projects. At the same time, a certain “lack of volunteerism” was broadly attributed to a general understanding of Greek particularity. This article proposes an alternate perspective that considers new and older forms of public sociality in relation to their cultural formation, where the flourishing of solidarity initiatives in contemporary crisis-ridden Greece is not considered a paradox, but rather the expression of the reconfiguration of the social and its potent political content.

40 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: To deconstruct volunteering, the article utilizes the Latourian notions of “hybridization” and “purification” as simultaneous and entangled mechanisms, and critically review the literature on “volunteering” to problematize the fundamental properties of the “pure” perception of ‘Volunteering,’ their hybridization and eventual purification.
Abstract: The scholarly exploration of “volunteering” has mainly focused on identifying its antecedents or consequences, in order to facilitate the management and promotion of volunteering. In this dominant stream of research, the phenomenon of volunteering thus remains a “black box”—a taken-for-granted and fixed reality. The article sets out to open the black box of “volunteering” by not accepting it as a fixed, unproblematic object, but by exploring volunteering as a constructed phenomenon whose boundaries are managed and utilized by a variety of actors. To deconstruct volunteering, the article utilizes the Latourian notions of “hybridization” and “purification” as simultaneous and entangled mechanisms. We critically review the literature on “volunteering” and problematize the fundamental properties of the “pure” perception of “volunteering,” their hybridization and eventual purification. The article concludes by highlighting how the constant tension between hybridization and purification mechanisms is in fact what makes volunteering proliferate as a phenomenon that has an increasing public significance in contemporary society.

29 citations


Cites background from "Technology of Self, Technology of P..."

  • ...…“volunteering” as resulting from a determination by an autonomous subject, whose calculated interests and motivations can be delineated and researched, while tending to neglect the ways in which individuals navigate between different and sometimes contradictory motivations (e.g., Fleischer, 2011)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the angst of deeply committed volunteers in China, engaging with anthropological debates on ethics under conditions of moral breakdown, is explored, under market socialism, sacrificial v...
Abstract: This article explores the angst of deeply committed volunteers in China, engaging with anthropological debates on ethics under conditions of “moral breakdown.” Under market socialism, sacrificial v...

28 citations


Cites background from "Technology of Self, Technology of P..."

  • ...At least since the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, volunteerism has caught scholars’ attention (e.g., Fleischer 2011, 2013, 2018; Hustinx, Handy, and Cnaan 2012; Rolandsen 2008, 2010)....

    [...]

  • ...Fleischer (2011), on the other hand, proposes amore nuanced approach, examining the tensions between volunteering in China as a “technology of power” deployed by the state and as a “technology of the self” by means of which student volunteers “refashion their identity into functional subjects in…...

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors focused on a rare type of extreme immoral cases in which the Good Samaritan is extorted by the very person being helped and made a particular effort to unpack why most extortionists of the good Samaritan are elderly people.
Abstract: Modernization often involves changes in behaviour norms, values, and moral reasoning; China is by no means an exception. The present study focuses on a rare type of extreme immoral cases in which the Good Samaritan is extorted by the very person being helped. A particular effort is made to unpack why most extortionists of the Good Samaritan are elderly people. Despite its rare occurrence, cases of extorting Good Samaritans have seriously negative impacts on social trust, compassion, and the principle of reciprocity. Yet, a close analysis of the cases and public opinions reveals the complexity of the seemingly straight immoral behaviour, especially the tension between two moral systems and the challenge of dealing with strangers, which in turn reflect the changing moral landscape in contemporary Chinese society.

96 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For example, this article pointed out that China's social problems seem to come as much from the failure to establish a viable capitalist social order as from the success in introducing a capitalist free market.
Abstract: Since the start of the reform era in the late 1970s, China has seen the gradual but unmistakable emergence of a host of phenomena that mark a capitalist society: the commodification of labour, privatization of the means of production, the rise of an entrepreneurial class, and so on. These social and economic changes have hastened the collapse of the "communist" moral order of the Maoist era and with it the personality structure that was an integral part of that order. Quite alarmingly, two decades have passed and no new moral order has arisen to fill the gap left by the demise of the old order. Especially conspicuous is the almost total lack of a new type of person whose values and motivations can help sustain China's emerging capitalist society as the Maoist type of person did the old "communist" order. It is of course debatable whether the introduction of a capitalist market economy in China is a good thing, but there is no denying that the advent of the free market without the simultaneous emergence of a sustaining moral order is a recipe for social problems of gigantic proportions. Nothing better represents such problems than the sheer scale of corruption and the ineffectiveness of all measures to keep it in check. Whatever the intrinsic flaws of capitalism as a social system, China's social problems seem to come as much from the failure to establish a viable capitalist social order as from the success in introducing a capitalist free market.

