Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia
... The findings also underline the modest nature of innovations made by businesses in informal urban contexts: informal businesses focus on market-responsive, incremental, and survivalist or needs-based innovation rather than Schumpeterian invention of entirely new products and processes. The picture that emerges is one that qualifies broad-based notions of the 'inventiveness of informality' (Robinson 2006), underlining instead how urban and business informality combine to promote patterns of business innovation that lie between the evolution driven by Schumpeterian invention ([1934] 2021; [1942] 1987), on the one hand, and Geertz's (1963) changeless change of involution on the other hand. The 'betweenity' of business and urban informality as they intersect in processes of business innovation raises a series of theoretical and empirical questions that we outline in our conclusion. ...
... Little of the empirically based development studies literature has focused on business innovation (Cozzens and Sutz 2014) until, that is, recent interest in the frugality of global south entrepreneurship and innovation (Leliveld and Knorringa 2018). The literature which has focused on innovation among informal businesses has tended to underline the modest (survivalist) aspirations of, and constraints on, businesses found across the global south as ones that resemble what Geertz (1963) referred to as involution. ...
... First, in answer to our research question regarding the extent and nature of innovation among informal businesses, our evidence from kampung-based industry clusters in two Central Java cities suggests that informal (unregistered) businesses are every bit as innovative as registered businesses, though business aspirations and the innovations made typically imply incremental but also sometimes rapid change to products, product ranges and production techniques. Thus, whilst in the broadest sense the inventiveness or ingenuity of informal businesses is confirmed, specific instances of business innovation remain imbued with a sense of Geertz's (1963) involution. Second, in answer to our research question regarding how business innovation is connected to its basis in community, the ambiguous relationship of informal business innovation to urban informality was underlined in our findings. ...
Business and urban informality coincide in global south cities. However, different things have been claimed for the inventiveness of each. In this paper, we examine the extent and nature of innovation by predominantly informal businesses and the connections of such innovation with the embeddedness of businesses in informal urban neighbourhoods or kampungs. Our findings indicate the widespread but modest innovatory aspirations and actions of informal businesses but also lead us to urge caution regarding urban informality as a context nurturing of business innovation. We thus paint a picture of the coming together of business and urban informality that lies somewhere between Schumpeterian invention, on the one hand, and Geertz’s involution, on the other hand. The ‘betweenity’ of business and urban informality as they intersect in processes of innovation raises a series of theoretical and empirical questions that we outline in our conclusion.
... Not only the food-getting aspect-it has played down the total life support role'. Geertz (1963) finds that 'intensification' could result not from population pressure but political domination and colonial exploitation from a structural perspective. Here, the procedure of adaptation could be understood through individual and social-behavioral aspects of mobilizing material resources. ...
... The process has led them to look for alternative sources of subsistence and income. Geertz's (1963) proposition, technological advancement is necessary to protect the ecological balance during continuous pressure of modernization and market demand. Here interaction and domination of a more extensive system can make the indigenous system adaptive or maladaptive. ...
The intensive agriculture system is prominent in the mainstream production technique of Bangladesh. The paper illustrates the contests of the traditional production system of Khasi about mainstream social and economic expectations of resource use. The specific Khasi adaptation process and the patterned dependency on available environmental resources can be observed in the traditional Khasi production practices. Meanwhile, the logic on the need for intensive production has been rising in the changing socioeconomic resource maximization process towards sustainability. The impact of the mainstream trends of agriculture practices on a small-scale economy has been analyzed here with the changes in labor mobility, mechanism of labor control, production cost, and hierarchy issues of the traditional production system. The research findings reflect that modernity initiatives have changed the social and natural support system in production, and changes occur in the system through the market-induced priority of development. The production process is trending towards intensive cultivation. Whether a generalized community, i.e., dependent on multiple natural yielding, diversified forest resources, and social value-oriented cultivation system, can continue the traditional living in a staple food dominated mainstream agro-economy. The study shows that intensive production is growing in the traditional production field of Khasi with modern technologies. As the ongoing production process is found segmented and capital intensive, the research suggests the community-based production behavior to defend the vulnerability of the economic capital-poor Khasis of Bangladesh.
... Kearifan lokal dalam pertanian tidak hanya melibatkan teknik bertani, tetapi juga mencakup prinsip-prinsip hidup yang menghormati alam, menjaga keseimbangan ekosistem, dan memprioritaskan keberlanjutan jangka panjang. Menurut Geertz (1963), sistem pertanian tradisional sering kali berbasis pada pemahaman yang mendalam tentang iklim, tanah, dan pola tanam yang sesuai dengan kondisi lokal. Pemahaman ini membantu masyarakat mempertahankan produktivitas pertanian sambil menjaga ekosistem tetap sehat. ...
menguak tabir hubungan
yang tak terpisahkan antara manusia, bahasa, dan lingkungannya. Sebuah
perspektif yang kian relevan di tengah krisis ekologi yang melanda dunia saat
ini. Melalui kolaborasi apik antara Lembaga Swadaya Penelitian dan
Pengembangan Pendidikan Matutu, Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional, dan
Universitas Balikpapan, buku ini mencoba menjembatani jurang pemisah antara
teori dan praktik, antara ilmu pengetahuan dan kearifan lokal.
Ekolinguistik, sebagai sebuah bidang ilmu yang relatif baru,
menawarkan sudut pandang segar dalam memahami bagaimana bahasa
berperan penting dalam membentuk persepsi, sikap, dan perilaku manusia
terhadap lingkungan. Lebih dari sekadar alat komunikasi, bahasa adalah
cerminan budaya, nilai-nilai, dan kearifan lokal yang diwariskan turun
temurun. Buku ini kami susun dengan harapan dapat menjadi jendela
pengetahuan bagi para pembaca untuk menyelami lebih dalam dunia
ekolinguistik. Melalui paparan yang komprehensif dan bahasa yang mudah
dipahami, kami mencoba mengurai konsep-konsep dasar ekolinguistik, serta
mengaplikasikannya dalam berbagai konteks, mulai dari isu kerusakan
lingkungan, perubahan iklim, hingga pelestarian keanekaragaman hayati.
