Internet-based entrepreneurship has flourished in China for the past decade and a half. This includes start-ups in big cities, rural areas experiencing an e-commerce boom, and middle-class women reselling luxury goods. My guest argues that for many of these individuals involved in digital entrepreneurship, reinventing oneself as an entrepreneur has been an appealing way to adapt to a changing economy and society. Indeed, this everyday labor of entrepreneurial reinvention is remaking China amid changing geopolitical currents.
In her new book, The Labor of Reinvention: Entrepreneurship in the New Chinese Digital Economy, Lin Zhang explores the surge in digital entrepreneurialism against the backdrop of global financial crises, the U.S.-China trade war, and the more recent pandemic. She argues that the rise of internet-based industries and practices has simultaneously empowered and exploited digital entrepreneurs and laborers. Despite embracing high-tech innovation, state-led entrepreneurialization does not represent a radical break with the past. Rather such entrepreneurship has also reinforced traditional Chinese ideas about state power, labor, gender, and identity.
Lin Zhang is an assistant professor of communication and media studies at the University of New Hampshire. Twitter:@LinZhang9
Key highlights:
- Introduction - 00:52
- Entrepreneurialism and entrepreneurship - 04:04
- Surge in entrepreneurialism in China following the 2008 financial crisis - 09:36
- Opportunities and challenges facing migrants - 18:10
- Elite, urban-based entrepreneurs vs. non-elite entrepreneurs - 34:04
- China’s reinvention and innovation efforts vis-a-vis the United States - 48:15
Host:
Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik @GlobalDevPod
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Host:
Centre for Global Sustainability, University of Oslo
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