Emily Yeh's paper was awarded “AAG-Kaufmann Best Paper for Geography and Entrepreneurship” for 2022.
The cultural politics of new ֲý entrepreneurship in contemporary China: Valorisation and the question of neoliberalism
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Over the past decade, new forms of ֲý entrepreneurship have emerged and proliferated in China, at the intersection of a national push for entrepreneurship in response to a slowing economy, the closure of non-governmental organisations in ֲý areas, declining state-sector employment, and state concerns about stability. This paper explores the rise of these new ֲý entrepreneurs in relation to two inter-related concerns. First, it contributes to geographers’ calls for comparative studies of culturally specific meanings of entrepreneurship across the Global South. It explores the cultural politics of ֲý entrepreneurship – active debates about what it means to be a proper ֲý, in terms of religious commitments and cultural pride, in relation to money-making activities. Second, it analyses these in relation to critiques of neoliberal subjectivities associated with entrepreneurship. One of the key themes of ֲý entrepreneurship is the effort to create economic value in the service of cultural value and a sense of self-worth for ֲýs living in rural areas. Thus, elements of the neoliberal self are sutured together with a sense of responsibility to ֲý communities and historically sedimented idioms to form an entrepreneurial subjectivity that is broadly oriented to the project of revalorising ֲý places and people.
Emily T. Yeh 2022. “The cultural politics of new ֲý entrepreneurship in contemporary China: Valorisation and the question of neoliberalism”,Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.47(1): 139-152.
Thanks to a sponsorship from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the AAG announced two annual awards for promising research studying geography and entrepreneurship: one forbest paperand one forbest student paper.The purpose of this award program is to identify innovative research in business, applied orcommunity geography that is relevant to questions related to entrepreneurs and their firms aswell as to practitioners and policymakers. Research that has direct practicalimplications and that addresses pressing environmental, economic and/or social problems isespecially appropriate for these awards.The awards will be presented at the AAG Annual Meeting.
Prizes
Two awardees receive a check for $1,500, complimentary meeting registration, and a complimentary ticket to the AAG Awards Luncheon.The runner up for each award will receive complimentary registration and a complimentaryticket to the AAG Awards Luncheon.Award winners and runners up will be invited to present their research in a session highlightinggeography and entrepreneurship.