Anxious immobilities: an ethnography of copingwith contagion (Covid-19) in Macau

In February 2020, Macau became one of the first regions where the pandemic of coronavirus or Covid-19 affected the totality of social and economic life leading to increased anxieties over movement and distance. Although Macau has had very few actual cases of the virus – 46 in total – and no deaths from it, the Macau government rapidly instituted a lockdown. The aim of this article is to reflect on how the social experience of being in lockdown can provide insights into understanding the type of experience or condition that we provisionally term ‘anxious immobility.’ Such a condition is characterized by a total disruption of everyday rhythms and specifically anxious waiting for the normalization of activity while being the subject of biosocial narratives of quarantine and socially responsible. The paper is based upon 3 months of ethnographic research conducted by two researchers based in Macau. We also reflect upon some aspects of the politics of mobilities in the light of disruptions and friction points between Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, and the rest of the world

Low carbon innovation in Chinese urban mobility:prospects, politics and practices

China represents a test-case of global significance regarding the challenges of urban mobility transition to more sustainable models. On the one hand, transportation accounts for approximately one quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). China is globally central to 'greening' mobility as already the world's largest car market but with significant further growth predicted. On the other hand, the growth of (fossil-fuelled) urban mobility is a key feature of the immense changes that have occurred since 1978 in China. Yet in both respects, the need for a change in the model of urban mobility is increasingly urgent, as manifest in issues of emissions and air pollution, urban gridlock and its social costs, and intensifying unrest around urban mobility issues. China, however, is also the site of significant government and corporate innovation efforts focused on opportunities for 'catch-up' in a key industry of the twenty first century around the electric vehicle (EV). At the same time, the much lower-technology electric two-wheeler (E2W) has emerged as a global market entirely dominated by small Chinese firms and their Chinese customers. This is one of a series of four China low carbon reports outlining the STEPS Centre affiliate project 'Low Carbon Innovation in China: Prospects, Politics and Practice', led from Lancaster University. Taking a perspective that explores specific domains of low carbon innovation in China through the lens of changing power relations and associated social practices, this Working Paper provides an introduction to the e-mobility research package of the project, reviewing the relevant literature around urban electric mobility transitions in China and describing the project's research approach and potential contribution to knowledge in this area. It argues that, despite the disappointment to date regarding EVs, the evidence shows a highly dynamic and geographically diverse situation in China, but one in which a successful urban mobility transition as currently envisaged remains improbable

Stasis, Dynamism and Emergence of the e-Mobility System in China:a Power Relational Perspective

Efforts at urban e-mobility transition in China are of crucial global significance. Exploring these developments, however, demands significant reframing of dominant theories of socio-technical system transition to accommodate the strikingly different socio-political context of China to that of the global North where these theories have been developed. In particular, greater attention must be paid to issues of power, conceptualized as dynamic power/knowledge relations constitutive of social formations and evolving in interactive parallel with specific innovation trajectories. We illustrate such a productive reframing focusing on complex processes of empowerment and highlight that there remains relative stasis in the grand plan of a rapid transition to electric cars (EVs) in China’s growing cities, with the EV still widely regarded as “risky” mobility. At the same time the EV in China is becoming a constituent of a new kind of digitized and smart mobility, as Chinese ICT companies emerge as globally powerful players establishing alliances with traditional automobile companies

Low-Carbon Innovation in China: Prospects, Politics and Practices - Innovation

China’s potential transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient or ‘post-carbon’ society is a key concern for the world. There is an urgent need for better understanding of this process, posing major challenges for social science given the complex, systemic and emergent nature of the multiple processes involved in such a possible transition. This Working Paper is the first of a series of four 'China Low Carbon Reports' outlining the STEPS-Centre affiliate project 'Low Carbon Innovation in China: Prospects, Politics and Practice', led from Lancaster University. The project is designed around problem-led social scientific research involving partners from leading UK and Chinese institutions. It aims to assess the status of, and opportunities for, low-carbon transitions in China by going beyond existing technology-focused approaches to innovation. In particular, this involves a re-insertion and reconceptualisation of power within the processes of low-carbon transitions, conceived as processes of socio-technical systems, and with greater attention paid to everyday social practices of both ‘users’ and producers. Through this distinct approach, the project offers empirical, methodological and theoretical contributions to the study of (low-carbon) socio-technical transitions both in China and more broadly. The paper outlines the background to this project, the urgency of deeper and more productive understanding of the prospects of low-carbon transition in China, and the theoretical and methodological approaches adopted to do this