... In the modernisation theory, shadow economy is vibrant in economies with lower economic development. The theory suggests that the emergence of shadow economy is attributed to low rates of economic development; high unemployment including the ineffectiveness of government policies (Geertz, 1963;Lewis, 1954;Rostow, 1960;Sen et al., 2022). In other words informal economy is a consequence of economic underdevelopment and it disappears with economic development. ...
Increasing income distribution gaps have become a global socio-economic problem accentuating economic and social exclusion with a potential of generating declining social cohesion and political stability. This study examines the relationship between the informal economy and income inequality, alongside the moderating effect of financial technology (fintech). The persistent prevalence of informal economies in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDE) is often associated with elevated income inequalities. Utilizing data from 2012 to 2022 across 18 African countries, this study employs the two-step system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to address potential endogeneity biases and to robustly estimate the relationship between the size of the informal economy and income distribution. The results indicate that a larger informal economy correlates with reduced income inequalities, acting as a buffer for marginalized communities by providing economic opportunities. Conversely, fintech initially indicates an increase in income disparities due to skill and access discrepancies. However, when functioning as a moderating factor between informal economies and income inequality, fintech demonstrates a potential to reduce the inequality gap. This study suggests that policy interventions geared towards economic formalisation need to account for the dual role of financial technologies. Further research is required to explore other socio-economic factors, including political dynamics and labour market policies, which influence income inequalities. Prominent policy decision confronting African governments is the role of the informal economy. The findings of the study advocate for a nuanced approach to addressing structural reforms within informal sectors and carefully utilise fintech as a tool for promoting equitable income distribution
... Following two centuries of initial development, a final phase of intensification, typically marked by formalized garden plots and territorial boundaries, commenced about AD 1600 to 1650, and continued until the early postcontact period' (Kirch 2010: 153). Evidence for depletion of soil nutrients in the sweet potato plots of Hawai'i and Maui Islands (e.g., Hartshorn et al. 2006;Vitousek et al. 2004) has been interpreted by Hommon (2013: 232-233) and Kirch (2010: 149-150) as indicative of declining yields and agricultural involution (Geertz 1963). ...
Two recent archaeological narratives of ancient Hawaiian society apply a neo-evolutionary approach to political development to argue that a primary state evolved prior to contact with Europeans in the late 18th century. Our analysis demonstrates that this finding is based on interpretations of indigenous oral traditions and contact-period historical accounts but lacks archaeological warrant. The Hawaiian archaeological record does not yield the conventional neo-evolutionary correlates of statehood. Moreover, archaeological evidence for the neo-evolutionary model of ladder-like transformation is also lacking. A chronological analysis of Hawaiian political development inferred from the archaeological record reveals that it was a seamless process, with no evidence of a disjuncture when a statehood event might have occurred. We advocate a historical approach to investigating political development in Hawai‘i that articulates directly with the archaeological record, and is sufficiently developed and general to be applicable elsewhere in the world.
... The concept of inner volume was first proposed by American anthropologist Alexander Goldenweiser (Dong, 2018). Geertz (1963) developed and proposed the term 'agricultural involution' to explain the labour process of a growing labour force over a quantitative area. The term 'involution' has been used in various fields of research. ...
In the context of new media, the speed of external dissemination of Chinese film and television works has been accelerating, and the effect has become more obvious. At the same time, the external communication of film and television costume culture has also increased in development. Referring to the relevant principles of communication and film and television studies, this article analyses the development of new media employing literature and textual analyses. This study expounds on the development and communication of Chinese film and television series and the process, status, value and strategy of the external communication of film and television costume culture. This article summarizes the problems of external communication of costume culture in film and television works under the vision of new media and proffers suggestions for improvement, which will provide a reference for creating film and television dramas and the communication of film and television costumes in the future.
... Adaptasi merupakanbentuk dari mekanisme budaya (Cohen, 1974;Geertz, 1963;Rambo, 1983).Adaptasi adalah proses penyesuaian atau bertahan hidup dari individu, kelompok, maupun unit sosial baik berkaitan dengannorma-norma,fisikal, perilaku sosialdan budaya ataupun suatu kondisiyang diciptakannya sebagai organisme terhadap perubahan lingkungan fisik maupun lingkungan sosio-budaya dan/atau sebaliknya (Bennet, 1982: 7dan Rappaport, 1971. Jika proses adaptasi tersebut dilakukan berulang dan berkali-kali, maka bisa menjadi pola-pola kebiasan tindakan sebagai bentuk dari penyesuaian diri manusia (individu atau kelompok) dengan kondisi lingkungannya yang disebut sebagai pola atau strategi adaptasi (adaptive strategy). ...
... Tracing the concept from its anthropological roots through its use in agricultural and socioeconomic studies, historically, "involution" described a state of complexity without progressive development (Geertz 1963), applied to the inefficiency and stagnation seen in certain agricultural and state systems in China (Huang 1985;Duara 1991). In contemporary China, "involution" has shifted to describe the psychological and social experiences of urban youth facing intense competition and diminishing returns on their efforts. ...
