
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and written sources, this book talk describes farming households’ strategic solutions to this predicament. It shows how, in light of rural-urban migration and agro-technological change, they manage to sustain both migration and farming. It innovatively conceives rural households as part of a larger farming community of practice that spans both staying and migrating household members and their material world. Focusing on one exemplary resource – paddy fields – it argues that socio-technical resources are key factors in understanding migration flows and migrant-home relations. Overall, this talk provides rare insights into the rural side of migration and farmers’ knowledge and agency.
This event is hosted by China Crossroads with the support and collaboration of Swissnex in China and the University of Zurich.
Speaker
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Bio
Lena Kaufmann
Anthropologist of China, Senior Researcher and Lecturer at University of ZurichLena Kaufmann is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Zurich and an incoming SNSF Ambizione Fellow at the University of Fribourg. Trained as a Social Anthropologist and Sinologist in Berlin, Rome, and Shanghai, her research foci include migration, rural-urban relations, agro-technological transformation, as well as Swiss-Chinese entanglements in digital infrastructures. She is the author of Rural-Urban Migration and Agro-Technological Change in Post-Reform China (2021) and the spokesperson of the Regional Group China(s) of the German Anthropological Association.
China Crossroads hosts talks on all topics related to China, including business, foreign policy, and other areas as they relate to China, the idea being that China is both already a “crossroads” of the world and itself at a “crossroads” in terms of its future global influence. For more information, contact Frank Tsai at [email protected]