" Bubble tea " is a popular drink in Taiwan, and the representative drink of teashops there. Taiwanese government official statistics list 18,363 drinking shops were registered in 2015, including shops from more than 100 branded chains.... more
" Bubble tea " is a popular drink in Taiwan, and the representative drink of teashops there. Taiwanese government official statistics list 18,363 drinking shops were registered in 2015, including shops from more than 100 branded chains. As mobility of out-migrants and overseas students increases, " bubble tea " is becoming a symbol of nostalgia, and can easily be found outside Taiwan. This study views " bubble tea " as both a cultural material and a consumption phenomenon, and considers how the drinking culture of bubble tea has been embedded in specific countries in a transnational level, and in spaces that provide or make bubble tea in the UK. These commercial spaces are seen as transnational spaces with various relations and representations. This work studies the introduction and " relocalisation " of " bubble tea " into some UK cities with different characteristics, namely London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford, Brighton and Exeter, and focuses on the spatiality of the transnational space. We identify three types of consumption space of bubble tea in the UK, based on the location and the characteristics of merchants. Interestingly, shops
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This essay concerns dynamics of interview place. It reflects tension of reporting situatedness by drawing methodological dilemmas of talking with Taiwanese electronics experts during multi-sited fieldwork. My experience... more
This essay concerns dynamics of interview place. It reflects tension of reporting situatedness by
drawing methodological dilemmas of talking with Taiwanese electronics experts during multi-sited
fieldwork. My experience highlights that how informants conceive of and situate their own position
within where they talk to researchers can subtly enable or constrain what they report. The essay
concludes with observations that the where involving trans-local economic practice is rife with
complicated tension arising form spatial and political encounters in a glocal context. Such tension might
sensitise those border-crossing informants prior to interviewing. Thus, it requires a methodological
concern with ‘scalar politics in place’ during multi-sited fieldwork.
drawing methodological dilemmas of talking with Taiwanese electronics experts during multi-sited
fieldwork. My experience highlights that how informants conceive of and situate their own position
within where they talk to researchers can subtly enable or constrain what they report. The essay
concludes with observations that the where involving trans-local economic practice is rife with
complicated tension arising form spatial and political encounters in a glocal context. Such tension might
sensitise those border-crossing informants prior to interviewing. Thus, it requires a methodological
concern with ‘scalar politics in place’ during multi-sited fieldwork.
Rural areas in the process of globalization – Rural areas between regional needs and global challenges – Challenges for rural areas in an epoch of globalization Abstract Indigenous regions in Taiwan are marginal to the mainstream vision... more
Rural areas in the process of globalization – Rural areas between regional needs and global challenges – Challenges for rural areas in an epoch of globalization Abstract Indigenous regions in Taiwan are marginal to the mainstream vision in both social and economic senses. Although it is acknowledged that organic agriculture benefits those marginal areas in terms of land ethics and economy, a market-orientation of organic agriculture tends to lead to lots of limitations for indigenous farmers from a political economic point of view. This chapter is to explore a dynamic development of organic agriculture in an aging community, Kalala, which is located in a less developed region of Taiwan. Attention is paid to inhabitants' endeavor to relocate the agricultural practice in wisdom of traditional knowledge and solidity of collective action. Instead of pursuing a dominant representation of market-based economic progress, their local engagement carries out a self-cultivating process of economic subjectivity to do with their status of marginality.