This study explores the emerging socio-cultural trends and digital influences among Chinese youth engaging in ecotourism, against the backdrop of increasing discontent with capitalist modernity and hyper-competition. Drawing on fieldwork and social media analysis, the research examines how platforms like Xiaohongshu shape travel behaviors and endorse sustainable practices. The study focuses on the “lying flat” movement, a reaction against relentless societal pressures, and its role in propelling young people towards nature-based tourism. It investigates the dual nature of ecotourism as both an escape from and a reinforcement of capitalist dynamics, highlighting the performative role of digital content in constructing travel aspirations. By employing Karen Barad’s agential realism and Robert Fletcher’s critique of ecotourism, the paper situates these trends within China’s socio-economic landscape and global neoliberal patterns. The findings reveal a complex interplay where ecotourism fosters individual fulfilment and community building while potentially contributing to the homogenization of cultural and natural landscapes. This study underscores the importance of critically examining how digital media and socio-economic factors co-create new forms of environmental engagement, influencing both the preservation and commodification of ecological and cultural diversity. Future research should address the broader implications of these dynamics, aiming to promote more inclusive and sustainable tourism practices that respect local diversities in an increasingly interconnected world.
... It is essential to understand these complex interactions and the effects on the design of land-use policies that help rural livelihood to accomplish food security, and sustainable utilization of natural resources (Lambin et al., 2011;Zimmerer, 2010;Jokisch et al., 2019). The observed agrarian change is neither 'agricultural involution' (Geertz, 1963) nor radical transformation (Aase & Chapagain, 2005) to make the village independent. Like the case of many developing countries, Narethati has been facing increasing challenges of the recession of agrarian production caused by a labour vacuum. ...
... A recent social phenomenon called neijuan (involution), in which meaningless competition occurs, has received significant attention in the Chinese media since 2020. The word neijuan deviated from its original use regarding agricultural involution after its use by Geertz (1963) and now describes the situation in China where "individuals are compelled to overwork because of the standard raised by their peers who appear to be even more hardworking" (Koetse, 2021). Students are getting better degrees but doing less compatible jobs in this environment. ...
... Since 2020, the phenomenon of "involution" has received growing public and media attention in China as a reflection of the common living state of young people (Li, 2021;Yi et al., 2022). Originally a term invented in anthropology to describe the stagnation of social development (Geertz, 1963), involution now refers to the intense competitionoriented behaviors, or "rat race" under peer pressure for limited social resources, particularly in an educational context Yi et al., 2022;Yu et al., 2024). In the background of prevalent involution, academic stress is a particularly noteworthy issue. ...
With growing involution in contemporary China, academic stress and sleep quality have become two noticeable issues among Chinese college students. Amid this background, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between academic stress and sleep quality, and the potential mediating mechanisms and antecedents to this relationship. First, we developed a Perceived Academic Stress Scale for Chinese Undergraduate Students (PASSCUS) in the pilot study. Demonstrating satisfactory psychometric quality, this scale effectively distinguishes between academic stress caused by the (lasting) education involution and that caused by (episodic) academic workload. In the main study, we tested an integrated theoretical model on the relationship between perceived academic stress (using PASSCUS) and sleep quality to understand the mediating mechanism through which academic stress predicts sleep quality among a convenient sample of 466 participants. Consistent with our expectations, we found that academic stress predicted social comparison, which predicted bedtime procrastination, which further predicted worse sleep quality. Furthermore, our hypotheses were also supported that cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression emotion regulation strategies contributed to academic stress. Whereas cognitive reappraisal negatively predicted perceived academic stress, expressive suppression positively predicted perceived academic stress. Additionally, the relationship between expressive suppression and perceived lasting academic stress was stronger than that between expressive suppression and episodic academic stress. Taken together, this study introduces PASSCUS as a valuable tool for distinguishing between types of academic stress while also elucidating the specific pathways through which these stress types impact sleep quality. Moreover, our findings pointed to the potential for reducing college students’ problems of academic stress and sleep quality by improving emotion regulation.
... These participants instead frowned upon the competitive parenting strategy prevalent in China, which they described using the Internet buzzword "involution" (neijuan). Initially coined by anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1969) to describe how greater input does not necessarily yield proportionally greater output, the term captures the excessive educational competition that parents witnessed in China (Si 2023). Involution, according to Chinese sociologist Fei Yan, is a middle-class practice that originates from a class anxiety about downward mobility (Zhou 2020). ...
Situated in the literature on China's economic elites and Early Study Abroad, the study employs interviews to explore how wealthy Chinese families cultivate their children through schooling at Swiss international boarding schools. It reveals their approach to education as extending beyond academics and strategies for concerted cultivation from afar. By focusing on the parenting of the wealthy, it thus adds to the discussion on concerted cultivation, highlighting the lack of class anxiety and pivotal role of economic resources in such practices.
... Namun, arus modernisasi cenderung membuat praktik budaya seperti musik tradisional, memasak dengan periuk, dan permainan tradisional anak-anak dianggap ketinggalan zaman (Rustan & Munawir, 2020 Representasi obyek pemajuan kebudayaan yang luas akan terlihat dari perspektif potensi budaya dalam satuan susunan pemerintahan terkecil yaitu desa. Desa bukan hanya penting sebagai entitas administratif tetapi juga sebagai akar dari peradaban bangsa (Geertz, 1963 ...
This research aims to determine the effectiveness of aprogramme called “Pemajuan Kebudayaan Desa (PKD)” as an effort toprotect traditional culture and provide space for communities to developand express their culture. This research used a qualitative approachsupported by quantitative data. Data collection was carried out throughan online questionnaire addressed to local village individuals who had beenselected as PKD program facilitators. Data were analyzed descriptively byidentifying themes that emerged from questionnaire responses. Theresearch results show that the implementation of the PKD programencourages village governments and their communities to understandtheir cultural potential that lead to cultural preservation awareness. ThePKD program also contributes to the appearance of space for culturalexpression and colaboration between villages in the cultural sector thatpromote to community welfare. In conclusion, the PKD is a culture-basedcommunity empowerment program that is effective in increasinggovernment and local community awareness about the importance ofcultural protection and preservation that take part to the nation’sbetterment
... In the context of developing world-class universities and disciplines, China's academic profession presents a trend of "involution" or "rat race," indicating fierce but unhealthy competition among academic staff. The concept of "involution," which originated in anthropology to describe disproportional outputs (e.g., productivity) in relation to specific inputs (e.g., population) in agricultural development (Geertz, 1963), has expanded to encompass various meanings and applications in diverse fields. In Chinese society, including academia, "involution" has been adopted with a changing connotation to indicate unhealthy and irrational over-competitiveness in the workplace (Huang, 2021). ...