90 citations


"Technology of Self, Technology of P..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Wang (2002) describes how the reform period has hastened the collapse of the communist moral order of the Maoist era while no new moral order has arisen to fill ethnos, vol. 76:3, september 2011 (pp. 300–325) the gap....

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  • ...…the reforms have allegedly triggered a dramatic rise of individualization and materialism resulting in a moral vacuum and a lack of solidarity (Wang 2002; Yan 2003b; Zhuo 2001); and where intense competition and the onechild policy produce ‘little emperors’, i.e. spoiled and egotistic…...

    [...]

  • ...To recall, Chinese society has been diagnosed with a moral vacuum or deficiency, as stated by Wang (2002), Yan (2003a, b) and Zhuo (2001) above, and commented on by the students themselves....

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Book
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors collected public opinion in China and analyzed the formation of public opinion and publicizing private opinion in the Chinese political environment and political change in an Authoritarian State.
Abstract: Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Photographs Acknowledgments Part 1 Background 1. The Chinese Political Environment and Public Opinion 2. Collecting Public Opinion in China Part 2 The Formation of Public Opinion 3. Support for Reform and Regime Legitimacy 4. Media Control and Public Opinion 5. Interpersonal Trust and Sociopolitical Change Part 3 Mass Political Behavior and Political Change 6. Publicizing Private Opinion 7. Work and Politics 8. Intellectuals and Political Change Part 4 Conclusion 9. Public Opinion and Political Change in an Authoritarian State Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Appendix E Appendix F Appendix G Notes References Index

89 citations

Book Chapter
01 Jan 2000

88 citations


"Technology of Self, Technology of P..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Stafford (2000), however, has criticized this view for overemphasizing patrilineal relations as compared to the importance of the cyclical relations of yang (parent – child relationship) and laiwang (relationships between friends, neighbors, and acquaintances)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Tang et al. as discussed by the authors explored the nature and origins of mass opinion in urban China through survey research conducted between 1987 and 2000, and examined a wide range of theories and explanations, such as regime legitimacy, the influence of the media on opinion, social capital theory, political participation, and the role of intellectuals.
Abstract: Public Opinion and Political Change in China. By Wenfang Tang. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005. 237p. $55.00 cloth, $21.95 paper.In this comprehensive book, Wenfang Tang explores the nature and origins of mass opinion in urban China through survey research conducted between 1987 and 2000. The general theme is how some local democratic practices can develop within the People's Republic of China (PRC). However, rather than presenting a single theory or model, Tang examines a series of case studies on public opinion. He draws on a rich data set that consists of 11 large-scale urban surveys conducted by Chinese government and academic institutions, including his own 1999 six-city survey. With this data he examines a wide range of theories and explanations, such as regime legitimacy (Chapter 3), the influence of the media on opinion (Chapter 4), social capital theory (Chapter 5), political participation (Chapters 6 and 7), and the role of intellectuals (Chapter 8). Thus, this book has a broad appeal to those interested in political development as well as contemporary China.

79 citations


"Technology of Self, Technology of P..." refers background in this paper

  • ...In a country where social relations and care are said to include only kin and close friends, the inner circle, but not strangers (Madge 1974; Tang 2005); where the reforms have allegedly triggered a dramatic rise of individualization and materialism resulting in a moral vacuum and a lack of solidarity (Wang 2002; Yan 2003b; Zhuo 2001); and where intense competition and the onechild policy produce ‘little emperors’, i....

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  • ...See Tang 2005....

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  • ...An entire generation allegedly lost their ability to trust strangers and even neighbors due to their experience of punishment and betrayal (Tang 2005)....

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  • ...Social obligations and trust ethnos, vol. 76:3, september 2011 (pp. 300–325) extend to one’s ‘own people’ but not to strangers (Tang 2005)....

    [...]

  • ...An entire generation allegedly lost their ability to trust strangers and even neighbors due to their experience of punishment and betrayal (Tang 2005).9 Since 1978, economic reforms have led to growing socio-economic stratifications, individualization, residential separation of families into…...

    [...]