‘Behemoth Pulls the Peasant’s Plough’: Convergence and Resistance to Business Civilization in China

G Karavas; Shannon Brincat

doi:10.1080/14747731.2016.1204079

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‘Behemoth Pulls the Peasant’s Plough’: Convergence and Resistance to Business Civilization in China

Journal article

Peer reviewed

‘Behemoth Pulls the Peasant’s Plough’: Convergence and Resistance to Business Civilization in China

G Karavas and Shannon Brincat

Globalizations, Vol.13(5), pp.622-637

2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2016.1204079

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Abstract

business civilization

China

Cox

development

resistance

It has been widely held that China's development was forged from a unique pathway to that of Western countries. As a result, it has been assumed that China's historical experience of modernization contains important lessons for other developing states. However, as we show, modernization in China can be seen as sharing many of the same assumptions of development as the West. Using insights from Cox's work on civilizations-particularly the notion of 'Business Civilization' (adapted from Susan Strange)-our paper examines how modernization theoretic assumptions underpin both Chinese and World Bank perspectives on agricultural development not only within China but also across their engagements, policies, and practices of development throughout Africa. We argue that development constitutes a political project historically inseparable from La mission civilisatrice of Business Civilization, extending a form of intersubjectivity and materiality, power and rationality, based on a specific civilizational worldview. This process retains a number of contradictions and points of conflict and we focus on the resistances of traditional forms of civilization in contestations around the imposition of commercialized agriculture. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Details

Title: ‘Behemoth Pulls the Peasant’s Plough’: Convergence and Resistance to Business Civilization in China
Authors: G Karavas (Corresponding Author) - University of Queensland
Shannon Brincat (Corresponding Author) - Griffith University
Publication details: Globalizations, Vol.13(5), pp.622-637
Publisher: Routledge
Date published: 2016
DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2016.1204079
ISSN: 1474-7731
Organisation Unit: Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Forest Research Institute; School of Law and Society; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99451367702621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: International Relations; Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary