Eric Florence | Université de Liège (original) (raw)

Papers by Eric Florence

Routledge eBooks, Jan 3, 2023

This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run... more This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run in Shenzhen and another grassroots project in the suburbs of Beijing. We take museums as institutions of the politics of recognition and identity politics par excellence, and as fields of forces through which the matrices of political economy, state formation and popular culture are played out. The theoretical problematiques that frame our analyses are twofold. On the one hand, what are the ways in which the post-Mao political economy and socioeconomic changes are represented in the symbolic rituals enacted in the museums? On the other hand, how such representational schemes cast light on issues of labour, technologies of the self, and the collective identity of migrant workers? We argue that the Shenzhen Museum, albeit providing idealising and heroizing portrays of migrant workers, reifies a development-and market-centred view of the city that is deliberately oblivious to the structural roots of migrant marginality. In contrast, the Beijing Museum offers a powerful counternarrative to the centrality of capital logic. By prioritising migrants' lived experiences of labouring and living, it underscores claims for fair evaluation of migrant labour, welfare protection, dignity of labouring bodies, and collective voice and identity.

Asian Journal of Social Science, 2008

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Apr 7, 2020

This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run... more This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run in Shenzhen and another grassroots project in the suburbs of Beijing. We take museums as institutions of the politics of recognition and identity politics par excellence, and as fields of forces through which the matrices of political economy, state formation and popular culture are played out. The theoretical problematiques that frame our analyses are twofold. On the one hand, what are the ways in which the post-Mao political economy and socioeconomic changes are represented in the symbolic rituals enacted in the museums? On the other hand, how such representational schemes cast light on issues of labour, technologies of the self, and the collective identity of migrant workers? We argue that the Shenzhen Museum, albeit providing idealising and heroizing portrays of migrant workers, reifies a development-and market-centred view of the city that is deliberately oblivious to the structural roots of migrant marginality. In contrast, the Beijing Museum offers a powerful counternarrative to the centrality of capital logic. By prioritising migrants' lived experiences of labouring and living, it underscores claims for fair evaluation of migrant labour, welfare protection, dignity of labouring bodies, and collective voice and identity.

This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run... more This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run in Shenzhen and another grassroots project in the suburbs of Beijing. We take museums as institutions of the politics of recognition and identity politics par excellence, and as fields of forces through which the matrices of political economy, state formation and popular culture are played out. The theoretical problematiques that frame our analyses are twofold. On the one hand, what are the ways in which the post-Mao political economy and socioeconomic changes are represented in the symbolic rituals enacted in the museums? On the other hand, how such representational schemes cast light on issues of labour, technologies of the self, and the collective identity of migrant workers? We argue that the Shenzhen Museum, albeit providing idealising and heroizing portrays of migrant workers, reifies a development-and market-centred view of the city that is deliberately oblivious to the structural roots of migrant marginality. In contrast, the Beijing Museum offers a powerful counternarrative to the centrality of capital logic. By prioritising migrants' lived experiences of labouring and living, it underscores claims for fair evaluation of migrant labour, welfare protection, dignity of labouring bodies, and collective voice and identity.

Perspectives chinoises, Sep 1, 2018

Référence électronique Jean-Pierre Cabestan et Éric Florence, « Vingt ans après la rétrocession :... more Référence électronique Jean-Pierre Cabestan et Éric Florence, « Vingt ans après la rétrocession : des transformations économiques et politiques de Hong Kong et de son avenir sous le régime chinois », Perspectives chinoises

La médiation, 2016

Nous nous intéressons aussi bien aux discours institutionnels qu'aux formes plus « populaires » d... more Nous nous intéressons aussi bien aux discours institutionnels qu'aux formes plus « populaires » de productions narratives. Discours institutionnels et narrations par les individus sont ici conçus comme centraux dans les processus de formation des identités, en conjonction avec 265721HAF_PENMED_CS6_PC.indd 182 09/08/2016 15:47:34 Perdu, toute l'année dans les rues de cette ville. Personne ne veut connaître nos histoires, Et personne ne se souviendra de nos amours. Cette ville est tellement froide, j'aimerais retourner chez moi […]. Tu as nourri tellement d'idéaux. Le premier jour de l'an, seul dans les rues les plus prospères de cette ville. Perdu, sans savoir où aller. Pas loin, dans le plus imposant de ces buildings, dans chaque brique, dans chaque tuile : ma sueur. J'y ai laissé ma jeunesse, mémoire de toute ma souffrance 30 .

China Perspectives, 2018

Jean-Pierre Cabestan et Éric Florence, « Vingt ans après la rétrocession : des transformations éc... more Jean-Pierre Cabestan et Éric Florence, « Vingt ans après la rétrocession : des transformations économiques et politiques de Hong Kong et de son avenir sous le régime chinois », China Perspectives

migrants. La conquête d’une citoyenneté (China and its migrants: the conquest of a citizenship),

Perspectives chinoises, Mar 1, 2021

proche. Ethnographie des formes d’association en Chine contemporaine

Perspectives Chinoises, Mar 15, 2014

Isabelle Thireau (éd.), De Proche en proche. Ethnographie des formes d'association en Chine conte... more Isabelle Thireau (éd.), De Proche en proche. Ethnographie des formes d'association en Chine contemporaine