Software for the frontiers of quantum chemistry:An overview of developments in the Q-Chem 5 package

This article summarizes technical advances contained in the fifth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program package, covering developments since 2015. A comprehensive library of exchange–correlation functionals, along with a suite of correlated many-body methods, continues to be a hallmark of the Q-Chem software. The many-body methods include novel variants of both coupled-cluster and configuration-interaction approaches along with methods based on the algebraic diagrammatic construction and variational reduced density-matrix methods. Methods highlighted in Q-Chem 5 include a suite of tools for modeling core-level spectroscopy, methods for describing metastable resonances, methods for computing vibronic spectra, the nuclear–electronic orbital method, and several different energy decomposition analysis techniques. High-performance capabilities including multithreaded parallelism and support for calculations on graphics processing units are described. Q-Chem boasts a community of well over 100 active academic developers, and the continuing evolution of the software is supported by an “open teamware” model and an increasingly modular design

Affective atmospheres in Macau: from the sublime to the uncanny

This article examines the atmospheric identity of the Chinese city–state of Macau, which has a distinctive urban charisma owing to its 500-year history as a Portuguese colony and its contemporary development into a global tourist site. By analysing visual ethnographic data, the research understands Macau’s urban space with attention to its affective atmospheres. The research explores how visual analysis of urban atmospheres may enhance understanding of a city’s atmospheric identity. The article analyses the sublime and uncanny as two complementary affective fields exemplified by two unconventional locales: the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge and the adjacent Chinese Special Economic Zone of Hengqin Island. The article demonstrates that visual analysis of affective atmospheres can be instrumental in describing how people, emotions, objects and environments are reconstituted in a continuous process of urban change and development.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Analysis of YouTube videos used by activists in the Uyghur nationalist movement: combining quantitative and qualitative methods

This paper explores the uses of YouTube by Uyghur nationalist movement activists and studies various ideological codes used by different communities to promote their messages. It argues that several ideological codes are produced in order to challenge the dominant ideologies promoted by the Chinese government, which create a ground for Uyghur ‘imagined solidarity’ across physical borders. Analysis of the production of audio-visual messages by the dispersed ethnic group provides an important window into how ethnic identity is forged by means of Web 2.0

Temporary transnational labour mobility and gendered individualization in Europe

In a context of a new transnational division of labour, temporary international labour mobility is on the rise in Europe. In particular, recent decades have seen considerably more women seeking work experience abroad. Observers have been concerned with how such mobility is related to individualization, and in particular how it may challenge collective institutions, communities and families. The aim of this study is to explore such issues among women and men with international work experience. Using data from European Social Survey, the paper investigates previously mobile workers in terms of their current working and living conditions. Across genders, we consider different forms of individualization that may be associated with transnational labour mobility. While both women and men with transnational work experience generally feature strong strategic individualization, this is most pronounced among men. Hence, men’s mobility is among other things associated with increased autonomy in working life, while – in contrast to women – it does not seem to hamper their integration in the sphere of social reproduction

The tourist plot: Antarctica and the modernity of nature

The work explores contemporary Antarctic tourism practices through the lens of the dramaturgic concept of ‘plot’. Plot refers to a socially construed narrative structure that allows social actors to frame their participation in social life through socially held scenarios, stories and cosmologies. Drawing on fieldwork carried out in the Argentinian harbor town of Ushuaia, the authors demonstrate that Antarctic tourists, despite the variety of their experiences, existences and travel motifs, follow, to a very large degree, the same ‘plot’. This leads them through a dialectical journey, departing from a ‘modern’ life-world of home towards and beyond the presumed boundaries of ‘civilization’, to become immersed in a magical, weird, and wonderful ur-nature found in the White continent, and then back home. The authors argue that this plot, through its specific dramaturgic configuration and settings, pulls to the surface a wider ontological and cosmological order underlying modern tourism and social life at large.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio