Field trip to China
China – global and transforming
In March and April 2014 the project team visited China on a research trip to learn about and see the globalization at work in China. The research trip was organized in collaboration with the Fudan University in Shanghai, and besides visiting several scholars and universities the research group also visited factories, community centers, NGOs and took part in ordinary family dinners. Professor Chunrong Liu from the Fudan-European Center for China Studies traveled along with us, arranged the Sino-Nordic Workshop on Life-Mode Analysis at the Contemporary China Social Life Data and Research Center, Fudan University with ten Danish and Chinese papers presented and discussed. Niels Jul Nielsen from the project team has been in China several times before, but this time it was a proper research trip:
"What really stands out, compared to earlier visits with less opportunity to discuss with Chinese scholars, is the insight into the importance of the Chinese state. On the on hand it provides considerable room for market forces, on the other hand it strategically organizes production, labour, infrastructure and networks across the whole continent – with huge implications for everyday life in China. The contrast to the European Union that has similar incentives but lacks the executive means is striking."
One of the dramatic ongoing changes in China is the dramatic urbanization and growth of large cities. The everyday conditions differ greatly between inner city cores, suburbs, inland towns and rural areas. For postdoc Jeppe Høst, it was a great experience to learn about the diversity of China:
“We saw many different urban settings and environments but did also have time to visit rural areas. The rate and scope of urbanization in China is truly fascinating, but it is hard to understand without knowing the living conditions and life-modes in the countryside. China is on the threshold to extensive agricultural and rural reforms, and how these challenges and policies are approached will be critical to the future development and social sustainability.”
The aim of the trip was to study the life of people working in Chinese subcontractors, partner companies and departments of the Danish enterprises, whose life modes we are studying in Denmark – and to start research in Chinese ways of life which can be compared with the kinds of life modes we are studying in Europe. For Professor Thomas Højrup it was the first time in China and the beginning of a better understanding of globalization:
“We know that these very distinct ways of life are related through the world market and through political and legal relations between our countries. But we do not know how these relations are undergoing changes and transformations at the local level in China versus Europe, and how the different local processes of neoculturation in China and Europe are connected and are implying the formation of distinct life modes in each locality.