In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity

Labor and Gender Politics in Taiwan's Economic Restructuring

By Anru Lee

Subjects: Sociology, Asian Studies, Anthropology Of Work, History, Economic History
Series: SUNY series in the Anthropology of Work
Paperback : 9780791460344, 212 pages, May 2004
Hardcover : 9780791460337, 212 pages, May 2004

Alternative formats available from:

Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Taiwan's Great Transformation

2. From Sunrise to Sunset

3. The Waning of a Hard Work Ethic

4. The Meaning of Work

5. Between Filial Daughter and Loyal Sister

6. Guests from the Tropics

7. Bridging the Global and the Local: Understanding Taiwan's Economic Restructuring

Notes

References

Index

Offers an analysis of the dynamics of Taiwan's export-oriented industrialization, particularly its impact on women and other workers.

Description

Since the 1980s Taiwan has grown into a global manufacturing powerhouse, a model of success that has inspired emulation throughout the developing world. Yet at the very peak of this expansion, Taiwan began to feel squeezed by changes both domestically and internationally. In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity examines Taiwan's economic restructuring since the late 1980s. Anru Lee discusses the latest phase of Taiwan's socio-economic development, most importantly the dialectical relationship between its export-oriented industrialization, change in production processes, and discourse on work ethics, including the subject formation of women workers as it relates to conditions in the global economy. At the center of this study is the process by which labor-capital relations become fair and legitimate, and how they contribute to our understanding of Asian capitalism and its role in the world economy.

Anru Lee is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. She is the coeditor (with Catherine Farris and Murray A. Rubinstein) of Women in the New Taiwan: Gender Roles and Gender Consciousness in a Changing Society .