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Development at the Edge of Difference: Rethinking Capital and Market Relations from Lugu Lake, Southwest China
Author(s) -
Qian Junxi,
Wei Lei
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
antipode
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.177
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1467-8330
pISSN - 0066-4812
DOI - 10.1111/anti.12590
Subject(s) - indigenous , grassroots , china , agency (philosophy) , flourishing , capitalism , capital (architecture) , argument (complex analysis) , sociology , ethnic group , economy , political science , political economy , economic system , economic geography , economics , geography , social science , law , anthropology , psychology , ecology , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , politics , psychotherapist , biology
This paper rethinks the relationships between capitalist development in indigenous places and the fabric of local differences and specificities. It first develops a critical appraisal of the celebration of ethnic identities, local agency and indigenous knowledge in existing literatures. It suggests that, based on such insights, we can further envision the possibility of questioning and problematising the ontology and concept of the capitalist economy. Above all, this paper is interested in non‐capitalist factors percolating into capitalist economies and creating fissures in their logical and ontological coherence. It examines how capitalist economies depend on local specificities to achieve particular configurations. We elucidate this argument with a case study of indigenous development in Lugu Lake, Southwest China, which is inhabited by the ethnic Mosuo people. Through the dual lenses of land and labour, we pay special attention to the transition from grassroots development initiatives to heavy dependence on exogenous capital and entrepreneurs.