Routledge eBooks, Jan 3, 2023

This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run... more This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run in Shenzhen and another grassroots project in the suburbs of Beijing. We take museums as institutions of the politics of recognition and identity politics par excellence, and as fields of forces through which the matrices of political economy, state formation and popular culture are played out. The theoretical problematiques that frame our analyses are twofold. On the one hand, what are the ways in which the post-Mao political economy and socioeconomic changes are represented in the symbolic rituals enacted in the museums? On the other hand, how such representational schemes cast light on issues of labour, technologies of the self, and the collective identity of migrant workers? We argue that the Shenzhen Museum, albeit providing idealising and heroizing portrays of migrant workers, reifies a development-and market-centred view of the city that is deliberately oblivious to the structural roots of migrant marginality. In contrast, the Beijing Museum offers a powerful counternarrative to the centrality of capital logic. By prioritising migrants' lived experiences of labouring and living, it underscores claims for fair evaluation of migrant labour, welfare protection, dignity of labouring bodies, and collective voice and identity.

Asian Journal of Social Science, 2008

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Apr 7, 2020

This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run... more This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run in Shenzhen and another grassroots project in the suburbs of Beijing. We take museums as institutions of the politics of recognition and identity politics par excellence, and as fields of forces through which the matrices of political economy, state formation and popular culture are played out. The theoretical problematiques that frame our analyses are twofold. On the one hand, what are the ways in which the post-Mao political economy and socioeconomic changes are represented in the symbolic rituals enacted in the museums? On the other hand, how such representational schemes cast light on issues of labour, technologies of the self, and the collective identity of migrant workers? We argue that the Shenzhen Museum, albeit providing idealising and heroizing portrays of migrant workers, reifies a development-and market-centred view of the city that is deliberately oblivious to the structural roots of migrant marginality. In contrast, the Beijing Museum offers a powerful counternarrative to the centrality of capital logic. By prioritising migrants' lived experiences of labouring and living, it underscores claims for fair evaluation of migrant labour, welfare protection, dignity of labouring bodies, and collective voice and identity.

This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run... more This paper offers a comparative investigation of two rural migrant workers museums, one state-run in Shenzhen and another grassroots project in the suburbs of Beijing. We take museums as institutions of the politics of recognition and identity politics par excellence, and as fields of forces through which the matrices of political economy, state formation and popular culture are played out. The theoretical problematiques that frame our analyses are twofold. On the one hand, what are the ways in which the post-Mao political economy and socioeconomic changes are represented in the symbolic rituals enacted in the museums? On the other hand, how such representational schemes cast light on issues of labour, technologies of the self, and the collective identity of migrant workers? We argue that the Shenzhen Museum, albeit providing idealising and heroizing portrays of migrant workers, reifies a development-and market-centred view of the city that is deliberately oblivious to the structural roots of migrant marginality. In contrast, the Beijing Museum offers a powerful counternarrative to the centrality of capital logic. By prioritising migrants' lived experiences of labouring and living, it underscores claims for fair evaluation of migrant labour, welfare protection, dignity of labouring bodies, and collective voice and identity.

Perspectives chinoises, Sep 1, 2018

Référence électronique Jean-Pierre Cabestan et Éric Florence, « Vingt ans après la rétrocession :... more Référence électronique Jean-Pierre Cabestan et Éric Florence, « Vingt ans après la rétrocession : des transformations économiques et politiques de Hong Kong et de son avenir sous le régime chinois », Perspectives chinoises

La médiation, 2016

Nous nous intéressons aussi bien aux discours institutionnels qu'aux formes plus « populaires » d... more Nous nous intéressons aussi bien aux discours institutionnels qu'aux formes plus « populaires » de productions narratives. Discours institutionnels et narrations par les individus sont ici conçus comme centraux dans les processus de formation des identités, en conjonction avec 265721HAF_PENMED_CS6_PC.indd 182 09/08/2016 15:47:34 Perdu, toute l'année dans les rues de cette ville. Personne ne veut connaître nos histoires, Et personne ne se souviendra de nos amours. Cette ville est tellement froide, j'aimerais retourner chez moi […]. Tu as nourri tellement d'idéaux. Le premier jour de l'an, seul dans les rues les plus prospères de cette ville. Perdu, sans savoir où aller. Pas loin, dans le plus imposant de ces buildings, dans chaque brique, dans chaque tuile : ma sueur. J'y ai laissé ma jeunesse, mémoire de toute ma souffrance 30 .

China Perspectives, 2018

Jean-Pierre Cabestan et Éric Florence, « Vingt ans après la rétrocession : des transformations éc... more Jean-Pierre Cabestan et Éric Florence, « Vingt ans après la rétrocession : des transformations économiques et politiques de Hong Kong et de son avenir sous le régime chinois », China Perspectives

migrants. La conquête d’une citoyenneté (China and its migrants: the conquest of a citizenship),

Perspectives chinoises, Mar 1, 2021

proche. Ethnographie des formes d’association en Chine contemporaine

Perspectives Chinoises, Mar 15, 2014

Isabelle Thireau (éd.), De Proche en proche. Ethnographie des formes d'association en Chine conte... more Isabelle Thireau (éd.), De Proche en proche. Ethnographie des formes d'association en Chine contemporaine

Eric Florence, "Subaltern China: Rural Migrants, Media, and Cultural Practices, by Wanning Sun," The China Journal, no. 79 (January 2018): 134- 137, 2018