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Not a Peasant Movement: The Livelihood Struggles of the Taiwanese Labouring Population under the Broken Promise of High-tech Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2020

You-Lin Tsai
You-Lin Tsai*
Affiliation:
National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

In contrast to popular opinion, this paper suggests that recent protests against the Taiwanese government's expropriation of farmland for high-tech development in Taiwan do not constitute a peasant movement. Based on Karl Polanyi's double-movement thesis and Ching Kwan Lee's analysis of workers’ uprisings in the context of market reform, this paper shows that the local cause of such a mobilization is the labouring population's struggle to maintain a livelihood against increasing economic and employment insecurity. Moreover, the intensification of market despotism, economic insecurity and the relocation of firms to China have broken the various promises offered by high-tech development. As a result, local protestors have begun to question the necessity of expropriating farmland to make way for the construction of new science industrial parks.

摘要

摘要

有别于通俗的看法，本文认为晚近台湾针对高科技发展而进行的土地征收所展开的抗争行动并不是一场农民运动。立基于博兰尼（Karl Polanyi）的双重运动论点与李静君对于市场改革下劳工起而抗争的分析，本文描绘这场抗争的在地动员成因，指出是劳工人群抵御恶化的经济与劳雇不安全而产生的生计斗争。此外，劳雇关系上市场专制的恶化、经济不安全与企业外移到中国等趋势打破高科技发展的各种承诺，其后果是在地抗争者开始质疑藉由征收农地辟建新科学工业园区的必要性。

Keywords

livelihood strugglesanti-farmland expropriationsocial protestPolanyi-type movementhigh-tech developmentTaiwan生计斗争反农地徵收抗争社会抗议博兰尼式的运动高科技发展台湾
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 243 , September 2020 , pp. 801 - 822
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Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London, 2020

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