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Roundtable: The Politics of Interest: Creating and Controlling Knowledge in Contemporary China
Organizer: Ling-Yun Tang, Yale University
Discussants: Priscilla Song, Harvard University; Mei-Ling Ellerman, Chinese Acadamy of Social Sciences; Kimberly A. Couvson, Cornell University; Johanna S. Ransmeier, Yale University; Helen Funghar Siu, Yale University; Ling-Yun Tang, Yale University
This interdisciplinary panel of researchers will dialogue with the audience about the analytical challenges of working in contemporary China. Challenging the social science convention of researcher objectivity, we address the role of the researcher in producing knowledge and how this process is affected by “interests.” Since China’s opening and reform, research parameters have expanded and become increasingly complex. Within this context, the researcher as simultaneous participant and observer warrants renewed investigation. Our panelists, who study biomedicine, advertising, contemporary art, migrant labor rights, and historical human trafficking, have had to define fieldsite boundaries, draw upon guanxi (relationship) networks, select individual narratives to illustrate broader conclusions, and choose how we pursue information while understanding the impact on those whom we involve. These choices cannot escape the “politics of interest.” From activist agendas to professional conflicts of interest to the ethics of working with historical or contemporary human subjects, the creation of knowledge is laden with normative assumptions. The myth of researcher neutrality is further complicated by fieldsite interactions, in which individuals often mobilize their own agendas. These relationships often transform researcher and informant into collaborators producing shared interpretations of emerging social phenomena. We draw upon our backgrounds in anthropology, sociology, history, development studies and journalism to explore the interactive nature of research, and how its dissemination through publication, broadcasting, and teaching engage the politics of representation in contemporary China. We invite others to participate in this dialogue through our online discussion forum (http://seaaterm.wjh.harvard.edu/).