Dissertation Research: History, Institution, and the Political Economy of Night Market in Taiwan

本项目支持美国加州大学戴维斯分校文化人类学家博士论文研究。该学生将学习台湾的夜市，这是一个当地的街头市场，为城市居民提供廉价的熟食和消费品。该项目将研究市场的历史和政府监管对其行为的作用，以及市场在城市居民生活中的意义。它是对一个充满活力和生产力的社会的“非正式经济”的研究。方法包括对市场进行调查，对营销人员的生活史进行深入访谈，对历史文献进行检查，并对营销人员和客户进行调查访谈。这个项目之所以重要，是因为人们对发展中经济体的非正规部门了解得还不够透彻，而这个对增长中经济体中充满活力的非正规市场机构的案例研究，将有助于建立有关如何在向城市居民提供高水平消费服务的同时实现和维持经济发展的理论。

This project supports the dissertation research of a cultural anthropologist from the University of California-Davis. The student will study the night markets in Taiwan, a local institution of street markets providing inexpensive prepared foods and consumer items to urban residents. The project will study the history of the markets and the role of government regulations on their behavior, as well as the meaning of the markets in the lives of urban residents. It is a study in the "informal economy" of a dynamic and productive society. Methods include surveys of the markets, intensive interviews with marketers on their life histories, examination of historical documents, and survey interviews with marketers and customers. This project is important because the informal sector of developing economies is not well understood, and this case study of a dynamic informal market institution in a growing economy will help build theory on how to achieve and sustain economic development while providing a high level of consumer service to urban residents.