Collaborative Research on Managing the New Silk Road

Lisa Rofel博士和Sylvia Yanogisako博士将合作研究中国长江下游地区的纺织和服装制造业，包括上海、杭州和嘉兴及其周边乡镇，意大利公司最近在这些地方投资了纺织和服装制造业。该研究将调查中国和意大利在纺织工业中已经存在的三种类型的合作，以及可能出现的第四种类型：1)积极管理合作的合资企业，2)管理分工的合资企业，3)中国独资企业与意大利分包；4)在中国的意大利独资公司。研究人员有两个主要的研究问题。第一，意大利和中国在华合资经营的企业，在管理、创业、工作、社会关系等方面形成了哪些新的理念和做法？这些理念和做法是否在相互融合？二是意大利和中国的企业家、管理者和顾问是否形成了一个跨国的社会阶层？本研究将对四种类型中的两家企业进行研究，采访中国的顾问、专家和政府和超国家机构的代表。柳木佐子和罗菲尔还将前往意大利，在中国合作企业的总部采访企业的所有者和管理人员，并观察前往意大利的中国管理人员和企业家。他们将进行长期的人种学和生活史访谈，并在中国和意大利的适当地点进行长期的参与者观察。本研究将通过制定一种获得多视角民族志的方法，扩大人类学对理解跨国主义和国际商业文化的贡献范围。其更广泛的影响将是促进关于全球化的广泛的公众辩论，并出版一本人种志专著，供广泛的本科生和研究生使用。

Dr. Lisa Rofel and Dr. Sylvia Yanogisako will collaborate on a study of the textile and garment manufacturing industry in China's Lower Yangze River Region, in the cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Jiaxing and their surrounding townships and villages, where Italian firms have recently invested in the textile and garment manufacturing industry. The study will investigate the three types of already-existing collaborations between Chinese and Italians in the textile industry, and a fourth type that is likely to emerge: 1)Joint Venture with Active Management Collaboration, 2) Joint Venture with Division of Management Labor, 3) Wholly Chinese-owned Enterprise with Italian Subcontracting; 4) Wholly Italian-owned Firms in China. The researchers have two primary research questions. The first is, what new ideas and practices of management, entrepreneurship, work, and social relations are being forged by Italians and Chinese involved in joint ventures in China and are these ideas and practicies converging? The second is whether or not the Italian and Chinese entrepreneurs, managers and consultants form a transnational social class? This researchers will study two enterprises from each of the four types, interviewing consultants, experts and representatives of government and supranational agencies in China. Yanagisako and Rofel also will travel to Italy to interview the owners and managers of firms involved in collaborative enterprises in China at their headquarters and to observe the Chinese managers and entrepreneurs who travel to Italy. They will do extended ethnographic and life history interviews, supplemented by extended periods of participant observation at appropriate sites in China and Italy. This study will expand the scope of anthropology's contribution to understanding transnationalism and international business cultures by formulating a methodology for attaining a multi-perspectival ethnography. Its broader impact will be to contribute to broad public debates about globalization and to publish an ethnographic monograph accessible to a wide range of undergraduate and graduate students.