Mobile livelihoods among ethnic minorities in China: Insights from Yunnan |
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| Authors: | Yunxian Wang Kyoko Kusakabe Ragnhild Lund Smita Mishra Panda Qun Zhao |
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| Institution: | 1. Institute of Sociology, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, No. 7 Lane 622, Huaihai Zhong Road, Shanghai CN-200020, China. E-mail: yxckwang@gmail.com;2. Gender and Development Studies, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani TH-12120, Thailand. E-mail: kyokok@ait.ac.th;3. Department of Geography, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway. E-mail: ragnhild.lund@svt.ntnu.no;4. Human Development Foundation, M-4 Samant Vihar, Bhubaneswar, IN-751017 Orissa, India, E-mail: smitafem@gmail.com;5. Institute of Sociology, Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, 577 Huancheng Xi Lu, Kunming, Yunnan CN-650034, China. E-mail: zhaoqun25@hotmail.com |
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| Abstract: | Ethnic minority populations in Yunnan have had diverse mobility patterns since the advent of globalized production and developmental programmes. The article presents insights into the various mobility patterns and their effects in Yunnan and contributes to an understanding of the present economic and social processes of mobilities and changes in China as a whole. The analysis is based on an empirical study conducted in the years 2010–2011 by the authors together with local researchers in Yunnan. The results revealed that the mobilities practised among members of the ethnic minority groups in Yunnan included not only outmigration but also cross-border cultivation of plantations, daily and circular mobility, inflows of labour and investors, and involuntary relocation. Although some mobilities may have been conducive to livelihoods and capabilities due to the income-earning and profit-making opportunities arising from the acquisition and appropriation of land and capital, they have also resulted in differentiation processes that confirm the counter-geographies of production, survival, and profit-making. The authors conclude that mobilities do not just concern physical location, but as a social process, mobilities have reconstituted relational references and networks in terms of ethnic and cultural identity, gender relations, labour division, and locality and community integration. |
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| Keywords: | capability ethnicity gender livelihood mobility |
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