Since 2015, China has been implementing a new key university construction plan known as the "Double First-class Initia-tive" to establish world-class universities and disciplines. It still needs to examine whether the reforms that universities have undergone in the context of this initiative have affected the academic profession and teachers' well-being. The academic profession in China is currently undergoing "involution," which suggests that academic staff are experiencing fierce but unhealthy competition. Based on a case study of a province-level university selected for the Double First-class Initiative, this paper examines the professional behaviors and well-being of case university's teachers through 19 semi-structured in-depth interviews. In addition, the case university's personnel system reforms, such as the performance-based pay and tenure-track system, were reviewed. It was found that these reforms have had a significant influence on the teachers' professional behaviors and well-being. Therefore, under the new excellence initiative, Chinese universities must guard against teachers' excessive occupational burdens and physical and mental issues while seeking academic excellence and ensuring high rankings.
... El concepto de ecología política cobró notoriedad a partir del trabajo de Eric Wolf (1972), pero sus raíces se remontan a los estudios previos de Julian Steward (1956), especialmente en su proyecto The people of Puerto Rico, y a las investigaciones de Clifford Geertz (1963) en Indonesia. Wolf (1982) mismo argumenta que el trabajo de Steward se centró en las relaciones laborales y descuidó las relaciones de producción desde una perspectiva marxista. ...
México enfrenta un aumento importante de conflictos socioambientales. Estas situaciones de conflicto están vinculadas con procesos de despojo y degradación del ambiente. Los impactos de la apropiación ambiental y los costos que esto conlleva recaen principalmente en las poblaciones más vulnerables. Aunado a esto, el contexto de la crisis climática ha comenzado a exacerbar las situaciones de conflicto socioambiental. El objetivo del presente documento es exponer una perspectiva teórico-conceptual que funja como herramienta analítica para los estudios sobre conflictos socioambientales en el contexto de la crisis climática. Se hace énfasis en la importancia de considerar la ecología política, la justicia am- biental y el derecho humano al medio ambiente sano para comprender las rela- ciones de poder y los procesos políticos que subyacen a la gestión ambiental y a la toma de decisiones. A modo de conclusión, se sostiene que la perspectiva teórico-conceptual que aquí se expone permite reconocer los conflictos socio- ambientales vinculados con la crisis climática para promover la identificación temprana y así ayudar a prevenir situaciones más graves, tales como la violencia, el deterioro ambiental y la exclusión social.
... In addition, we propose a developmental perspective to critically evaluate the literature. Inspired by philosopher Immanuel Kant (1970) and anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1963), we utilise the concepts of 'evolution' and 'involution' to distinguish between two patterns of literature development: outward progression (i.e., unveiling new themes) and inward progression (i.e., elaborating on existing themes). Our analysis finds that recent development in the literature on blockchain adoption is better characterised as 'involution'. ...
To understand the slow adoption of blockchain technology by organisations, we conduct a systematic literature review of adoption factors using a mixed-methods approach. Using thematic analysis, 880 factors are identified and grouped into 29 themes, which offer a comprehensive overview of the literature. Using statistical analysis, the identified factors are dissected into technological (T), organisational (O), and environmental (E) dimensions (the TOE framework). Themes are further classified as barriers (B), enablers (En), and ambiguous (A) to describe a firm's readiness for blockchain adoption (the BEnA framework). We emphasise the multidimensionality of adoption factors across the TOE dimensions and the conditionality of adoption enablers across the BEnA dimensions. Analysis of research trends shows that recent blockchain adoption literature has focused on elaborating upon existing research themes (involution) rather than on developing new themes (evolution). Based on our analyses, we propose future research directions, including scrutinising the interdependence and multidi-mensionality of blockchain adoption factors, further examining factors with conditional or unclear effects on adoption, and broadening the contextual, temporal, and theoretical aspects of blockchain adoption research.
... He argued that the immense population pressure during the Qing dynasty was not alleviated through industrialization but rather absorbed within the agrarian economy at the cost of labor productivity. Earlier, Geertz used the term "overintensification" to describe the phenomenon of diminishing marginal returns in crop cultivation due to excessive labor input [17]. Huang focused on the agricultural economies of rural North China and the Yangtze Delta, developing the "involution" theory. ...
Population growth exacerbates the pressure on land carrying capacity, affecting the sustainability of agricultural production, and also impacts non-agricultural industries. This paper utilizes grain price data from southern China during the Qing Dynasty (1776–1910) to examine the impact of population and land pressure on the development of the commodity economy under the “involution” of smallholder agriculture. This study finds that under conditions of stagnant technological advancement and limited natural resources, population growth during the Qing Dynasty created significant “Malthusian” population pressure. This pressure on land first resulted in the over-concentration of agricultural labor and saturation of the farming population. Surplus labor, unable to be absorbed by agriculture, shifted to non-agricultural sectors, engaging in the transportation and trade of grain. The pressure on land carrying capacity facilitated the cultivation and processing of cash crops, and product trade was supported by efficient waterway transportation. These activities generated commercial profits that alleviated survival pressures and promoted the prosperity of the commodity economy. However, this prosperity did not accompany significant productivity improvements; instead, it was a product of “involution” agriculture under high population density pressures.
Shifting cultivation, or ‘slash-and-burn’ agriculture, is a age-old agricultural system practiced in South and South-east Asia, including North-east India, using elementary tools and techniques for subsistence crop production. Shifting cultivation was an environmentally sustainable hill agricultural production system, but is currently under threat due to various anthropogenic and natural disturbances. Within the last decade, the sustainability of the practice is under question with the dramatic shortening of the fallow cycle. A suite of factors such as increased pressure to feed the burgeoning population and seizure of public lands, including forests, has compelled shifting cultivators to reduce the fallow period. Therefore, detailed scrutiny of possible barriers and prevailing current mechanisms is needed at cross-sectional levels to resolve the current predicament regarding shifting cultivation practices. This analysis will assist in identifying knowledge gaps to design and guide future research aiming for the sustainability of this socio-ecological system. A systematic literature review of peer-reviewed scientific articles focusing on various domains of shifting cultivation practices in North-east India between 1940 and 2020 was made to synthesise the existing knowledge about the practice. The review identified the uniqueness of mixed cropping in shifting cultivation in North-east India. Arunachal Pradesh contains the greatest diversity of tribal communities practicing shifting cultivation amongst the eight North-east India states. Fallow periods ranged from 4 to 18 years with the longest fallow periods in the state of Meghalaya and the shortest in Assam and Tripura. However, insufficient research has been conducted on the sustainable intensification of shifting cultivation practices thereby restricting the knowledge domain about the existence of the practice in the future. The literature synthesis recommends that future research be reoriented on assessing forest regeneration in shifting cultivation fallow lands and understanding the current socio-ecological linkages within shifting cultivation under global climate change phenomena. The social dimensions need to be evaluated for the sustainability of shifting cultivation practices for biodiversity conservation, land management, and sustainable livelihoods.
This chapter shows that cultural anthropology has always had a professional proximity to the subject of nature and has dealt with the environment in various ways. The causes of the Anthropocene may not be perceived by us as individuals, but the effects will be experienced locally and differently in the long term. The concepts and goals of countermeasures are also local. This shows that the local access and the holistic approach of cultural anthropology opens a fruitful window to understanding the Anthropocene. In this section of the book, I criticize currently dominant approaches to the Anthropocene in cultural anthropology because they avoid scientific findings, obscure the specific geological deep time, and generally provide more artistic contributions. The chapter presents very different anthropological approaches, and I also attempt to do justice to directions and positions that I do not represent based on my scientific assumptions, such as the more-than-human approaches or posthumanism.
This paper revisits the well-known wood-furniture cluster of Jepara (Central Java, Indonesia) with new parameters inspired by the theories of industrial districts and clusters. So far, literature on this production centre, mostly focused on value chain analysis, has failed to explain how it could survive external shocks and rising pressure of global competition, without upgrading. Based on a qualitative analysis encompassing the spatial organization and social structures supporting the productive system, this contribution of geography, sociology, and anthropology to development economics unveils a singular combination of ultraliberal business practices together with conservative social values, expressed in a unique arbourlike morphology. These qualitative results tend to show that, beyond the concept of flexible specialization identified by literature as the core driving force of the cluster, Jepara may be considered as a new avatar of Marshallian district in a context of subaltern globalization. Such findings question the opportunities offered to subaltern towns in emerging economies enrolled in globalization to capitalize their own local social and environmental assets to develop labour-intensive activities capable of adapting an ever-changing deal imposed by external price-driven competition.
Background: Newly graduated registered nurses face more challenges than their experienced counterparts, as they not only confront the high pressures of an increasingly complex medical environment but also need to quickly adapt to their jobs and role transitions. The emotional burden arising at this stage is referred to as transitional shock. Self-depletion, as proposed by Baumeister, refers to the process by which individuals exhaust their internal psychological control resources when facing challenges, subsequently affecting cognition and emotion. The occurrence of transitional shock and the process of individual self-depletion appear to be closely related. However, to our knowledge, there has been limited research exploring the occurrence of transitional shock from the perspective of self-depletion theory.
Aim: Investigating the emergence process of transition shock through the lens of self-depletion theory entails an examination of the mechanisms by which individuals engage in self-regulation when confronted with challenges and how transition shock manifests throughout this process.
Designs: A descriptive qualitative study.
Methods: Between August and November 2023, using maximum variation sampling and purposive sampling methods, 16 nurses were selected for semistructured interviews at a tertiary hospital in Suzhou, China.
Results: Employing thematic analysis, three interconnected themes were identified, encompassing the entry-level workforce challenges, the subsequent effects of energy depletion, and the sources and replenishment of energy.
Conclusion: As new nurses adapt to their roles and environments, they encounter numerous pressures that markedly drain their psychological energy. This ongoing depletion of self-regulation energy can lead to transitional shock, impulsive decision-making, and missed nursing care.
Implications for Nursing Management: Managers should implement comprehensive support strategies, including optimized work environments, enhanced training, and personal development, to help newly graduated nurses successfully transition and improve care quality and retention.
Conversations with Tim Ingold offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the work of Tim Ingold, one of the leading anthropologists of our time. Presented as a series of interviews conducted by three anthropologists from the University of Glasgow over a period of two years, the book explores Ingold's key contributions to anthropology and other disciplines. In his responses, Ingold describes the significant influences shaping his life and career, and addresses some of the criticisms that have been made of his ideas.
Following an introductory chapter, the book consists of five edited and annotated interviews, each focusing on a specific theme: 'Life and Career,' 'Anthropology, Ethnography, Education and the University,' 'Environment, Perception and Skill,' 'Animals, Lines and Imagination,' and 'Looking Back and Forward.' Each chapter ends with a 'Further Reading' section, referencing Ingold's work and that of other scholars, to assist readers who want to follow up particular issues and debates. It concludes with an ‘Afterword’ authored by Ingold himself.
Aspirations to achieve UNESCO’s millennium goals by 2015 increasingly seem to many people as an ever remote possibility and even an impossible or utopian dream. With reference to the particular policy commitment of ‘Education For All’, this paper will explore two related questions. Firstly, it poses the question of whether UNESCO is projection of goals such as education for all by 2015 or indeed any date is really an impossible notion? Secondly, if we accept the proposition that a dramatic change in the global human condition should be and can be possible in practice and not just as utopian projection, then what is needed to overcome negative self-fulfilling prophecies of failure to achieve the ‘right direction’ of knowledge and action? In response to these two questions, the paper pursues a thought experiment which in practice as well as in principle refuses to accept the inevitability of the present reality that there is an ever-widening knowledge as well as economic gap between modern, rich and developed countries and traditional, poor and developing societies.
This article develops a neo-Bourdieusian analysis of how creative workers respond to the pressures of freelance, contract and project-based cultural production. Using data from 15 in-depth interviews with independent ‘creatives’ we enrol Bourdieu's fields and Clifford Geertz's account of involution – internal over-elaboration – to investigate the tendencies, nuances and outcomes of creative labour's production practices. To answer the field's piecemeal funding and limited market rewards three broad strategic involution strategies are outlined: ‘hard driving’ of resources; reworking and hybridization of existing cultural forms; and uncodified intricacy within the social relations of production. This theorization illustrates how iterative internal complexity aids the economizing of cultural production oriented to gaining recognition while, due to the social intricacy of creative processes, inducing a tendency towards emotional and physical fatigue. Rather than promote a meritocratic productivity imagined by policy discourses, involuted labour produces burnout and thus contributes to the churn of creative talent.
With the continuous development of society and the increasing intensity of competition, academic stress and mental internal friction among college students have become increasingly prominent. This study aimed to explore the relationships and underlying mechanisms among academic involution, mental internal friction, academic stress, and rumination in a sample of 626 Chinese undergraduate students. The results indicate that (1) academic involution positively predicts mental internal friction; (2) academic stress plays a full mediating role in the relationship between academic involution and mental internal friction; and (3) rumination moderates the pathway through which academic involution affects mental internal friction via academic stress. The research results further reveal the mechanism of the impact of academic involution on mental exhaustion among college students, providing practical inspiration for university educators to formulate effective intervention measures.
This qualitative study examines emerging adulthood traits in individuals during the immediate half year following their graduation from university. It studies their work choices and preferences, as well as their work attitudes. Twenty interviews were conducted with recent Chinese graduates aged 21 to 28, split evenly between those who resigned (RP) and those who did not resign (NRP). Analysis highlights the work preference of stability and taking actions to secure stability, family influence on the work choice, and the impact from COVID. Most participants expressed a desire to balance involution and lying flat. There is potential relationship among initial resignation, work attitude and work state. The study suggests Arnett’s emerging adulthood theory still has applicability when it comes to EA features, however, applying career construction theory to analyze participants’ narratives uncovered struggles and addressed concerns about emerging adults’ perceptions, attitudes, and career performance during the post-pandemic era and economic challenges in China.
The Black Rice Debate discusses the agency of enslaved Africans in rice cultivation in the Americas from the seventeenth century onward. With regard to Suriname, it was considered highly unlikely that rice grew there before 1730 and that Africans at that time knew how to grow rice. This contradicts Maroon oral history, which dates circa 1690 as the time that their first ancestors escaped into the interior forests with rice. Based on Dutch archival records, we show that rice was present in Suriname before the Dutch conquered the colony in 1668. Shortly afterward, it became a staple food as a means to mitigate the ongoing food scarcity. Enslaved Africans played a crucial role in the establishment of designated plantations to grow subsistence crops. Archival records also indicate that conditions were present as early as 1686 for enslaved Africans to escape slavery, bringing rice with them. Our research highlights the importance of connecting archival data to geographical, botanical, and oral history research to reveal misrepresented historical actors, such as enslaved Africans.
The theoretical aim of this paper is to articulate a novel analytical framework that makes sense of our interlocutors’ apparently conflicting claims about the reality of meritocracy in China. The theoretical argument is rooted in ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a Chinese high school, where teachers and working-class students live under the shadows of the demanding and high-stakes university entrance exam (the gaokao). How is it possible to preserve the outwardly inconsistent positions (1) that the gaokao is egalitarian and, thus, fair and (2) that students’ much wealthier counterparts have significantly higher probabilities of success when compared to poorer students? This article argues for the possibility of dynamism in epistemic standards, suggesting that belief in structural systems like meritocracy might be founded in cognitive attempts to maintain the aims of ethical life. Keywords: China, epistemology, ethics, meritocracy, metacognition
Traditional markets are places where sellers and buyers interact directly in social and economic aspects. This design aims to create cleanliness and comfort for visitors by using an eco-friendly architectural approach. This study's research method uses qualitative methods through literature studies and also field observations with primary data obtained through surveys, documentation and interviews. Then carry out an analysis of the site and architectural aspects to serve as guidelines for design. This design implements the main concepts, including zoning which consists of a public zone, namely the traders' room, inner court, food court area, event area and parking area, a semi-public zone, namely the reception room in the management room, a private zone, namely the management room and service zones, namely security post, loading dock, toilet, prayer room and service room. The zoning concept is based on its function, namely a traditional market where the parking area surrounds the market building, then there is a loading dock area that surrounds the market building and there is a food court area in the inner court of the market and an event area in the market section. This market building has an open concept which only has a roof as protection from sunlight and rain. This building has a height of 1 floor with a spatial arrangement for wet commodities and dry commodities and also non-food items in the front area. The central part of the room or the center of the room has an inner court area for culinary delights by adding a concept and having lighting that comes from skylights on the roof.
The development of the plantation economy in Jember at the end of the 19th century required a large workforce, something that could not be met by the local population. The colonial government responded by bringing in workers from western East Java, the Vorstenlanden, and Madura Island. These migrants eventually settled in Jember and became pioneers for subsequent waves of migration until the Second World War. The entry of Javanese and Madurese people into Jember shaped the physical characteristics of settlements that have survived to this day. The settlement arrangements made by the colonial government were based on ecological and cultural considerations of migrants, and plantation-oriented resulted in a unique pattern of segregation. After Indonesia's independence, villages in Jember became more fluid in terms of demographic composition, however, the physical and cultural characteristics that indicate a village has Javanese or Madurese cultural roots are still clearly visible. This article describes the process of the formation of villages in Jember with a comparison of “Javanese villages” and “Madurese villages” to find out how far the colonial government's intervention influenced the formation of villages, and how the villagers concerned maintain their cultural identity as migrant newcomers.
International labor migration is increasingly facilitated by unofficial intermediaries who play a significant role within the diverse migration infrastructure. Growing uncertainty about the future caused by conflicts, economic crises, or pandemics has led migrants to increasingly seek employment through the Internet, where micro-influencers become active assistants, providing advice to those seeking work abroad. In recent years, Overseas Filipino Workers have become such active online intermediaries. Migrant vlogs have become an integral part of the multidimensional migration infrastructure, facilitating transnational labor intermediation and exposing issues related to navigating infrastructural dimensions for basic infrastructure users – migrants. The article aims to illustrate the multidimensionality of migration infrastructure through the example of the YouTube vlog. Despite attempts to liberalize migration management methods, such as through the possibility of seeking employment online, they have not led to the development of migrants’ migratory capacities. Nowadays, migrants – the basic infrastructure users – have to navigate through additional elements of infrastructure (vlogs) as well as face growing bureaucratization of the process itself, which should be considered an example of infrastructural involution (Xiang and Lindquist 2014). The paper presents the results of a qualitative content analysis of the comments posted under the video of a Filipina vlogger living in Poland, who provides advice on her YouTube channel to people interested in employment. The results illustrate the multidimensionality of migration infrastructure on the example of a vlog and prove the infrastructural involution resulting from the growing complexity of commentators’ needs.
The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) is a Sino-foreign cooperative institution located in China; the American University in Kurdistan (AUK) is a private university in Dohuk, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In this chapter, two graduates of these institutions offer a candid conversation about their experiences in China and Kurdistan, where they were taught by foreign educators in their home countries. Yuting (Alina) and Spede provide the perspective from those who have experienced being taught by foreign teachers.
Hutan merupakan obyek wisata diperkaya oleh flora dan fauna, mempunyai peranan hutan sebagai kawasan yaitu : 1. Sebagai Sumber Pangan, Perumahan dan Kesehatan kehidupan manusia yang bergantung pada keanekaragaman hayati. Hewan dan tumbuhan yang kita manfaatkan saat ini (misalnya ayam, kambing, padi, jagung) pada zaman dahulu juga merupakan hewan dan tumbuhan liar, yang kemudian dibudidayakan; 2. Sebagai Sumber Pendapatan keanekaragaman hayati dapat dijadikan sumber pendapatan. Misalnya untuk bahan baku industri, rempah-rempah, dan perkebunan; 3. Sebagai Sumber Plasma Nutfah hewan, tumbuhan, dan mikroba yang saat ini belum diketahui tidak perlu dimusnahkan, karena mungkin saja di masa yang akan datang akan memiliki peranan yang sangat penting. Sebagai contoh, tanaman mimba (Azadirachta indica), dahulu tanaman ini hanya merupakan tanaman pagar, tetapi saat ini diketahui mengandung zat azadiktrakhtin yang memiliki peranan sebagai anti hama dan anti bakteri; 4. Sumber Ekologi untuk menunjang kehidupan manusia, keanekaragaman hayati memiliki peranan dalam mempertahankan keberlanjutan ekosistem. Masing-masing jenis organisme memiliki peranan dalam ekosistemnya. Peranan ini tidak dapat digantikan oleh jenis yang lain; 5. Sumber Keindahan sumber keindahan alam tidak terletak pada keseragaman tetapi pada keanekarag. Kondisi hutan di Indonesia mengalami penurunan baik dari segi kualitas maupun kuantitas untuk hasil hutan dan lahan.Penyebab penurunan tersebut dikarenakan adanya kegiatan seperti penebangan, perladangan liar, perambahan dan alih guna lahan atau konversi menjadi lahan pertanian. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah penelitian kualitatif, teknik sampel adalah teknik purposive sampling, teknik pengumpulan data adalah metode observasi, dokumentasi, wawancara, teknik analisis data melalui langkah-langkah: reduksi data, penyajian data, dan penarikan kesimpulan. Hasil penelitian dapat disimpulkan bahwa faktor yang menyebabkan terjadinya perladangan liar dikawasan hutan adalah faktor keterpaksaan sebanyak 20%, faktor kebiasaan turun temurun sebanyak 36,6%, kurangnya lahan sebanyak 30,0% dan adanya faktor keinginan masyarakat menguasai lahan sebanyak 13,3%. Upaya yang dilakukan aparat untuk menanggulangi perladangan liar pada kawasan adalah dengan melakukan tindakan preventif (pencegahan) adalah program pengelolaan sumber daya hutan bersama masyarakat adalah suatu sistem pengelolaan sumber daya hutan yang dilakukan bersama dengan KPHL, persuasif (penyampaian informasi) yaitu dengan adanya penyelidikan dan penyampaian informasi yang jelas agar tindakan operasi yang di realisasikan dan tindakan represif (tindakan penanggulangan) yaitu melakukan tindakan operasi pengejaran terhadap masyarakat yang melakukan perladangan liar.
Dwight Perkins’ illustrious career initially focused on China’s planned economy of the 1950s and 1960s, then broadened, first to incorporate work on pre-1949 imperial and Republican China, including path-breaking work on Chinese agriculture from the founding of the Ming Dynasty through 1968. Thereafter, Dwight turned his attention to China’s post-1976 reform effort and to evaluating the long-term potential of the resulting economic boom. This fruitful line of research continues. Beginning in the 1970s, Dwight began a parallel career in development advisory work, extending his research ambit to encompass Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, among others. He stands out among China economists for his exceptional breadth of research and field experience; among development specialists, his deep knowledge of the most successful emerging economy is equally remarkable. The many students Dwight has mentored and governments he has advised have benefitted from his expertise, richly leavened with practical knowledge.
Burgeoning global trade and colonial policies promoted transformations in land use and agriculture throughout tropical regions in the 19th and 20th centuries, but the local and regional ecological consequences of landscape changes are still being identified and analysed. The Philippine Archipelago, which experienced successive colonial regimes across more than 7100 islands, exemplifies the multiplicity of ecological outcomes produced by these transformations. To better characterise diverse landscape change, we use colonial censuses and datasets to assess land use, production and agricultural yields in the Philippines during the late Spanish and early U.S. colonial periods (ca. 1870–1925). Our novel digital, quantitative analysis indicates that, at the national and provincial scales, agricultural production and land use increased for all major crops in both periods, while agricultural yields were mostly constant. Our results suggest that colonial investments to “improve” Philippine agriculture, specifically their efforts to increase production per hectare, were not effective. Our provincial-scale analysis also confirms the importance of distinct labour patterns, geographies and socio-political arrangements in defining this period’s ecological consequences, and we provide quantified and historically contextualised data in a format amenable to ecologists to promote future, localised historic ecological research.
Over the past 30 years, successional agroforestry systems (SAFS) have been increasingly promoted in Latin America as an approach for recovering soils and improving agro-ecosystems in degraded landscapes. Successional agroforestry systems (SAFS) are complex, multi-strata systems composed of species assemblages that resemble native forest structures. The concept of SAFS integrates indigenous knowledge of intercropping multipurpose subsistence species, modern agroforestry techniques, and applications of assisted natural regeneration to emphasize biodiversity, adaptive management, and the use of ecological succession to establish a productive system. Much like the management of assisted regeneration of forest stands, mimicking natural ecosystems in agroecosystems requires the knowledge of species survival, growth, functional traits, and niche resource requirements in order to appropriately select multifunctional species and to develop spatial arrangements for stratified stand structures. In recent years, conceptual theories have been proposed that support parallels drawn between natural succession models of forest stand development to management of SAFS. This chapter summarizes background theory to ground the reader in key principles of ecological regeneration and silvicultural management, provides examples that have tested biomimicry hypotheses in agroforestry systems in the tropics, and introduces three case studies from current SAFS in Brazil, Nicaragua, and Belize to examine their potential to promote agro-biodiversity, regenerate severely disturbed agricultural landscapes, diversify harvest yields, and reduce ecological and economic risks associated with conventional agricultural systems.
From the late 1920s onwards, the state in colonial Zimbabwe began reordering African areas to arrest an impending ecological disaster while increasing their carrying capacity. The state introduced far-reaching land-use measures anchored on several immutable tenets, such as that African reserves had to finance their own progress and sustain themselves within the demarcated boundaries. The reordering within Seke Reserve began with centralisation in 1935 and was reinforced following the passage of the Natural Resources Act of 1941 and the Native Land Husbandry Act (NLHA) of 1951. This article is one of the few studies that grasp these three colonial policies simultaneously and highlights the knock-on effects each had on the other. It sheds light on these land-use measures, explores their implementation and impacts and shows how the locals responded to these changes. The period under review in this article has generally been given cursory attention as a fleeting backdrop to why the colonial state implemented the NLHA. Nonetheless, this article maintains that the critical factors that led to the demise of the NLHA are certainly discernible in this period. Hence, we assert that the colonial state’s insistence on proceeding to enact the NLHA was just another classic example of colonial arrogance and the scapegoating of Africans for the agroecological problems in the reserves. The article made extensive use of archival material from the Native Affairs Department as well as from the phenomenological recollections of several elderly inhabitants within the Seke Reserve captured through oral history interviews. Contribution: The clarification of the interdependence of the three colonial programmes regarding existing land-use policies, their implementation, impacts and local responses significantly adds to the limited body of knowledge currently available.
What can a critical analysis of imperialist political economy offer the decolonial turn in the contemporary social sciences? How might revisiting “classic” anti-imperialist thought and politics from the global South push scholars and activists to envision a more revolutionary decolonization? And how, in our discipline’s history, have anthropologists variously opposed or been complicit with the workings of imperialist power? In this article, and in the special issue of Dialectical Anthropology that this article introduces, we engage these questions with a call to bring imperialism “back in” to anthropological research and analysis. Our proposal, however, is not simply for an anthropology of empire, but for an anthropology against empire—a project, that is, not solely of interpreting imperialism, but of aiding its abolition.
As ethnographic fieldwork blurs the boundaries between ›private‹ and ›professional‹ life, ethnographers always appear to be on duty, looking out for valuable encounters and waiting for the next moment of disclosure. Yet what lies in the gaps and pauses of fieldwork? The contributions in this volume dedicated to anthropologist Martin Sökefeld explore methodological and ethical dimensions of multi-sided ethnographic research. Based on diverse cases ranging from hobbies over kinship ties to political activism, the contributors show how personal relationships, passions and commitments drive ethnographers in and beyond research, shaping the knowledge they create together with others.
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