In and Out of China: Customs Inspection and Shipping Culture at the Port of Fuzhou

芝加哥大学的朱莉·朱博士将与中国的同事一起，研究国际边界监管中不断变化的法律和文化。此前，学术界对边境控制的主要关注重点是对移民和商品流动的监管。朱博士将开辟新天地，转而专注于负责监控和管理这些流动的技术官僚和技术。她的研究重点将是实地的海关和边境管制工作，以及它们的活动如何影响主权、领土和全球安全的概念和做法。这项研究将在福州中国港进行，该港最近受到中央和省政府政策的推动，旨在扩大其在区域和全球经济和文化交流网络中的作用。研究人员将采用政策分析、档案研究、参与者观察和广泛访谈等社会科学方法，对福州内外流动货物和流动人员的管理进行比较、历史和民族志描述。核心数据收集将侧重于国家工作人员和其他流动促进者的日常业务、物质文化和仪式，通过这些活动来管理和谈判跨国流动和领土边界的监管。这项研究将在几个通常分开的社会科学领域推进理论和知识，包括人类学、法律研究、移民和难民研究以及科学和技术研究。这项研究将有助于更好地理解全球化是如何在不同的地方背景下创造和维持的。它还将促进国际研究合作，并在全球贸易和安全担忧的时代为海关和边境管制的公共政策做出贡献。

Dr. Julie Chu, of the University of Chicago, along with colleagues in China, will undertake research on changing laws and cultures of the regulation of international borders. Previously, the predominant focus of scholarship on border control has focused on the regulation of flows of migrants and commodities. Dr. Chu will break new ground by concentrating instead on the technocrats and technologies charged with monitoring and managing these flows. Her research focus will be on the work of customs and border control on the ground and how their activities affect conceptions and practices of sovereignty, territoriality, and global security. The research will be carried out at the Port of Fuzou, China, which recently has been promoted by central and provincial government policies for an expanded role in regional and global networks of economic and cultural exchange. The researcher will employ a mixture of social science methodologies, including policy analysis, archival research, participant-observation, and extensive interviews, to provide a comparative, historical, and ethnographic account of the management of mobile goods and mobile persons in and out of Fuzhou. The core data collection will focus on the everyday operations, material culture, and rituals of state workers and other facilitators of mobility through which the regulation of transnational flows and territorial boundaries are managed and negotiated. This study will advance theory and knowledge across several normally separate areas of social science, including anthropology, legal studies, immigration and refugee studies, and science and technology studies. The research will contribute to better understanding of how globalization is created and maintained in different local contexts. It also will foster international research cooperation and contribute to public policy for customs and border control in an era of global trade and security concerns.