|
Entrepreneurial Migrants in Beijing |
|
|
|
|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Friday, 04 August 2006 |
Zhang, Li (2001) Strangers in the City: Reconfigurations of Space, Power, and Social Networks within China's Floating Population, Stanford University Press: Stanford, CA
|
|
An excellent anthropology of entrepreneurial migrants from Wenzhou to Beijing. Understanding internal migration is, of course, essential to understanding the transformation of the PRC as much of the commercial and industrial development is fuelled by people moving from rural areas to the cities. Much of this migration is to work as labourers, factory hands and so on. However, Zhang usefully tells the story of another class of migrant, those that establish their own businesses, embracing the spirit of capitalism.
Useful insights that are revealed include the way that histories are used to legitimate current practices, the importance of relationships and networks (though not necessarily patrilineal), the realisation that (at least for Wenzhou migrants) serial entrepreneuriship is not uncommon and migration is not necessarily fixed.
|
|
|
Last Updated ( Monday, 30 October 2006 )
|
