Susan Brownell and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, eds., Chinese Femininities and Chinese Masculinities

This is an extremely interesting and detailed collection of essays on how femininities and masculinities have been defined from the Qing era to present-day China. It attempts to look at how gender has been defined from a variety of angles: from the legal perspective to the lens of literary critics and ethnographic case studies. This collection is divided into eight parts; each part contains two chapters dealing with one theme, one on Chinese women and the other on Chinese men, thus forming a ..

Susan Brownell and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, eds., Chinese Femininities and Chinese Masculinities

This is an extremely interesting and detailed collection of essays on how femininities and masculinities have been defined from the Qing era to present-day China. It attempts to look at how gender has been defined from a variety of angles: from the legal perspective to the lens of literary critics and ethnographic case studies. This collection is divided into eight parts; each part contains two chapters dealing with one theme, one on Chinese women and the other on Chinese men, thus forming a ..

The Garment Industry in South China

Since the implementation of China’s economic reform and opening-up policy at the end of the 1970s, garment manufacturing for both the domestic and global markets has developed and proliferated quickly in Guangzhou-centred South China. It is believed to be the result of the industrial restructuring of the global apparel commodity chain and a large domestic consumer demand from the Chinese people. Compared with other industries, the garment industry has long been subject to the strong impact of a transitional market economy and, more recently, the increasingly rapid process of marketisation in China. In order to provide a clear sociological conceptualisation of the market economy in the reform era, this paper aims to apply the relational work approach to analysing economic transactions in the garment business, particularly business dealings between garment producers and wholesalers. The focus is on their continued efforts to make appropriate economic arrangements in accordance with specific sets of social relations through continuous relational work. This paper will examine three categories of relational work and the associated economic forms in the making. First, it will explore families and the household economy; second, it will examine relatives and friends and the favour-based economy; and third, it will study strangers and the market economy. Through the use of this relational work framework, this paper will shed light on how the different sets of relational work help us to understand relationships and embeddedness between garment producers and wholesalers in China’s rapidly evolving garment economy

La pratique du travail relationnel dans la filière du prêt-à-porter en Chine du Sud

Depuis la fin des années 1970, avec la mise en place de la politique de réformes et d’ouverture, le secteur industriel du prêt-à-porter, visant tant le marché intérieur que l’exportation, a connu un rapide essor dans le Sud de la Chine autour de Canton. Il s’agit là, semble-t-il, du résultat croisé de la restructuration mondiale de la filière ainsi que de l’accroissement de la demande intérieure. Comparée à d’autres industries, cette filière est exposée depuis longtemps aux effets de la transition de la Chine vers l’économie de marché et elle en subit l’accélération récente. Cet article se propose d’employer l’approche dite du travail relationnel pour dessiner une conceptualisation sociologique de l’économie de marché durant l’ère des réformes en analysant les transactions entre producteurs et grossistes sur le marché du prêt-à-porter. On accordera ici une attention particulière aux efforts continus de ces acteurs pour adapter les modalités de leurs échanges économiques aux différents types de relations sociales qu’ils entretiennent. Nous examinerons trois catégories de travail relationnel et les formes économiques qu’elles produisent. Nous nous pencherons sur l’économie familiale et domestique ; nous analyserons les relations entretenues avec les parents proches et les amis, caractérisées par une économie de la faveur ; et nous étudierons également les relations entretenues entre inconnus, propres à l’économie de marché. En adoptant le cadre analytique du travail relationnel, notre article souhaite démontrer combien l’observation des différentes formes de travail relationnel est utile pour affiner notre connaissance des relations intestines entre producteurs et grossistes dans l’économie en forte croissance du prêt-à-porter en Chine

Susan Brownell et Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom éds., Chinese Feminities and Chinese Masculinities

Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce, Bardon Séverine. Susan Brownell et Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom éds., Chinese Feminities and Chinese Masculinities. In: Perspectives chinoises, n°79, 2003. pp. 89-90

Susan Brownell et Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom éds., Chinese Feminities and Chinese Masculinities

Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce, Bardon Séverine. Susan Brownell et Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom éds., Chinese Feminities and Chinese Masculinities. In: Perspectives chinoises, n°79, 2003. pp. 89-90